by Merle Massie
In the north Prince Albert region, local subsistence and settlement patterns were much more diverse and diffuse than those of their southern, bison-adapted neighbours. This diversity meant two things: first, their diet shifted according to seasonal needs, allowing an omnivarian repertoire that included fish, fowl, both small and large fauna (from snowshoe hares to moose and bear, along with the occasional bison), and a variety of flora, including blueberries, Labrador tea, and wild parsnips. Second, if one resource was scarce, another was usually plentiful, allowing both seasonal change and a certain measure of resilience over time. Peter Erasmus, the Cree guide and interpreter present at the signing of Treaty 6 at Fort Carlton, lived in such an environment.
It was an ideal life of abundance and good health these northern Indians enjoyed. They were not as the other tribes solely dependent on the buffalo for a living. Their hunting excursions to the prairies gave them additional security and provided a good reason to get together in the social band life that they all loved. They shared the proceeds of these trips with the less-fortunate people at home. … I make these statements as dealing with the times leading to and prior to the settlement of white people in the country. There were plenty of wild fruits: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, black and red currants, gooseberries and three different kinds of cranberries. … Buffalo meat from the prairies was used as a supplement to deer, moose, and bird game in those days. … Fish were numerous in the lakes. In the spring, I have seen rough fish, such as jacks, actually push each other out on the shores by the masses that drove up the creeks. I believe that the variety of food was a leading factor in the health and energy enjoyed by the people.41
Even though these resources were diverse, this description is probably overly romantic. Forest resources were not as plentiful as the plains bison. Forest-adapted people were consequently never as numerous as those on the prairie. Bison-adapted groups enjoyed a flourishing culture not seen in the forest and sustained several economically independent and powerful nation-states. They had, though, as historical geographer A.J. Ray noted, “one fatal flaw”: bison-adapted culture “was based on the exploitation of a single renewable resource [that was depleted] at a rate that exceeded the level required for a sustained yield harvest.”42 If the bison could not be found, plains bands starved. Meanwhile, forest-adapted bands “were able to continue to support themselves by hunting, fishing, and trapping.”43
First Nations bands that lived at or near the ecotone acquired a level of strength and resilience—but not numbers—greater than those of their plains counterparts. Aboriginal people chose to live near—or to create—ecological edges in order to exploit the resources of more than one biome and promote economic resilience (and good health, if Erasmus was correct). Those who resided at or near ecological edges usually exhibited high levels of cultural interaction that “promote the exchange of knowledge, technologies, and resources in such a way as to increase the adaptive repertoire available to any one social group.”44 The Pegogamaw incursion south and west, where they interacted with the northern Assiniboine and learned how to hunt bison through pounding, is an example of such an interaction.
The resilience of Cree bands living at or near the north Prince Albert region, despite the devastation of the smallpox epidemic, suggests that the ecological and cultural forest edge presented a landscape that could offer livelihood flexibility and resilience and a wider array of possible adaptive responses.45 Ten years after the smallpox epidemic, fur trader Duncan McGillivray entered the old Pegogamaw lands in 1794 and wrote that the people there appeared to be “the most powerful clan in this quarter,” in part because of rich local resources.46 Following the smallpox epidemic of 1781–82, which reduced the inland First Nations population severely, there were other, smaller epidemics of smallpox, measles, and whooping cough that put further pressure on the First Nations population (in particular 1819–20 and 1837–38). It seems probable that, with a reduction in hunting, gathering, and fishing pressure, there was a corresponding resurgence and richness in local resources.
What became the north Prince Albert region, north of the Saskatchewan River at the edge of more than one First Nations home territory, might also have operated as a “neutral zone” or “borderland.” Such places became ecologically rich, particularly in larger ungulates, because they were on the edge of traditional lands and might even have served as “buffer zones” between hostile groups. The story of a fierce battle between the Cree and Chipeweyan at “The Lake of the Hanging Hearts,” or the Hanging Heart Lakes in Prince Albert National Park, suggests that, at least at one point, the north Prince Albert region was a “buffer zone” between the Chipeweyan or Dene, whose territory usually extended north of the Churchill River, and the Cree of the Saskatchewan River. Northern bands centred on the Churchill River traded at the Churchill posts. With bands pulled south and north, the north Prince Albert region found itself rather lightly touched by human occupation or the demands of the fur trade through the mid-1800s, though certainly nearby traders encouraged bands to harvest local fur populations. The Hudson’s Bay Company established Carlton Post in 1795 on the North Saskatchewan River down from the old Hudson House post. Posts on the Churchill River, such as Île-à-la-Crosse and Stanley, were also in operation for parts of this period, as well as Green Lake, an important inland distribution point for pemmican, connected to Carlton Post by an overland trail. There is little indication, though, in either the written historical sources or the oral tradition, that these posts drew heavily from the north Prince Albert region. 47
Edge as Home: The Lobstick Tree
In 1911, settlers Percy Carter and Pat O’Hea pushed north from Prince Albert following an “old Indian trail.” When they arrived in Township 52, they found a remarkable cultural artifact: a large white spruce remade into a lobstick tree, standing in lonely splendour in a small open meadow. According to the Paddockwood history book, Carter located his homestead on the quarter containing the meadow and lobstick: “It is remembered that in the vicinity of that tree, Indians traveling north to hunt and fish, would pitch their camp and rest for a while.” Presumably, those travelling from north to south, or east to west, would also use the site.48
Culturally modified trees were common in Nordic countries, among them the lobstick tree of the Canadian boreal forest. For the Cree of the western interior, a lobstick was created by shaping a tall and conspicuous white spruce or pine tree by “lopping” most of its branches off. The top would then bush out in a tuft, becoming easy to spot. These trees were used in many ways, both practical and symbolic. They were signposts, chosen and designed to mark trails, portages, and pathways through the boreal forest, berry patches, or hunting grounds. They were also cultural markers, used to designate meeting places, burial grounds, ceremonial sites, and even personal totems or to honour a guest or visitor.49
European explorer Alexander Mackenzie was one of the first Europeans to comment on lobstick trees, and in his assessment they “denoted the immediate abode of the natives and probably served for signals to direct each other to their respective winter quarters.”50 Warburton Pike, an Englishmen who travelled into the far northern tundra in search of big game, also commented on these markers: “Many an appointment has been kept at [lobsticks],” suggesting their role as convenient meeting points that everyone could find.51
Caroline Podruchny documents in her book Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade the physical creation and the symbolic meaning of the lobstick tree within the voyageur world. In that version, all of the branches except the topmost would be removed, leaving a tall tree often called a “maypole.” Sometimes the bark would be removed, leaving a smooth surface on which to cut names, dates, or symbols, or simply to shoot patterns into the tree with gunshots. A particularly cheerful version was created for Frances Simpson, wife of the HBC governor, with feathers and streamers for decoration. A lobstick, according to Podruchny, was created to honour a n
ew leader, particularly if it was his first trip into the northland. To repay the voyageurs for the honour of making a maypole/lobstick tree, the leader was expected to offer presents or at least a generous measure of rum. It seems clear that in the voyageur world the trees were created for their symbolic meaning—and, of course, to have a party.
Cree groups from both the forest and the plains would meet at selected places throughout the western interior to engage in economic, social, and cultural exchange. Archaeologist David Meyer called them “ingathering centres” and identified several along the Saskatchewan River, including the forks.52 The lobstick tree would have been easy to spot for anyone who travelled overland from the forks using the trail identified by William Pink in the 1700s. If the lobstick tree was indeed the site of an Aboriginal ingathering centre, then it made sense that the tree stood in lonely splendour in a meadow. Any surrounding bush and scrub would have long been used for teepee poles and firewood. The meadow might have been kept open through the First Nations traditional practice of burning to encourage new growth around the lobstick, attracting deer, moose, elk, and bison.53
Figure 2. Lobstick tree. Original drawing by Merle Massie.
The lobstick tree was in a meadow not far from Bigelow Lake and just a few miles from Cheal (Egg) Lake, both well known as nesting grounds for ducks and geese. In addition, the Garden River was nearby. These small watercourses were home to a variety of waterfowl much prized by the Cree, who might have used the site to participate in water-related ceremonial celebrations. The Goose Dance, for example, was popular among the Swampy Cree who lived to the east, from Fort à la Corne to Cumberland House.54 It would have been a good place for Cree from Candle, Sturgeon, Christopher, and Emma Lakes, the North Saskatchewan River, and Fort à la Corne to meet. A water-based culture would explain the amazing dugout canoe find at Christopher Creek.55 The fact that the lobstick was still in existence in 1911 shows the remarkable cultural depth of the north Prince Albert Aboriginal presence. The life span of a white spruce is well over 200 and up to 300 years. The trees are considered mature at between seventy-five and 100 years. In photographs in the Paddockwood history book, the tree was fully mature and very large by the time homesteaders pushed north. It is possible that the lobstick tree might have been created as many as 100 years or more before Euro-Canadian settlement in 1911, indicating a deep-time use of the north Prince Albert region as home, meeting place, and ceremonial site.56 The lobstick tree was an important symbolic marker of “home.”57
Traditional Cree ethnographers believed that the Cree migrated westward with the fur trade, using their middleman status, guns, and technology to push out previous inhabitants. This view has been questioned, even completely rejected, situating the Cree as traditional inhabitants.58 The Cree at Sturgeon Lake have enjoyed a deep history within the North Saskatchewan River landscape. Their aquatic and terrestrial harvesting territory extended north from Sturgeon Lake to include Emma, Christopher, Oscar, and Anglin Lakes, as far north as the Narrows of Red Deer (Waskesiu) Lake, as well as south to what they called “Moon Lake” and the North Saskatchewan.59 By the 1860s, the Sturgeon band was well established in their home territory.
Sometime in the mid-1800s, an influx of Cree people arrived. Che We Che Chap or Crooked Finger, whose anglicized name was James Bird, brought his family from Grand Rapids, at the northwest corner of Lake Winnipeg, west following the fur-trade river routes to La Ronge. It was not uncommon for small pockets of Cree bands to move west, following the fur trade and searching for fresh resources. Their motivations and movements mirror many later Canadian internal migrations. From La Ronge, Bird and his family turned south, finding the Thunder Hills and the expanse of Montreal Lake.60 This region was rich in game and resources and seemingly empty, and Cree elders remembered their first years there as some of the happiest years of their lives.61 The small, family-based band units lived “a seasonal pattern of movement that took them to camping spots at Candle Lake, Bittern Lake, Red Deer (Waskesiu) Lake, Trout (Crean) Lake, and the north and south ends of Montreal Lake.”62 Their territory included much of the northern watered landscape of the north Prince Albert region. The local population, a combination of recent immigrants and traditional inhabitants, was still relatively small, numbering a few hundred people.63 Their lifestyle followed a boreal pattern centred on hunting and fishing, with incursions south to take bison or trade.
Fur trading within the region mushroomed throughout the nineteenth century in response to the increased First Nations occupation. By 1851, the Hudson’s Bay Company re-established the post at Fort à la Corne, east of the forks. This post was in operation until well into the 1900s and for a time operated a satellite post at Candle Lake.64 Smaller outposts and regional distribution centres were established along Sturgeon Lake, the Narrows area of Waskesiu, and the south end of Montreal Lake, particularly in the late 1800s.65
Map 5. Trading posts in the north Prince Albert region. Note that the majority of posts between Prince Albert and La Ronge were established between 1870 and 1930.
Source: Adapted from “Trading Posts Pre-1789–Post 1930,” Atlas of Saskatchewan, 34.
These groups shared an identifiable territory, interests, and similar lifeways. The people became more and more of a community through interaction at local fur-trade posts at the Narrows and Montreal Lake. Although few records exist, it is reasonable to assume that berry-picking expeditions, weddings, and other community celebrations were held to which many were invited and attended. Those who considered the area their home created a seasonal round based for the most part on the riches of the boreal forest and less so on the bison hunt of the prairie. As Peter Erasmus noted, Cree groups from the forest would use bison as a supplement to their diet but did not rely on it.
Pemmican Empire
From the late 1700s, when trading posts were established along the Saskatchewan Rivers, through to the mid-1800s, the southern bison-hunting economy exploded. Bands were drawn to the plains in response to the intense and profitable pemmican and provisioning trade and the richness of the horse and gun bison economy and culture.66 The bison (pemmican) provisioning trade rose to prominence as fur-trade forts spread into the western interior, and major canoe brigades operated each year from the Athabasca region to Hudson Bay or Montreal.
The pemmican trade, or what historian George Colpitts calls the “pemmican empire,” was, in essence, a major economic, ecological, and social force.67 What made it fascinating, from the perspective of ecological and cultural edges, is that it drew the two major ecological zones of the western interior into a major business and marketing relationship: the bison of the plains were harvested and processed by both First Nations and the new Métis communities to provision the fur-trade brigades that operated in the fur-rich northern boreal forest. This binary relationship was not new. Northern boreal bands had met southern prairie bands at or near Kestapinik (Prince Albert) for thousands of years to participate in trade. The pemmican empire accelerated these traditional trading relationships from a small, inter-band scale to a much larger scale that led to the growth of new social and cultural groups, particularly the Métis.
The fur brigades required small and easily portable food supplies that could be eaten while canoeing. The Canadian winter environment, so necessary to create the lush fur coats on animals, meant that water was in its frozen state for several months of the year. Canoe brigades could operate only between May and September—a short window of opportunity that dictated long days and short stops. The brigades would leave their forts, loaded heavily with furs, and head east as soon as the river ice broke enough for travel. The trips, depending on the origin and destination, could take several weeks. After furs were unloaded at their destination posts, the canoes were filled with goods to resupply the interior forts. The brigades would then face the upstream trek back to the forts, all before the snow flew and the ice closed rivers. Time was precious; little time could be spent in hunting, fishing, o
r even stopping to cook along the way.
Pemmican was a portable source of protein that could sustain the brigades over their treks. Bison meat was pounded to a fine texture and mixed with rendered bison fat. Some pemmican—depending on what was available, the recipe maker, and likely the band’s own preferences—was also mixed with dried berries to add texture, extra flavour, and nutrients. Sewn into large bags, pemmican became a major trade item for bands and individuals at each interior post, especially along the South Saskatchewan and other posts within traditional bison-hunting territory. “Beat meat” was a trade staple at Hudson House, “the house in buffalo country.”68 Traders, with strict instructions from Montreal and London to use their wits and goods to live off the land, traded for food items such as fresh, dried, and beat meat almost as much as they traded for furs. Interior posts, such as Hudson House, were created as cache points for pemmican. It was stored and then shipped with the fur brigades to other distributing posts such as Cumberland House, where the canoe brigades could access the precious portable protein supply.69
Buffalo-hide trade rose to prominence in the nineteenth century as industrialization and the need for bison leather to make industrial belts created a market in the cities along the eastern seashore of North America. Even so, pemmican, not furs, drove trade on the prairie, creating an economic and ecological window through which to view the contrast between the boreal north and the prairie south.
David Mandelbaum, the eminent Plains Cree ethnographer, noted that there were important differences between hunting bison and hunting moose or elk. Bison hunting, particularly pounding, jumping, or on horseback, was a communal activity suited to the larger plains encampments of several hundred people. Moose and elk required tracking and stalking, methods that suited lone and highly experienced hunters or small hunting parties.70 Cree warrior Fine Day told Mandelbaum that “anyone could kill a buffalo but it took a good hunter to get moose or elk,” another way of saying that bison hunting was an easier life.71 Mandelbaum suggested that “the lavish supply of buffalo made for a neglect of forest hunting techniques,” an indication that some of the plains tribes might have been unable to move back into a forest-adapted economy or even access forest-edge animals other than bison.72 Forest resources, sufficient for small bands, likely would never have been able to accommodate the hunting pressure required by the much larger plains bands on an extensive or intensive basis. Plains bands used forest resources only when necessary as a refuge or to alleviate food shortages on the open plains.