Cultures

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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: 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: 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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