I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the settlement lately. I have been for several years, but before this year, most of it was primary material – first-hand accounts written by eyewitnesses to the events. Little of that discussed Selkirk’s motives in establishing the RRS as such.

I’ve seen and heard various opinions over the years, too. The most negative ones I’ve brushed off as leaning toward racist or as NWCo. propaganda. I haven’t really thought about it that much, myself, except that I’ve always known in my heart that Selkirk was a hero and a good man. He gave my people a home when their own was taken from them and the alternative offer was starvation or, at the very least, extreme poverty and hardship. And my own family, and that of other descendants I’ve come to know, seem to hold a similar view of him. Witness all the Selkirks, Thomases, Douglases and combinations thereof in the family trees.

Oh, we know he had his faults. But in our books, well, let’s just say that our books wouldn’t have been written if it hadn’t been for Thomas Douglas, the Fifth Earl of Selkirk. He’s a bit of all right as far as most of us are concerned!

But in reading Alexander Ross, J. M. Bumsted, and, most recently, Donald Gunn, I’ve found myself questioning and considering the reasons they say Selkirk had in beginning the Red River Settlement. Time to put some of these speculations out for you to consider with me, I think!

I wrote about Donald Gunn and his egging expedition for the Smithsonian a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned in the first entry that someone had requested a copy of his book History of Manitoba from the Earliest Settlement to 1835. As I didn’t have the book in my own Red River collection, I decided I’d like to obtain a copy.

I couldn’t find a first edition anywhere. I don’t normally purchase print to order books, but I saw that Cornell University Library had scanned and published a facsimile reprint. I hate these types of reprints because the quality of reproduction, especially of any pictures, is generally horrible. But in this case, I really only wanted a copy to read. If I found a first edition after fulfilling my customer’s request, then maybe I’d spring for a copy to replace this one.

The book arrived last week, in paperback format. I’m really very pleased with it. It was scanned from a relatively clean library copy, and the reproduction is excellent. I would highly recommend this edition to anyone who would like a copy for a reasonable price (mine was just under $50 CAD. First editions are going for at least six times that price.). Email me through the Contact Us page if you would like me to find you a copy. I will donate a portion of the purchase price to TLSARL.

At some point I will do a few blog entries on aspects of this work. As Donald was an original settler, much of what he wrote about is an eyewitness accounting of events, so this will be of particular interest to members!

The expedition began to go downhill for Donald Gunn once they arrived at Lake Manitoba. He developed a skin infection that painfully affected his eyes. On the third day, the group turned south, heading home to the RRS. They were near the south shore of Shoal Lake when the heavens opened, and they were forced to set up camp beneath the carts. The rain was intense, and they feared a lightning strike to the carts, caught as they were on the open plains. Everything, including the specimens, was thoroughly soaked.

At daybreak they hitched up and moved out. By 8 o’clock they had reached the big beach ridge, and the sun had begun to peek through the clouds. But the cart-trail was in bad shape, covered in water in many places. Everyone was worn out from the journey and lack of sleep the previous night, and Gunn was very ill – almost blind and in great pain.

They spent another night on the trail; this time sleep came easily. The rain had missed the area covered in the last stage of their journey and the roads were much better. So was Gunn, after a good night’s sleep.

Gunn concludes his report with more information on the inhabitants of the villages located south of Lake Manitoba: Oak Point, the Bay, and a new village under construction at the time.

These peoples are like the fowls of heaven; they “neither sow nor reap,” nor do they even, as far as I have been able to see, plant potatoes. They possess a few cattle and horses; the latter roam through the woods summer and winter, living independent of their masters’ care. The finest of hay grows within a few yards of their houses, yet I have been informed that many of these people are so indolent as to allow their animals to die in the winter from starvation. There are two or three exceptions to the above rule. The question will naturally arise, how do people so bound down by indolence procure food and clothing? …I said above that the lake abounded with fish. As soon as the thaw commences the fish forsake the deep places to which they resorted as the winter advanced, and swarm towards the shore, and run into the many little creeks that pass out of the marshes into the lake. Here they are taken in nets and by angling from the beginning of April until the breaking up of the ice in the latter end of May, and for some time after continue plentiful until the water in the lake becomes warm, when the fish return again to the deep places. In April the ducks and geese return in great numbers, become plentiful, and feed in numerous flocks in all the marshes fringing the lakes for at least a month and a half….

While the fish and wildfowl can be had these people enjoy a continual feast; and when these fail, [musk]rats, which have been taken in great numbers for some years past are considered desirable articles of food; even when plenty reigns in the land the [musk]rat furnishes them not only with food but with the means of providing themselves with clothing. …When all the wild fowl have taken to their breeding places the people have a hard struggle for dear life against hunger, which compels them to search along all the lakes and marshes for eggs, and for every other eatable that falls in their way; and during the month of July and part of August they suffer much privation of food, unless possessed of means to enable them to draw on the settlement for flour; but when the young ducks begin to take to their wings and the fish begin to approach the shore, they are able again to set hunger at defiance for a time. …Another trait of these people of primative habits and manners is, that, although occupying these villages for a long time, they have neither president, council, nor magistrate, and I never heard of any crime of any kind being committed by any of them except once, and that was a case of manslaughter which arose out of undue provocation.

The agricultural life that was so familiar to inhabitants of the RRS was something very foreign to the First Nations/Métis cultures of the area, although some archaeological evidence exists that shows that some did practice a rudimentary form of agriculture, and others took it up with some success after the settlers arrived. Neither Donald Gunn nor Alexander Ross could get their minds around the cultural difference, and both explained it away as a form of laziness or living for the moment – an incapacity to prepare for the time when food was scarce. Agricultural methods need to be learned, and the time for learning them happened to coincide with the times of plenty – when food in the wild was easy to gather, and must be gathered!

One of the great 19th Century pastimes for naturalists was collecting natural history, be it in the form of fossil, plant, insect, animal, bird or anything related! I’ve seen two collections that were quite overwhelming – one in the Manitoba Museum exhibit of hidden treasures from vaults of museums in the province: butterflies of all sizes and colours pinned on panels to make a whole booth in the exhibit! The other was at the Sutherland seat in Golspie, Sutherland, Dunrobin Castle, where there is a strange little museum full of hunting trophies, dusty stuffed birds and Pictish stones….

Western or Long-necked Grebe

Donald Gunn, in his 1867 expedition, was out collecting for the Smithsonian. His main targets seem to have been grebes, more specifically, Podiceps occidentalis, or the Long-necked Grebe, which occurred in Rupert’s Land only on Shoal Lake in one bay and locally on Lake Manitoba at the time. But he also collected pelicans, ducks, gulls, herons and other species of grebes, and their eggs on this and other expeditions to the same area. He recorded his observations on the various specimens collected and their habits in the wild. Once shot, the birds were skinned, and collected eggs were emptied to make their preservation easier.

The expedition spent 10 days at Shoal Lake before moving on to collect more specimens at Pitoo-Winnipeg Manitowaba. In leaving Shoal Lake, he makes the observation that

[a]ll round the lake there is an abundance of wood, with many fine, open plains in every direction, offering great facilities and promising rich rewards to the industry of the husbandman. The only drawbacks in the way of making settlements at this lake is its bitter, disagreeable water.

Donald Gunn makes another acquaintance along the way, this time a Métis, and through his description of the man, we may learn some more about the Métis of the day and their way of life:

On the way we met a young half-breed from the bay going to Grebe bay. He had his “dug-out” on a cart drawn by an ox. He stated that his object in going there was to hunt muskrats and collect as many eggs of all kinds as he could, to take home to eat. As these people neither sow nor reap, they have to subsist on what the seasons afford.

The expedition members rise the next morning and spend the day travelling toward Shoal Lake. On the way they meet the Indian man of the day before and a Métis woman who is returning to Oak Point with a load of pine planks that were likely made in the saw-pits of the Red River Settlement. Gunn remarks that she

can, with wonderful dexterity, avail herself of all the resources of the forest and the lake. Here she made a few snares, chased the rabbits into them, and in a very short space of time had a number of them boiling and roasting, and after hunting, cooking and eating her dinner, was ready to start as soon as any of us.

He describes geographical and geological features he sees along the route, including two ridges that he assumes to be old beaches of Lake Winnipeg, but which may have been far more ancient beaches of Lake Agassiz.

By evening, the party has reached Shoal Lake.

As we passed along the lake, I observed a stone pillar, or cairn, formed of small granite boulders thrown loosely together, and on inquiry of my companions from the lake “What mean ye by these stones?” I was informed, here in 1843, in passing from Red River to Manitowaba to establish a mission among the natives, the Rev. Abraham Cowley and party passed their first Sabbath in the wilderness, and these stones were set up to commemorate the sermon preached on the occasion.

On the third day of the expedition, a First Nations man informs them that the route they plan to take is boggy and completely unsuitable for their ox-carts. When they reach this reputedly quagmirish portion of the way, Gunn discovers that the man was misinforming them, “only showing the Indian jealousy of intruders on their hunting grounds.”

[T]he morning of the 10th [of June, 1867,] …I left home accompanied by two men, two oxen in two carts, carrying a birch-bark canoe and our baggage. We plodded on through “mud and mire,” travelling very slowly a distance of 15 miles on the public road to the Frog plain, where we turned off to the plains, taking the road leading to Shoal lake in a northwest direction. Soon after we entered on the plain we halted to allow our animals to feed and to refresh ourselves. While here we were joined by an Indian, his squaw, and their son. These people had been to the settlement with their spring trade. They had two carts, and were taking back, in exchange for their furs, flour, clothing and ammunition. This Indian resides in a house at Oak Point, and is reputed to be the best hunter in that district, which fact accounts satisfactorily for his comparative wealth. After a short stay we resumed our journey, which was continued until dark, making a distance of six miles from the settlement. We camped on the plain, and, after the usual preliminaries of cooking and supping, laid down to rest under a cloudless sky, and slept soundly until sunrise of a clear day.

- Donald Gunn

Although Donald set out at 10 a.m., and travelled ’til dark during one of the longest days of the year, he didn’t seem to make much progress, assuming that the settlement he refers to is the Red River Settlement (it could be Oak Point…).

There are some contributing factors to his lack of speed that must be considered.

Oxen are not noted for their speed. But travelling by Red River Cart would not be speedy even with the best and fastest horse pulling! The cart was made of wood – perhaps some iron fittings on the wheel and axle, but possibly not. As the wheel turned on the axle, the friction built up heat. It was necessary to stop frequently to grease the wheels/axle with animal fat to keep the wheels turning smoothly and the wear on the wheels/axle to a minimum.

Also, the settlement boundaries were some distance from the actual built up areas of it, so one could travel a fair distance before being out of the settlement boundary.

The comment about the First Nations man’s wealth got me thinking a bit, too. This journey occurred before the treaty and the native people were still mostly nomadic. A man of this race with a house may still have been quite unusual, although Peguis had encouraged his band to settle and take up agriculture to some extent. This man also had not one but two carts (and thus also two oxen), which may have been more widely associated with the Métis and European settlers. Many settlers may have had only one! And those carts were full of valuable merchandise – which would have taken a significant number of pelts to buy!

At the Annual Reunion in September, someone who found out that I was a used book dealer asked me about locating a book by Donald Gunn for them, History of Manitoba. Published in 1880 and long out of print, this is a scarce book and difficult to find in the original edition. A 2009 reprint by Cornell University Library is also in short supply.

According to L.G. Thomas’ article on Gunn in the Dictionary of Canadian Biorgraphy, History of Manitoba should be an interesting read. Donald Gunn was an original settler, and his mainly narrative history of the colony is an eyewitness one, unlike much of Alexander Ross’ history, which relies on second hand information for the settlement’s early years.

But History of Manitoba is not the only literary contribution Gunn made to the Red River omnibus. He and his son went on an egging expedition to Shoal Lake, Manitoba in 1867. It wasn’t Gunn’s first such expedition, but he did write the experience up, and it was published in the Smithsonian Institution’s Annual Report in 1867.

There is some interesting information in the brief article, and, since I am fortunate enough to have a copy, I thought I’d share a few snippets this week. The expedition takes readers away from the Red River Settlement proper, but it does shed light on lifestyles in the region in the late 1860s.