Briefly described below are a few of the Canadian First Nations events of a hundred years ago, 1925.
Gathering at Fort Macleod
The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was formed in 1873 to administer law and order in the Northwest Territories (present day Alberta and Saskatchewan). The North-West Mounted Police built Fort Macleod in southern Alberta in 1875 to offset American incursions in the whiskey and fur trade.
Shown above is a model of the original fort exhibited in The Fort—Museum of the North West Mounted Police in Fort Macleod, Alberta.
In 1925, some 3,000 Indians gathered in Fort Macleod for a powwow, rodeo and political meeting organized by Mike Mountain Horse. An encampment of 196 tipis was set up under the direction of Joseph Mountain Horse. The rodeo events were managed by Tom Three Persons.
Representatives from the Pikuni, Kainai, Siksika, Cree, Sarcee, and Kootenai First Nations attended the political meeting. Also present was Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance (Lumbee pretending to be Blackfoot).
No federal officials attended the political meeting. The principal speaker was Weasel Calf, a Blackfoot leader who had signed the 1877 treaty. He said:
“We as Indians have kept our part of the treaty, but the Government at times have failed to keep theirs.”
In an article in Alberta History, Yale Belanger reports:
“The problems brought out at the conference were considered serious, but with no federal officials present, they fell on deaf ears.”
Buffalo
The buffalo or bison is the largest land mammal in North America and was the most important animal for the Plains Indians. Anthropologist Raymond J. DeMallie, in his introduction to the Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 13, Part 1: Plains, writes:
“All definitions of Plains culture begin with the dependence on the buffalo for subsistence and the integration of the buffalo into all aspects of life: the hides for making clothing, shelter, and containers; the bones and horns for tools; hair for ropes; dried dung for fuel; and the spirit of the animal as an important part of religious life.”
In their chapter in Archaeology on the Edge: New Perspectives from the Northern Plains, J. Rod Vickers and Trevor Peck put it this way:
“There can be no doubt that the bison was the primary, life-sustaining, resource of the Plains Indian and a seasonal round that did not successfully ensure access to the herds was not possible on the Northwestern Plains.”
In North America there are two species of bison: the Plains Bison and the Wood Bison. In their chapter in Buffalo, C. Gates, T. Chowns, and H. Reynolds report:
“The historic range of the wood bison was reported to have been centered in the north central section of the Interior Plains Physiographic Region of Canada. This region includes northern Alberta, southwestern Northwest Territories (NWT), northeastern British Columbia, and northwestern Saskatchewan.”
The only remaining Wood Bison are found in Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta, Canada.
By 1925, Plains Bison were beginning to be transferred from the Wainwright herd to Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta, which had been established in 1909 with Plains Bison from the Pablo herd on the Flathead Reservation in Montana.
Over the next three years, 6,673 Plains Bison were transferred and released into the range occupied by Wood Bison. The transferred animals brought with them both bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis. In addition, there was some interbreeding between the two species.
Totem Poles
Totem poles are the iconic symbol of the Northwest Coast First Nations. Museum curator Audrey Hawthorn, in her book Kwakiutl Art, writes:
“It is an art form unique to the region, characterized by its tall, columnar form bearing images of humans, birds, and other animals of the sea and forest.”
She also says:
“The totem pole is a precise art form embodying a statement of beliefs about important social realities—descent, inheritance, power, privilege, and social worth—of the people who inhabited the Northwest Coast before the advent of European explorers and settlers.”
Totem poles are a visual record of one’s ancestors which show the social position and antiquity of the family. Museum curator Audrey Hawthorn writes:
“It is not possible for an outsider who is ignorant of the ceremonial context to ‘read’ the pole as if it were a glyphic or pictographic presentation of myth or history.”
Noting that the totem poles are erected in commemoration of certain events, Christian Feest, in his book Native Arts of North America, explains:
“Thus, they were not themselves narrative in character but symbolic of rights validated by narratives.”
The homeland of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) First Nation is centered on Vancouver Island and the name Kwakwka’wakw probably means “beach at the north side of the river”, referring to the Nimkish River in northern Vancouver Island.
In British Columbia, two Kwakwaka’wakw totem poles were relocated to Vancouver’s Victoria Park by the Vancouver Art, Historical and Scientific Association. Art professor Ronald Hawker, in an article in American Indian Art, writes:
“This relocation seemed to reinforce a growing sense of the displacement of Native culture.”
More Canadian histories
Indians 101: The North-West Mounted Police
Indians 101: Canadian Indians 250 years ago, 1774
Indians 101: Canadian First Nations 200 years ago, 1824
Indians 101: The Canadian fur trade 200 years ago, 1821
Indians 301: Canadian First Nations and Jacques Cartier, 1534-1542
Indians 101: Canadian First Nations 150 years ago, 1873
Indians 101: Outlawing the potlatch in Canada
Indians 101: The Northwest Coast Potlatch 100 years ago, 1921
