Settlement on the Prairies

Settlement on the Canadian Prairies

Before the arrival of Europeans, the First Nations peoples lived on the Canadian prairies for some 8,000-10,000 years: the Blackfoot (Siksika), the Blood, the Peigan, the Gros Ventre, the Plains Cree, the Assiniboine, the Sioux (Dakota), and the Sarcee, among others. Specifically, in the area now known as Saskatchewan, the indigenous peoples included the Niitsitapi, Atsina, Sarcee, Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine (Dakota), Lakota and Sioux. As a result, our reference to the pioneer settlers on the prairies acknowledges that long before the Europeans, the indigenous peoples of the prairies had flourishing civilizations and cultures, that subsequently were subject to a cultural genocide in Canada.

The Métis

Following the arrival of European explorers, trappers, traders and early settlers, a new people emerged, the Métis, the result largely of the children of French-Canadian men and indigenous women, who had a distinct way of life incorporating both indigenous and French-Canadian cultures, including speaking their own language, Michif, in the 1700s. This occurred in both what became Quebec-Ontario, as well as the territories to the west.

Our ancestor Jean-Baptiste Toupin first married and had children with an indigenous (Algonquian) woman, Elisabeth Nitawakwa (also listed as Elisabeth Trompes or Trempe(s), or as Therese. She was the daughter of the Algonquin chief, Nita8gk8a, or Nitawakwa), in 1792 in what is now Quebec, prior to marrying and having children with Marie-Louise Perrault (a descendant of Nicolas Perrot) following Elisabeth’s death in 1796.

The Western Métis were mainly established in the red River Valley of what is now Manitoba, and moved west into what is now Saskatchewan and Alberta. They played a vital role in the success of the fur trade and were valuable employees of the fur trade companies: the North-West Company, and event the Hudson Bay Company.  They were often skilled as buffalo hunters, traders and interpreters.

In 1812, many Europeans, especially Scottish farmers, moved into the Red River Valley, already occupied by the Métis. In addition, the trading routes of the two main companies in the fur trade were in conflict. This led to conflict over land use and ownership, and the fur trade routes. The North-West Company had to merge with the Hudson Bay Company, trade forts were abandoned, and jobs were lost, resulting in a major impact ion the finances of the Métis community.

Canadian Government

In 1869 the new Canadian government bought Rupert’s Land, essentially all the land in the Hudson Bay drainage basin, from the Hudson Bay Company, and appointed an English-speaking governor, William McDougall, who was opposed by French-speaking mostly Métis people. In that same year, Louis Riel and his followers established a Métis provisional government in the Red River Colony, in what is now Manitoba. Riel’s men arrested some men with the pro-Canadian resistance, and tried, convicted one Orangeman, Thomas Scott, who had threatened Riel with death.

In 1870, the Canadian government and the Métis negotiated a settlement, and Canada passed the Manitoba Act, making the Red River Colony a new province, Manitoba, and incorporating some of the Métis demands such as separate French schools for their children. However Canada sent British troops and Canadian militiamen to enforce the agreement. Riel peacefully withdrew from Fort Garry and fled to the United States. The arrival of the troops ended the Red River Rebellion. 

The Canadian government refused to hear the grievances of the Métis and First Nation communities. A later rebellion in 1885 was brief and unsuccessful, and resulted in Riel’s arrest, trial, conviction of treason and execution. Three battles between Métis and First Nation men against English-speaking volunteers and North-West Mounted Police preceded these events, in which the rebels had early victories but lost at the Siege of Batoche.  Riel’s death led to his heroic martyrdom among French-speakers in Canada. 

The Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.) played a key role in the Canadian victory over the rebels, increasing political support for the completion of the trans-continental railway. Only a few hundred people were affected by the rebellion in Saskatchewan, but the end result was the control of the territory by English-speakers, not French.

Large-Scale Settlement

In 1880, the land had been surveyed and divided into meridians, ranges, townships, sections and quarters. A township had 36 sections, with section one belonging to the railway, in exchange for laying track to bring the new settlers.

The Canadian government then posted propaganda to encourage settlers from Eastern Canada to move to the prairies; the settlers then bought land from the CPR and the Southwestern Colonization Railway in Saskatchewan, or from land companies which had purchased land from the government. Upon arrival, a person would file on a homestead with the help of land agents and received a legal description of the land he was applying for. 

A filing fee for a homesteader was only $10 for 160 acres of land, but it came with the obligations to reside on the land for at least six months per year and to clear 10 acres per year for planting for three consecutive years. Since this was a great hardship for many, some with the money preferred to buy the land as opposed to homesteading.

Homesteading

A settler’s first job upon arrival was to build a shelter. The first shelters built were sod houses, as wood was scarce on the prairie. Nevertheless, the settler had to find poplars to erect poles to build a frame. Then as many as 3000 pieces of sod were cut and used as you would bricks to build the walls, slanted inwards. The roof was built of closely fit poles, filled in with hay and sod. Also the settler would build a fireguard around his home to protect from prairie fires, started by electrical storms or chimneys and often lasting for days (the other threats to their labours were hailstorms, snow blizzards and an occasional cyclone).

The early settlers plowed the fields with oxen or horses and a one-furrow plow, with the rest of growing and reaping a crop done by hand. Food consisted of what could be shot or caught (ducks, prairie chickens, rabbits), milk and eggs from their few livestock, and their grown vegetables and wheat. Harvest began in the fall; in later years grain was cut with a binder (a machine pulled by four horses), with a sickle on the binder to cut the grain and a canvas that carried the grain to be wrapped and tied. Wheat was the main commercial crop.

Saskatchewan

On September 1, 1905, Saskatchewan became a province of Canada. Saskatchewan began an ambitious province-building program based upon its Anglo-Canadian culture and wheat production for the export market. The provincial government set up the Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator Company in 1911. The Saskatchewan Grain Growers Association was the dominant political force until the 1920s.

In February 1912, 450 members of the Francophone community of Saskatchewan met at Duck Lake to form a provincial organization called La Sociéte du Parler Français de la Saskatchewan, to work to ensure the protection of the French culture and their religion in the province. The following year it became the Association Catholique Franco-Canadienne. As Wikipedia notes in its “Fransaskois” article:

“In 1916 several provincial organizations like the Saskatchewan Grain Growers, the Saskatchewan School Trustees’ Association, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities resolved to forbid the use of foreign languages in Saskatchewan’s schools.[15] Premier William Martin drafted an amendment to Section 177 of the School Act which limited French instruction to one hour a day.[11] In response to the loss of the right to teach French in a public school in 1918 Franco-Catholic school trustees formed the Association des commissaries d’écoles franco-canadiens (ACEFC).[16] In Gravelbourg, Monsignor Mathieu O.M.I Regina opened the College Mathieu, a private institution offering a classical education opened its doors   in 1918. [17] For over 75 years the College Mathieu was the only option for a French education in Saskatchewan. The school was renowned for their competitive sports teams and their dynamic arts programs.”

“In 1982, Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights guaranteed minority education rights. [20] A Supreme Court decision (Mahe decision) in 1990 recognized the Fransaskois’ right to control their children’s education.[20] The province of Saskatchewan adopted bill 39 (Multicultural Act) in 1993, and the following year in the town of Gravelbourg, the first French council gained control of their school for the first time in nearly eighty years.”

Village of Storthoaks

The land companies brought in tradespeople to service the settlers. Some settlers abandoned land for various reasons (lack of water, soil that was too sandy or rocky, or tragedy from firestorms or death; or they were the child of a farmer and chose a different field of work), and went into business locally or moved away.

Small chapels and schools were built. Farmers served as trustees of the school. An early school would not have electricity or internal lighting, and only a small stove for heat. The settlers paid tithes for their church and a tax for their school. An epidemic (such as smallpox) or blizzard would cause the school to close. Felix Toupin was President of the St. Thomas School Board from 1920 to 1923, his daughter-in-law Gabrielle was Secretary from 1922-1926, and his son Theodore was a teacher at the St. Edmond school in 1924. Later Felix’s son Alphonse was a school board trustee in 1932 and 1936.

Prior to the creation of formal local government, local settlers got together to build needed public works, such as a stone crossing over a creek, or grades for roads. The first local municipal government in the Storthoaks area was called a Local Improvement District, and formed around 1904. French-Canadians from Quebec had settled in the area, and were some of the new teachers, municipal councillors and school trustees. Felix Toupin served as a Councillor in 1913 and from 1917 to 1920 (later his son Ernest Toupin served from 1932-1934). Taxes then were only five or six dollars per quarter.

The Rural Municipality of Storthoaks #31 was organized in 1911, and the next year the village of Storthoaks came into being as a hamlet. The word apparently comes from a Scottish version of “Strong Oaks.” Among the first buildings were the International Machinery shed constructed in 1913 by Willie Toupin, son of Felix Toupin and Josephine Bissonnette. Willie held the business for 50 years. A grain elevator had been built the previous year, when a C.P.R. line was built from Lauder, Manitoba to Alida (nearby and directly west of Storthoaks). A second elevator was built in 1915. A Wheat Pool grain elevator was built in 1927. The Storthoaks Rural Telephone Company was formed in 1915 to bring the first telephone service to the area.

Social life consisted of gatherings of neighbours in a family’s small home. A square dance might take place in the middle of the crowded floor. Mr. Paradis writes (in Dusty Trails, Abandoned Rails) that baseball was played outdoors even before 1905, and later hockey was introduced, all without the protective equipment seen in later times. The local expended ice skating surface was known as the “Toupin” slough. (Later, in 1937 a committee formed to build an enclosed, indoor rink, including Felix and Josephine’s sons Abel and Willie). Felix Toupin was active as an office in the local chapter of the Association Culturelle Franco Canadienne, as were his son Theodore, daughter-in-law Gabrielle and grandson Désiré.

In 1915 a hotel was built for Arthur Chicoine; and in 1926 the Catholic Church moved into the village. The Village of Storhoaks was incorporated in 1940.

The Great Depression

The Great Depression began in 1929 and was a deep, world-wide slump in business activity that led to business failures, loss of jobs, and the scarcity of money on the prairies, as elsewhere. It was followed by heat waves, droughts and grasshopper infestations (the Dirty Thirties) and eight years of crop failure on the prairies at a time when prices form grain were already low. Tons of feed, fruits, vegetables, fish, cheese and clothing were supplied by provinces to the east. Farmers in the prairies joined together in these hard times, such as forming a “Beef Ring” to ensure there was fresh meat during hot summers and frozen, canned or salted meat in winter. 

Conclusion

The story of the European settlers of the prairies is one of both hardship and reward. The hard work and suffering paid off in the fruits of their labours and the families which flourished despite the often difficult environmental, cultural and economic conditions.  The French culture continues, with French-speakers in the plurality or majority in small towns like Gravelbourg, Albertville, Duck Lake, Ponteix, Zenon Park and Bellegarde, as well as living in as Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw.

Researched & Written by David Toupin, great-grandson of Felix Toupin.

References

The First Peoples of Canada, https://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_metis/fp_metis1.html

500 Nations, https://www.500nations.com/Canada_Tribes.asp

Wikipedia, Red River Rebellion, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Rebellion

Wikipedia, Saskatchewan, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatchewan

Wikipedia, Fransaskois, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fransaskois

Wikipedia, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Canada), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Reconciliation_Commission_(Canada)

Georgette Blerot, “Early History,” in Dusty Trails, Abandoned Rails, 1988, Storthoaks/Fertile Historical Society, pp 2-9

J. B. Paradis, “Early Beginnings,” in Dusty Trails, Abandoned Rails, 1988, Storthoaks/Fertile Historical Society, pp 11-12

Dusty Trails, Abandoned Rails, 1988, Storthoaks/Fertile Historical Society, “recreation”, pp 87-98