Exhibits

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International Museum Day 2017

IMD 2017 PosterThe theme of International Museum Day varies every year; this year, the theme is Museums and Contested Histories: Saying the Unspeakable in Museums. The purpose of this theme is to “highlight how the acceptance of a contested history is the first step in envisioning a shared future under the banner of reconciliation.”

Reconciliation is at the forefront of many minds, especially with this year marking the 150th anniversary of Canada’s confederation. The residential school system has officially been termed a cultural genocide by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was formed on June 2, 2008, with the mission of uncovering evidence on Canada’s Indian Residential School system (IRS) and fostering healing. Although the main task of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was completed in December 2015, it falls to the rest of Canada to respond to the calls to action outlined by the TRC, including sustained public education and dialogue.

A residential school is defined as a boarding school for “Indian” students that was in part financed by the federal government of Canada. Under this definition, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the residential school at Lac La Biche, Notre Dame des Victoires, was in operation from 1893-1898. We know the site under many names: Notre Dame des Victoires, Hospice St. Joseph, and the Lac La Biche Mission.

From 1862 until the establishment of the industrial school, the boarding school run at Notre Dame des Victoires was not an official residential school as it predates the official system and did not receive federal funding before then. The boarding school established in 1905 was not a residential school either as it did not receive federal funding and First Nations students were to be sent to residential schools around the province. While Métis students were placed in residential schools at times, federal funding was not provided for them. It is important to note that the current owners of the mission site, the Lac La Biche Mission Historical Society, are not affiliated with the school or religious organizations that ran it.

 

This entry is meant to give a brief summary of the history of Notre Dame des Victories and is not intended to be an ultimate guide to the site’s history or residential schools. This is a short glimpse that will hopefully serve as a good introduction as we move towards reconciliation.

 

“And further, Her Majesty agrees to maintain schools for instruction in such reserves hereby made as to Her Government of the Dominion of Canada may seem advisable, whenever the Indians of the reserve shall deserve it.”

—Excerpt from Treaty 6, signed 1876

 

“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly impressed upon myself, as head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.”

—John A. Macdonald to the House of Commons, May 9, 1883

The Indian Residential School System

The era of residential schools may be over, but the effects are certainly still felt. Roughly 150,000 Indigenous children (30% of Indigenous children) were placed in residential schools, the last of which closed in 1996. The purpose of residential schools was to assimilate Indigenous children into the mainstream Eurocentric society. This was to be done by completely preventing children from learning and participating in their own culture and forcing Eurocentric education upon them. The plan was to target children because they would not have been exposed to their own culture for very long, a “blank slate” that could be formed as the government wished.

 

1877 Grant to St. Albert, Lac La Biche, and Ile-a-la-Crosse
Copy of 1877 grant to schools. RG 10 Vol. 3643 File 7780 Pt. 1, Library & Archives Canada

 

To do this, the Canadian government partnered with religious organizations that had previous experience with schooling, namely the Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants, and Presbyterians. These religious groups often had mission schools already established and were the only organizations providing schooling in the north. Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin in particular frequently asked the federal government to help existing schools continue educating Indigenous children by increasing grants. Bishop Grandin continued to channel his efforts to promote industrial and residential schools throughout the rest of his life.

 

“The fact is, that if you wish to educate those children you must separate them from their parents during the time they are being educated. If you leave them in the family they may know how to read and write, but they still remain savages, whereas by separating them in the way proposed, they acquire the habits and tastes — it is to be hoped only the good tastes — of civilized people.”

—Public Works Minister Sir Hector Langevin, 1883

Initially, attendance at the residential schools was not mandatory. Many children were in the school for a few years before being pulled out by parents to help the family. Other students were pulled out due to unaddressed complaints with the schools. The full version of the IRS system was not officially in place until the 1884 Amendment to the Indian Act of 1876. This amendment stated that First Nations children were to have mandatory education in order to read and write in English.

In 1873, a federal subsidy for schooling was announced by the Canadian government for an Oblate school in St. Albert for $300 per year. Payments were later authorized for other schools under the condition that they had at least twenty-five students. By 1876, three schools—St. Albert, Lac La Biche, and Île-à-la-Crosse—were announced to be eligible to receive federal support from the Ministry of the Interior, with $300 to be split between Lac La Biche and Île-à-la-Crosse, not awarded to each school.

Lac La Biche Boarding School 1862-1893

The Lac La Biche Mission, Notre Dame des Victoires, was a Roman Catholic mission established by the missionary order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It was established in 1853 by Father Rene Remas and moved to its current site in 1885 by Father Augustin Maisonneuve and Father Jean Tissot. A school was established in 1862 with the arrival of the Sisters of Charity, also known as the Grey Nuns. The Grey Nuns were particularly involved in hospitals, orphanages, and schools.

 

Notre Dame des Victoires, n.d.
Notre Dame des Victoires, n.d. The Grey Nuns’ convent, where schooling took place, can be seen on the right side. The former residence of Bishop Henri Faraud can be seen behind it. Image courtesy of the Lac La Biche Mission Historical Society.

 

The Sisters taught between fifteen and twenty classes each week. Classes included English, French, Nêhiyawêwin  (Cree), Dene (Chipewyan), theology, drawing, painting, and mathematics. The school at Lac La Biche held not only boarding students, but day students as well. Attendance records are rare, but a few numbers can still be found. For example, in 1876, there were twenty-five to thirty children attending school, and in 1886, there were thirty-eight.

 

“We currently have fourteen poor little girls and one orphan, as well as five boarders and some day pupils from time to time. All winter we took in little girls in order to prepare them for their First Communion; we were forced to put them up in the kitchen, and it goes without saying that it put the poor cooks in an awkward position. If we only had space in which to accommodate these poor little backwoods children, we would have the means to transform them into fervent Christians. […] Truly, these, poor backwoods children lack neither in talent, nor in spirit, nor in heart, but rather they are just lacking in culture. Oh, if only we had the resources, what good we could do!”

—Sister Youville, letter to Sister Charlebois, Assistant General of the Grey Nuns, April 12, 1875

Life in the area was often difficult due to the environment. Many people already living in the area, mainly Nêhiyawak (Cree), Métis, and (to a lesser extent) Dene, already knew how to thrive in the often harsh climate. However, most of the Oblates and nuns were from Montreal or France and were largely unused to having to provide entirely for themselves. There were three sources of food at the mission: hunting, farming, and fishing. It was rare for all three to fail at the same time, but there were instances when they would have to rely heavily on one source alone, usually fishing. In these instances, it would have been difficult to provide for the clergy, let alone large numbers of children.

 

“A quick word about our harvest: 150 bushels of barley and 138 bales of bad hay are all we have. Since last autumn, we have already eaten almost 80 bales. We estimate that we will sow 80 bales this spring, and beyond that we will just have to eat biscuits, etc. etc. from now until the next crop. Our potatoes kept well this winter; our garden crop was very small, and this year we will gather even less as we have so few seeds to plant. […] Our chickens are still alive, but only because of our care to winter them and to keep them away from the dogs. […] For two days now, the weather has been good; if this continues, we will soon be welcoming spring, which we anxiously await. Hay is rare and our animals are thin. I worry that many will die. Just today, April 12th, we’ve heard that the dike at the mill is broken, which means a lack of bread. The travelers take with them the little bit of flour that we have left. At the house, we live as well as we can. At least we have lots of fish to eat.”

—Sister Youville, letter to Sister Charlebois, Assistant General of the Grey Nuns, April 12, 1875

Living in a religious environment would have been no easy task as well. Many members of the clergy at the Lac La Biche Mission, including Bishop Henri Faraud, were noted to be very strict with the sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation or Chrismation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony) to the point that they were accused of being “tainted with Jansenism” by Bishop Grandin in the late 1860s. Jansenism, characterized by severe self-discipline, was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in the 1600s. According to Bishop Grandin, the Oblates at Lac La Biche were being overly strict with the Métis and First Nations dealing with Christianity for the first time. Bishop Grandin also remarked that they should not have been held to the same standards as Europeans raised in Christianity.

 

Mission Beach
Lac La Biche Mission Beach. Image courtesy of the Lac La Biche Mission Historical Society.

 

Hospice St. Joseph was initially open from 1862-1872, when it closed due to poor enrollment. It did reopen when more students were available by 1875. Once steamboats were travelling on the Athabasca River in 1887, Notre Dame des Victoires began to be bypassed as a stopping point and warehouse for trade in the north. Many Métis from the mission area relocated to Athabasca Landing for work. With the loss of a portion of its congregation and the students with it, the mission attempted to make up for its loss in part through funding from the Dominion Government for industrial schools. Eventually, the school received funding to become an residential school, which officially opened in 1893.

Lac La Biche Residential School 1893-1898

 

1896 Industrial School Class
1896 Class pictured with one of the Oblate priests. Provincial Archives of Alberta, OB4486.

 

Notre Dame des Victoires was an industrial school. This means that in addition to academic classes, students were taught skills that could be used in different industries. Father Henri Grandin, who became superior of the Lac La Biche Mission in 1889, sent a latter to the Superior General of Indian Affairs on June 30, 1897, mentioning that the industrial classes included farming, gardening, sewing, knitting, cooking, laundry, and housekeeping. Roman Catholic mission classes also often included carpentry and boat building.

 

“Would it be too much to ask the Department to instruct their Agent to use his influence with his Indians in order to bring the parents to leave their children at school until we are satisfied that they know enough to be benefited by their stay with us. This is our greatest difficulty just now. After three or four years, and even some times after only two years in the School, parents must take their children away, to have their help in their work. Good advice from the Agent or [farm] instructor at such time would induce some of the parents, if not all, to leave their children with us and it would be a great help to us.”

—Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin, letter to Indian Commissioner Amédée E. Forget, April 14, 1897

With the reports from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, many reports of sexual abuse have been brought to light. In regard to Lac La Biche, however, there are no documented instances of this abuse during the years that Notre Dame des Victoires was a residential school. The only mention found pertaining to Lac La Biche at all by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a letter from Father Jean Tissot at Lac La Biche to Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché dated April 19, 1861. He mentioned that he was not surprised that Jean L’Heureux was sent away from Fort Pitt in the 1860s for making sexual overtures to young boys, as Tissot had heard of his unsavoury reputation. Note: The TRC’s report erroneously states that L’Heureux was sent away from Lac La Biche, but the actual letter says Fort Pitt. L’Heureux’s career over the next thirty years included impersonating a Jesuit priest, impersonating an Oblate priest, serving as a translator during the negotiation of Treaty 7, and working as a translator for Indian Affairs. He resigned from this last position in 1891 when it was again discovered that he was sexually abusing young boys. From the records, it does not appear that a criminal investigation was ever opened, as was the case with many similar incidents. In the vast majority of cases, government and church officials were more likely to simply fire the abuser or encourage their resignation than bring criminal charges.

 

Grey Nuns, 1895
The Grey Nuns from the LLB Mission in 1895. Back Row, L-R: Sr. Cecilia Dougherty (age 31, in LLB 1891-1901), Sr. Béliveau [Louise Arsenault] (age 47, in LLB 1888-1898), Sr. Louise Pomminville (age 30, in LLB 1887-1898), Sr. Olivine Briault (age 24, in LLB 1891-1898). Front Row, L-R: Sr. St. Amable [Odolmire Mercier] (age 33, in LLB 1881-1898), Sr. Marie Niquette [Superior] (age 38, in LLB 1881-1888. 1891-1898), Sr. St. Augustin [Ada Leduc] (age 30, in LLB 1887-1900). Provincial Archives of Alberta, OB1023.

 

In 1896, it was discovered by government officials that the convent used as the Lac La Biche school was dilapidated. By this point, the nuns, orphans, and students were living in the former residence of Bishop Henri Faraud and taking classes in the old Grey Nuns’ convent. To the officials, this was convenient timing; parents at Saddle Lake wanted a residential school closer to home. The Saddle Lake parents wanted schooling for their children, but were trying to prevent their children from attending the residential school in Lac La Biche due in part to the rough roads and difficult visitation. The nuns were notified that the school was to be moved to Saddle Lake and the bishops agreed with the decision. In 1898, the school was officially moved to Saddle Lake. In 1931, the school was moved again to St. Paul. After a successful protest movement, the school was put under First Nations administration. It is currently the University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills.

Lac La Biche Boarding School 1905-1963

The boarding school at the Lac La Biche Mission did not open again until 1905 with the arrival of the Daughters of Jesus (French: Filles de Jésus). This school was open to all who wished to attend regardless of ethnicity, although the students were presumably Roman Catholic. This school, as mentioned earlier, was not a residential school. Many former students still live in the region.

 

“It was a really good convent as far as they go. […] The school was known for teaching French. It was pretty good; I wish some of my kids would have been taught there.”

—Edgar Ladouceur, 1981 Pow Wow Supplement

 

Daughters of Jesus Convent
Convent of the Daughters of Jesus. Deschatelets Archive, Les Oeuvres Oblates de l’Ontario.

 

Theresa Meltenberger, who attended the school for five years during the 1930s and 1940s, noted that she was placed in the school by her mother while her parents were out in the bush. According to Meltenberger, education was her mother’s main priority. Although she had difficulties with proper nutrition and discipline, she had this to say:

 

“It certainly has given me an understanding of life and I don’t want to judge this by today’s standards because the nuns most likely figured they were doing God’s work, you know. So who am I to assess blame to them, you know, but it took me a long time to come to terms with it. […] So the good Lord says you are supposed to forgive, but there’s nothing in there that says you forget.”

—Theresa Meltenberger, resident at Lac La Biche Boarding School

Throughout the rest of her interview, which can be found in Métis Memories of Residential Schools, published by the Métis Nation of Alberta, she also notes that she learned important skills and was proud that she and the other children had a great deal of fun during recreation time. Their play included swimming and building forts, rafts, and snowballs. Other students who attended the school around the same time stated that the nuns were strict, but no one was abused.

Reconciliation

It is up to us as people living together in this country to work together for reconciliation to happen. Without commitment, reconciliation is impossible to achieve. Those who do not know the past cannot realize how it effects each of us today.

 

In the Commission’s view, there is an urgent need in Canada to develop historically literate citizens who understand why and how the past is relevant to their own lives and the future of the country. Museums have an ethical responsibility to foster national reconciliation, and not simply tell one party’s version of the past.

—Honouring the Truth, Reconciling the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, page 251

It is quite difficult to research the years in which Notre Dame des Victoires was a residential school, as many records are split between the Provincial Archives of Alberta and the archives at the Centre du patrimoine in St. Boniface. We can already see a limited vision of the past through what small resources are available to us. However, we must listen to the testimony of witnesses and survivors of the residential school system in order to give meaning to the past. The experiences of students at residential schools were both positive and negative, with some children having an overall positive experience and many having an overwhelmingly horrifying experience. Their testimonies are all valid and the experience of one former student is not necessarily the same as another. It is our hope that former students can continue sharing their stories with us all and that we as residents of the Lac La Biche region can move together towards reconciliation with understanding.

 

Mission, 1905-1921
Notre Dame des Victoires, 1905-1921. Deschatelets Archive, Les Oeuvres Oblates de l’Ontario.

 

We thank the Lac La Biche Mission Historical Society for their contributions to this article. To learn more about Notre Dame des Victoires, we recommend visiting the Lac La Biche Mission site. Directions can be found at their website.

Online Learning Resources

National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

Lac La Biche Mission Historical Society

Reconciliation (Indigenous and Northern Affairs)

Apology to Former Students of Indian Residential Schools given in the
House of Commons, June 11, 2008

Apology on Residential Schools by the Catholic Church

Apology on Residential Schools by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Where are the children: Healing the legacy of residential schools

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Regional Cultures: Ukrainians

Ukrainian culture is right at home in our community, from delicious cuisine to lively dance. Canadian Ukrainian culture is special—it follows old traditions long left behind by most modern Ukrainians, creating an oasis of folk customs.

Ukrainian advertisement for land in Canada

The first wave of Ukrainian settlement in our region occurred in the Venice and Craigend areas between 1929 and 1932. During the early 1900s, the Canadian government’s immigration policy favoured farming experience over country of origin. This brought thousands of Ukrainian farming families to western Canada. The majority of Ukrainians who arrived in Canada came from western Ukraine under many names—Ukrainians, Ruthenians, Galicians, and Bukovynians. These Ukrainians were among many new Canadian farmers who put many hours of hard labour into clearing land to make it suitable for farming.

Many families learned Ukrainian at home as their first language, reading and writing in Ukrainian before learning English in school. In the early 1980s, the Ukrainian Cultural Society of Lac La Biche offered Ukrainian language classes as well.

 

“My grandfather was army personnel in Ukraine and he kinda figured there would be another war coming up. They said they had to get out of there. So him and his wife packed up six kids and got on the ship and came to Edmonton in 1930. They wandered around to get a homestead out here in Lac la Biche. They went to Wandering River; they [had previously] went to Peace River country and it was too far away from the markets and all that. Wandering River was still too far. They liked the train. There was a creek there and they settled right down in 1935. It took them 5 years to get a place for themselves. They were just like nomads walking around. Y’know, the challenges they had in those days… they were in a strange country, they didn’t know the English language. They came with a trunk of clothes packed with six kids.”

—Eugene Uganecz

Members of both the Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic religions often follow the Julian calendar for their religious holidays. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is a Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Church, while Roman Catholics belong to the Latin Church and follow the Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar, named for Julius Caesar, is about two weeks out of alignment with our current calendar, the Gregorian calendar, which is named for Pope Gregory XIII. This means, for example, that Christmas is celebrated in January. While the Catholic church in Ukraine follows the Julian calendar, churches in Canada sometimes have permission to follow the Gregorian calendar instead.

In 1931, the community of Craigend began planning for the first Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church in the region; however, services were eventually moved to Lac La Biche. In 1955, construction began on a new church, the All Saints Orthodox Church, which was built through volunteer labour and community effort.

 

Pysanky on loan from the Wowk Family

One of the most important Ukrainian holidays is Easter. Joyous exchanges of “Khrystos voskres!” (“Christ has risen,” Христос воскрес) and “Voistynu voskres!” (“He has risen, indeed,” воістину воскрес) can be heard in churches as families bring a basket of paska (паска, round Easter bread), babka (бабка, cylindrical Easter bread), boiled eggs, meat, cheese, and pysanky (писанки, dyed Easter eggs) to be blessed by the priest. Pysanky (singular: pysanka, писанка) are decorated using dyes and beeswax. Wax is placed on an egg by a kistka (кістка), a tool with a small funnel attached where melted wax is inserted. The wax protects the colour underneath from the dye in which the egg is placed. There are several symbols used on pysanky, including (but not limited to) geometric designs, Christian images, plants, animals, and man-made tools. Dye colours also have special meanings, such as blue for good health and yellow for the harvest. In regards to Easter, this year (2017) is quite special—Easter falls on the same day on both the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

 

“On Easter we bake bread: paska and babka. We put them in baskets and take them to church. Everybody brings their baskets and puts them in a semi-circle where a priest comes and blesses everything. What else do we do at Easter? We have a little sip of holy water. He blesses the holy water and he brings some home.”

—Loveth & John Beniuk

Malanka (Маланка), the New Year’s celebration, is named after Malanka, the daughter of Mother Earth, whose return marks the beginning of spring. During Malanka, one can eat many delicious treats, such as kutia (кутя), a dish of poppy seeds, wheat, honey, and almonds, symbolizing peace, prosperity, and good health. Ukrainian staples such as varenyky (вареники, often called perogies or pyrohy by Canadian Ukrainians), grechka (гречка, buckwheat) pancakes, and kielbasa (колбаса, sausage, often called kubasa by Canadian Ukrainians).

 

Ukrainian dance is characterized by rhythmic stamps, acrobatic jumps, and elegant twirls. The national dance, Hopak (гопак, from the verb гоп, “to jump”), is the most popular dance with impressive solos. Concerts often begin with the Pryvit (привіт, “welcome”), a welcome dance complete with the traditional offering of bread and salt. Various costumes are worn for the Pryvit, showcasing the regional dances performed during the concert. Most other styles of Ukrainian dance are named for the regions they come from, such as Polissia, Volhynia, and Bukovyna (Polissian, Volyn, and Bukovynian respectively). The Lac La Biche Cerna Dancers performed these traditional dances on stage for many years.

Ukrainian embroidery is easily recognized. Traditional embroidery patterns vary according to region of origin and are often characterized by kalyna (калина, guelder-roses), poppies, lozenges (diamonds), and geometric patterns. Red and black are standard colours used for embroidery, but are often accompanied by blue, yellow, and green. Embroidery is put on the regions where evil spirits could enter the body to protect the person wearing it—at the cuffs, neckline, back, shoulders, and hem.

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Regional Cultures: Cree

Nehiyawak (ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐊᐧᐠ) is a common ethnonym for the people known as the Cree, meaning “those who speak the same language”. The term “Cree” comes from the Ojibwe word “Kirištino”, which was used by the Ojibwe to describe the people living around Hudson Bay; the French pronounced the word as “Cristinaux”, later shortening it to “Cris”.

The Cree are the largest First Nations group in the Lac La Biche region. In Alberta, there are two major sub-groups of Cree: the Woods Cree (in northern regions) and the Plains Cree (primarily in southern regions). They were not the first to this area, pushing other First Nations groups from the region (the Dene-zaa, Sekani, Sarcee, and Blackfoot); however, pottery found on Black Fox Island confirms Cree ties to the region by the 1500s at the latest.

 

 

The fur trade in Canada could not have operated without the Cree, who were initially known to the Europeans as the “Homeguard”, firmly established as middlemen between the fur companies and those who would come to trade with them. Cree women would often marry European fur traders à la façon du pays (“in the custom of the country”), which came with advantages and disadvantages. The greatest advantages for marriage involved the fur trade itself: Cree women knew trading customs, spoke multiple languages (at least her own and her husband’s), made moccasins and snowshoes, secured food, and were excellent guides. Essentially, a “country wife” often guaranteed survival for fur traders. In return, the connection would allow her to influence trade relationships, guarantee European goods through trade for her kinship network, and grant her a slightly easier life through her own access to European goods. However, life married to a European could also be difficult or hazardous due to cultural differences and greater exposure to European diseases. The Métis were the eventual product of these marriages.

 

Signatures from September 9, 1876, at the Fort Pitt signing of Treaty 6 (LAC GAD IT 296)

After Confederation, the Numbered Treaties were created to extract resources and give land to the Canadian government. The Beaver Lake Cree Nation and Heart Lake First Nation signed Treaty 6 on September 9, 1876, at Fort Pitt. At the time, many across Saskatchewan and Alberta were facing starvation and smallpox due to the encroachment of European settlers. It was felt by many that the treaty would be the only assistance they could receive. Signing Treaty 6 seemed helpful, especially with the inclusion of a medicine chest clause and the right to traditional land use; however, the Beaver Lake Cree Nation (Amiskosâkahikanihk) has been taking legal action to uphold their treaty rights in the face of industrial development.

The Cree are highly spiritual. This spiritualism can be seen in their language, dances, cultural arts, and more. Despite facing genocide, assimilation, and colonialism, Cree culture has persevered. The Cree “y” dialect, Nêhiyawêwin (ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ), emphasises interconnectedness and kinship (wahkohtowin, ᐊᐧᐦᑯᐦᑐᐃᐧᐣ) between all beings. Cree language and native arts programs are offered at both the local public schools and Portage College, allowing people to reconnect to their rich culture.

The Medicine Wheel is an important symbol—it encompasses the four seasons, cardinal directions, elements, stages of life, and aspects of the individual: mental physical, emotional, and spiritual. The metaphor of the Medicine Wheel is used in many ways to teach several things, including interdependence and balance.

The culture hero and trickster Wesakechak is one of the most famous Cree heroes, with endless stories told about him. His story cycles always have a moral. They link humans to creation and teach children about life in a humorous manner through a relatable character. These stories are only supposed to be told during the winter. Other seasons have traditional activities as well, such as making canoes in the spring.

 

Originally only among the Plains Nations, Pow Wows draw people together to celebrate life through songs, dances, ceremonies, and displays of unity. It is a living tradition, as dances evolve with each generation. The Pow Wows in Lac La Biche and Beaver Lake are usually competition Pow Wows, where dancers compete for prizes. Several dances are performed, with most portraying parts of nature; for example, during a grass dance, dancers attempt to imitate the swaying of grass on a windy day, and women’s fancy shawl dances imitate the life cycle of a butterfly.

Round dances, originally healing ceremonies using hand drums and singing, typically take place at night. Before the dancing begins, an elder offers food from a feast to the spirits present. Dancers join hands to form a circle, symbolizing unity and equality; their left hand is held open with the palm upwards because it is on their heart side and their right clasps the hand of the dancer next to them. The round dance continues as long as someone Is drumming and singing.

Cree decoration are intricate and often used on clothing, bags, and belts (among other things). Geometric beadwork, intricate quillwork, and fish scale art are among the many intricate crafts created by the Cree. Moose hair tufting, first used primarily in the north, was once a primary method of decoration clothing and is slowly reviving after almost disappearing. Portage College offers Native Arts & Culture programs in Lac La Biche, including classes on beading, hide tanning, moose/caribou hair tufting, dyeing natural materials, and carving wood and stone.

 

Elsie Quintal fleshing a hide (Portage College film, Hide Tanning the Woods Cree Way)

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Regional Cultures: Italians

During the 1870s, the region that would become Alberta was transitioning into a land of agricultural opportunity under the Dominion Lands Act, providing settlers with 160 acres of free land in exchange for a small administration fee and an agreement to cultivate at least 40 acres within three years. Over the next sixty years, around 118 million acres were given away under the Act. Such an offer was tempting to the many Northern and Southern Italians who would come to call this region home.

With the assistance of the Italian Society of Edmonton (La Società Vittorio Emanuele Terzo), arrangements were made for an Italian colony to be established in what would become the Hylo and Venice settlements. The first group of settlers left Edmonton on July 27, 1914, headed by an Italian consular representative, Felice De Angelis. The other five members of this party were O.J. Biollo, Pio Bonifacio, Antonio Piemonte, Teofilo Piemonte, and Beniamino Maragno.

 

“They didn’t even know what type of animals we had, as far as wildlife goes. They were from Italy. You don’t have moose in Italy! So, it was quite interesting. The first […] gentlemen that came, they thought they saw a fox. A black fox […]. They wanted to catch this fox, and the fox ended up being a skunk! Of course, they got sprayed. Then, they had taken their clothes off and soaked them in a river or creek, trying to get the stink out. Can you imagine the smell of the skunk? Ugh! Terrible, terrible!”

—Rosanna Giacobbo

The group surveyed the area, walking through bush and muskeg, before making their return to Edmonton, content with what they saw. On August 28, 1914, the second group of settlers (numbering 22) left Edmonton for the area. Both journeys were meticulously recorded by De Angelis in his diary, providing an intriguing glimpse into the life of early Italian settlers.

 

Italian Settlers, 1924

 

These settlers constructed tents as temporary shelters until they could register their homesteads at the Lac La Biche Mission and build shacks before winter. It was difficult adapting to the harsh climate, clearing farmland, and establishing a living, but they succeeded. To earn money, people would trap, cut lumber, and work on the railway in addition to farming.

 

“It’s not accurate to say they mostly came to homestead. To say that many of them made their living on the farm, no. The railroad, cutting ties, working on the rails. My ancestors all worked on the rails. Just farming itself, very few. Not the original ones, they couldn’t make a living on the farm. They worked in tie camps or actually worked on the railroad itself, making it. Extra gangs. My dad din’t farm a lot. We took over the farm after and we did more farming ourselves, me and my brother. My dad worked on the railroad most of his life. He started farming with his father, but like I said, they didn’t just have one thing going. Their farming, their agricultural habit. Lumbering, sawmills, either working in lumber camps or railroad. […] A few had cattle, few pigs, mostly that was the food supply for the family.”

—Leslie Biollo

The small community grew at a fast pace. On September 8, 1916, one settlement formally received the name “Venice” and opened the first post office with O.J. Biollo as the postmaster. The other, Hylo, is said to have been named by A & GW Railway workers after a card game.

The early Italians were primarily Roman Catholic. Before the construction of the Venice church, priests from the Mission would come during the summer to say mass in a railway shack J.D. McArthur’s men left standing. Determined to have their own parish, the Venice church was constructed in 1925 using donations of labour and construction materials from the parishioners. The church is home to the Venice Picnic, which has been held since 1927. Dances were also held in the parish hall with Albert Michetti playing the fiddle. One particularly lively evening, the music played beyond midnight, prompting the priest to come and put an end to the festivities.

 

Traditional Italian cuisine remains popular, such as the Christmas Eve dish bacalai, salted cod with tomatoes and capers. Other traditional dishes include dandelion salad with sausage and polenta (made from cornbread) with spaghetti sauce. Cheese was a main staple for the Italians and Mrs. Joe Michetti had a particularly famous style of grating cheese. As with many other ethnicities, nobody leaves hungry from an Italian home.

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Regional Cultures: Old Believers

 

The Old Believers are a religious group originally from Russia that came to Alberta mainly during the 1970s from Oregon and New Zealand. The community has its roots in three separate groups: the Turchany who lived in Turkey until the late 1960s, the Harbintsi from Harbin, China, and the Sinziantsi from the Sinkiang (Xinjiang) region of China. Funds were pooled together to purchase land in Plamondon for 32 families in 1973. This area is informally known as Berezovka (Березовка, “birch tree”), or the Russian Village.

 

“The rest of the community here in Plamondon, they came here primarily because of farming. Lots of property, lots of land and open spaces, and they thought it wouldbe a good place to continue practicing the tradition of farming and live quietly with no outside influence.”

–Fedosia Alagoz

While they are from a close-knit community, Old Believers do not have a communal society, favouring hard work and the accumulation of wealth. Many work in the trades sector, enjoying the fresh air and working with one’s hands. Traditionally self-sustaining, a good portion of food, clothing, and commodities are made at home.

Religion can be said to define the Old Believers, who belong to an old sect of Russian Orthodoxy. They have been heavily persecuted for their beliefs in Russia after they split from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1666 due to a series of reforms created by Patriarch Nikon of Moscow (who was later stripped of his rank). Important religious symbols worn every day include the poyasok (поясок, “belt”) and a cross worn around the neck to indicate their bond to Christ.

The Old Believers follow the Julian calendar for their holy days. Forty holidays are celebrated, ranging from minor holidays to major ones that require everyone’s attendance at church. There are four periods of Lenten fasting where all animal products are avoided and fasting during certain days of the week as well. A great number of holy days are celebrated, ranging from minor holidays to major ones that require everyone’s attendance at church. There are four periods of Lenten fasting where all animal products are avoided and other days require fasting as well.

Old Believers often prefer to simply be called “Christians”. Their source of Christian law is tradition written in the “Old Books”, старый книги (stari knigi). The people in Plamondon are Bespopovtsy (Безпоповцы, “priestless ones”), priestless Old Believers that believe apostolic succession ended in 1666. In communities without a priest, a nastavnik (наставник, “mentor”) or nastoyatel (настоятель, pastor or church leader) leads religious services. Church Slavonic is the only language used in Berezovka to address God, although Russian is spoken at home and in public. Many speak an older Russian dialect that sounds slightly different to speakers of modern Russian. Some describe it as “the Russian [their] grandparents used to speak”.

The visual appearance of the Old Believers is tied to their religion. Women don’t cut their hair and wear a long surufun (сарафан, “sarafan”), a full dress that fits over a long-sleeved blouse and slip. An apron is fitted over the dress and a poyasok (поясок, “belt”) is tied around the waist. Unmarried women wear their hair in one braid down their back, while married women wear two braids crossed over their head covered with a headscarf called a shashmura (шашмура). Women also do large amounts of sewing and embroidery, necessary for married life. Men do not shave, believing that men must have a beard as Christ did. Men wear a roobushka (рубашка, “shirt”), a tunic with embroidery down the front with a high collar. Men also wear a poyasok around the waist.

 

“We’ve learned to adapt our expectations and our lifestyles. It’s a struggle, it’s hard. It’s a fight to continue reinforcing in our children, in our youth, how important traditions are. They do change and some are being eliminated now because they’re not practical or they’re being replaced by other things.”

–Fedosia Alagoz

Due to the high number of Old Believers that wish their children to learn Russian, children attending Ecole Plamondon School can take Russian as a second language course, although it has been a full immersion program in the past. The school is also accommodating of the many religious holidays the children must observe.

 

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Regional Cultures: Métis

The Métis are unique to Canada, born of the union between women of the First Nations and European men during the fur trade. They acted in a variety of roles during the fur trade, such as middlemen between the cultures they were tied to, making them some of the most valuable employees and allies for the trading companies. The Cree name for the Métis is “o-tee-paym-soo-wuk”, meaning, “the people who own themselves”. This name encompasses the spirit of Métis independence.

Lac La Biche has roots as a Métis community that primarily spoke Nêhiyawêwin (Cree “Y” dialect) rather than French or Michif. Between 1763 and 1821, Métis freemen lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle around the area, often working as farmers, hunters, fishers, trappers, and seasonal labourers for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Alberta is the only province with Métis settlements, which are areas of constitutionally-protected land designated for the Métis. Two of these settlements are in our region—Buffalo Lake and Kikino, both of which received designation as an official settlement in 1938. Kikino received its name from the people living there; Kikino means “Our Home” in Cree. Although land was set aside at Buffalo Lake in 1938 under the name of Caslan, it was not populated until 1951 due to lack of access. People moved there from Kikino, North Buck Lake, the Lac La Biche Mission area, and other  Métis settlements. By the 1960s, only eight of the original twelve settlements remained.

Although the settlements were legally created in the 1900s, many local Métis families have been present in the region since the 1700s. Many came as free traders, not under contract with one specific fur company.

The first documented appearances of the Desjarlais family begin with Joseph Desjarlais (b. 1745) and his wife, Okimaskwew. Two of their children, Joseph Desjarlais Jr. and Baptiste “Nishecabo” Desjarlais, was born at Lac La Biche in 1796 and 1787 respectively. He continued to live in the area, marrying Josephte Cardinal in 1844.

Joseph Soldat Cardinal (b. 1766), also known as Matchi-Pa-Koos, and Louise Frobisher were in the region several times before permanently settling in the 1820s. Later in life, he asked the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to set up a mission in the region for the several hundred Métis and Cree living there. In 1844, he guided missionary Jean-Baptiste Thibeault to Lac La Biche to find a suitable location. Notre Dame des Victoires was founded in 1853.

Joseph Ladouceur (b. 1777) came from Quebec and married Josephte Cardinal. Their children eventually moved to the Plamondon area to trap and farm. One of their sons, Joseph Ladouceur Jr., became an independent trader. Josephte Cardinal later married Joseph Desjarlais Jr.

 

“Culture entails all your ancestral beings, whatever they had going for them. You can try to relate the stories down and on and on.”

—Millie Lansing

Métis culture is largely shaped by their dual heritage, with a blend of Aboriginal and European influences shown in traditions, language, and art. For example, the official language of the Métis, Michif, is a mixture of Nêhiyawêwin (Cree “Y” dialect) and French. However, most in the Lac La Biche region spoke Nêhiyawêwin.

The Métis flag shows a white infinity symbol on a solid coloured background. Historically, the red flags represented working with the Hudson’s Bay Company and blue with the North West Company.  The flag was a gift in 1814 from Alexander Macdonnell of the North West Company and was used in 1816 by Métis resistance fighters during the Battle of Seven Oaks. The infinity symbol has several meanings, including the perpetuity of the Métis people and the union of Aboriginal and European cultures. Today, the blue flag is used by the Métis National Council and the red flag by the Métis Nation of Alberta.

Introduced by Scottish and French fur traders, the fiddle is the national instrument of the Métis. Fiddling was accompanied with guitars by 1940s, but was historically accompanied with stomping and tapping. Fiddles were expensive, so many Métis handcrafted their own instruments. Tunes were learned by ear. Some famous tunes are Red River Jig, Duck Dance, Drops of Brandy, St. Anne’s Reel, Whiskey Before Breakfast, and Maple Sugar. Where there are fiddlers, there are dancers as well. Jigging is influenced by First Nations pow wow steps as well as French, Scottish, and Irish steps. There are two parts to jigging—basic step dancing and fancy jigging steps. There is also a constant competition on who can outdo the other between fiddler and jigger. Jiggers have to match the tempo of the fiddler, with the fiddler increasing his speed throughout the dance. Our region has been home to the Silhouettes Square Dancing Club and the Kikino Northern Lights Dancers.

 

 

The Métis are famous for their intricate, usually floral beadwork. The Métis are thought to have introduced beadworking to several First Nations groups. Beadwork is present on many things, such as jackets and bags. Examples of beadwork can be found everywhere. Even Métis “fire bags” ( also called “octopus” bags), which were used to carry flint, ammunition, tobacco, and pipes, were richly decorated with beads.

 

“My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.”

—Louis Riel

The iconic Métis sashes, called ceinture fléchée or Assomption sashes, were historically used by voyageurs travelling through Canada and made in Assomption, Quebec. There were several uses for these sashes—washcloths, tumplines, rope, scarves, tourniquets, bridles, and sewing thread among others. Sashes were tightly wrapped around voyageurs’ waists to provide back support and prevent hernias, one of the leading causes of death among voyageurs. The colours and meanings of the threads used to make sashes are slightly varied, but there are two sets of generally accepted meanings.

  • In the first, blue, white, and blue refer to the colours of the Métis flags, black is for the period of Métis suppression after 1870, and green and gold represent fertility, growth, and prosperity.
  • In the second, blue represents the strength of the Métis spirit, red represents blood shed fighting for Métis rights, white represents the connection to the Creator, black is for the period of Métis suppression after 1870, yellow represents prosperity, and green represents fertility.
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Regional Cultures: Lebanese

Lac La Biche is the site of one of the first permanent Lebanese settlements in Alberta and has the highest percentage of Lebanese people per capita (14%) in the province. Most of the Lebanese community today have roots in either Lala or Kherbet Rouha, both located in the Beqaa Valley.

Jim and Anne Tarrabain

The first Lebanese immigrants in Alberta, Ali Abouchadi (Alexander Hamilton) and his uncle Sine Abouchadi, came to Canada in 1905 intending to work the gold rush. Unfortunately, they arrived too late. By 1906, they were peddling goods between Edmonton and Lac La Biche; eventually, Sine opened a general store in Lac La Biche, which his nephew took over in 1913. By the late 1920s, Alex Hamilton was one of the biggest businessmen in town. Many other arrived in Lac La Biche around the same time, such as Mohamed Abuali Gotmi (Frank Coutney), who came to Lac La Biche in 1911. Initially, he worked for Alex Hamilton, but later started an independent fur trading business. He learned English, Nêhiyawêwin (Cree), Dene, Ukrainian, Swedish, and French.

The largest wave of Lebanese immigration took place in the 1940-1950s, and many worked in mink ranching. For exmaple, Jim Tarrabain and Sine Abougoush’s mink were among those in the community recognized for their high quality across Canada. Anne Tarrabain maintains that working with her husband on their mink ranch in Lac La Biche helped preserve the language, morals, and traditions of her family’s culture.

 

“We talked about tolerance, understanding, and always having those strong morals and values. Honesty, hard-working and trusting… because the community allowed us to practice our religion and culture, we never felt other than comfortable and we belonged.

–Anne Tarrabain

Most Lebanese in our community are Muslims, but they did not have a mosque, or masjid (مسجد‎‎ ), for several decades after their arrival in the area. Without a mosque, families would meet in their homes for prayers and other gatherings. In 1958, construction began on the first mosque, a place to pray, gather, and educate their children. This was the second mosque built in Canada. In the 1960s, an Imam arrived in Lac La Biche to serve the community. The current Al Kareem Mosque was constructed in 1986.

 

 

The largest holiday for Lebanese Muslims is Eid, which follows Ramadan, a month long fast during daylight hours from sunrise to sunset. Eid-al-Fitr is full of celebration and delicious food, such as fatayer, a turnover pastry made with spinach. For dessert, baklava, phyllo pastry layered with nuts and honey, is popular.

Arabic is still a common language spoken among the Lebanese is Lac La Biche, due in part to its necessity for Muslim prayers. Classes have been available at the Al Kareem Mosque and J.A. Williams High School. Poetry in Arabic is usually sung, creating a beautiful harmony of prose and melody.

 

“A lot of cultural habits go hand in hand with the language. Arabic is different than English. English is kind of a left-hemisphere language. Arabic is a right-hemisphere language. You can describe abstracts better than English, where English is very straightforward—it’s an accountant’s, lawyer’s language where everything is specific. It helps me, knowing both languages, because if I can’t get a concept in one language, I switch thinking into the other language, and it’ll come to me. […] In Arabic, you can describe an abstract idea in three or four words, while in English, you may need a while.”

–Zicki Eludin

The traditional dance of Lebanon is called dabke. It originated from repairing mud roofs that were damaged by weather change. To fix the roof, people would hold hands, form a line, and start stomping their feet on the roof. Today, dabke is a much livelier line dance performed at special occasions such as weddings and social gatherings.

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Regional Cultures: French Canadians

The first French Canadians to settle in the area were mainly retired voyageurs and Métis families of both Québécois and French descent. In the mid-1800s, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, French Roman Catholic missionaries, came to the area. In 1853, they founded a mission on the south shore, Notre Dame des Victoires. The Sisters of Charity, or Grey Nuns, arrived in 1862 and provided schooling in French and Cree.

The second wave of French Canadian immigration to our region began in the early 1900s with the arrival of Joseph and Matilda Plamondon’s family from Michigan, U.S.A. They were concerned that their culture and language would not be preserved in the United States. The eldest Plamondon son, Isadore, moved to Lacombe from Michigan. He wrote to his father about the large parcels of land available and the demand for Francophone Catholics to settle the west. As a result, Joseph Plamondon moved the entire family to Alberta, joined by the Duperron, St. John, Belanger, Harpe, and Gauthier families. They arrived where the hamlet of Plamondon, formerly Plamondonville, now rests on July 28, 1908. Many Métis and Cree residents, such as Madeline Taylor, recalled the sudden appearance of the pioneers’ white tents for decades. The Métis helped the new settlers get used to the region, showing them the ways of the land. There were many similarities between their cultures, such as a love of dancing and music.

The new French pioneer children completed their studies at the mission, Notre Dame des Victoires, with the Métis students. Dellamen Plamondon, daughter of Joseph Plamondon, became a schoolteacher at age 12 in a small log house closer to Plamondonville. She had 27 students at the time.

 

“My grandfather […] came up because they were giving land grants and he wanted the free land […]. We can’t figure out why in God’s name he ever came out here, but he did and he brought my grandmother out and I thought it was on the train—it was in a covered wagon!”

—Eiline Thome

From that point, Plamondon expanded quickly. In 1911, the first church was built near the spruce trees where the pioneers first lived. In 1913, the village welcomed more Francophone immigrants from Quebec, the United States, and France. Albert Chevigny opened a general store and organized the first school district in 1913. In 1915, the parish of St. Isadore was established, named in honour of Isadore Plamondon. This church would become a cornerstone of the community.

French Canadian culture treasures language, family, and tradition. The community celebrates together on occasions such as Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, Fête de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste, commemorating the patron saint of French Canadians. Festivities include competitions of hammering nails, sawing logs, and spinning wool. Music is a fundamental pillar of culture for French Canadians, uniting family and friends on joyous occasions. The sounds of violins, guitars, accordions, and singing can often be heard during special events.

 

 

The French Canadian community prides itself on being able to give each generation a valuable heirloom: the gift of language. The French language is retained not only by families speaking French at home, but also at school. Parents can enroll their children in the francophone schools École Beausejour in Plamondon or École Sainte-Catherine in Lac La Biche. Other schools in the area provide French language courses or French immersion.

 

“My grandparents came in the area from Quebec in 1913. […] My father was a farmer and a trapper. My mother was forever cooking […]. I went to an English school where we had one French class each day. And I wouldn’t have kept my French if my father wouldn’t have insisted that we speak French when we were having meals.”

—Emilie Chevigny

French Canadian food is always a treat, from tradition French dishes like beef bourguignon and crêpes, to Québécois dishes like ragoût de boulettes and sucre à la crème. One resident of Plamondon, Emilie Chevigny, recalled that her great grandmother would make mochas by rolling frozen cakes covered with sucre à la crème in crushed nuts. Celebrations at the church for midnight mass around Christmas often included a réveillon (long dinner after midnight) complete with spiced meat pies, or tortière.

Open: 9am-5pm

May-August: Seven Days a Week

September-April: Tuesday to Saturday

Jubilee Hall 9910 101 Ave. Lac La Biche, AB

780-623-1727 info@laclabichemuseum.com

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