Lake Winnipeg

It's 9:00 PM for you.

And I am in a, a fantastic little town called Gimli, which is in Manitoba, um, near Lake Winnipeg, and it is 6:00 AM for me.

[laughs] And Emma, where are you? [laughs]

I am in very sort of central Leicestershire, having just come from the dentist, so apologies in advance if I start slurring, but I am keeping the home fire burning here in the UK.

Our province is bigger than the country.

Our province fits in Lake Winnipeg as well.

Yeah, there you go.

That was a trivia point I wasn't expecting.

Even the lakes of Central Africa cannot compare with our own Great Lakes and the other smaller lakes which belong to the same series.

These additional lakes begin in the far north with Great Bear Lake and continue through Great Slave Lake, Lake Athabasca, and Lake Winnipeg to the Lake of the Woods not far from Lake Superior.

All these lakes lie on the edge of the great Laurentian Shield where the ice, crowding down from the highland to the north and east, was compressed into certain already existent hollows which it widened and deepened and left as vast bowls ready to be filled with lakes.

South and southwest of the Laurentian Highland, the great ice sheet proved beneficial to man.

In view of these clever inventions it seems safe to say that the Eskimo has remained a nomadic savage not because he lacks inventive skill but partly because the climate deadens his energies and still more because it forbids him to practice agriculture.

Southward and inland from the coastal homes of the Eskimo lies the great region of the northern pine forests.

It extends from the interior of Alaska southeastward in such a way as to include most of the Canadian Rockies, the northern plains from Great Bear Lake almost to Lake Winnipeg and most of the great Laurentian Shield around Hudson Bay and in the peninsula of Labrador.

Except among the inhabitants of the narrow Pacific slope and those of the shores of Labrador and the St. Lawrence Valley, a single type of barbarism prevailed among the Indians of all the vast pine forest area.

In publishing these myths of the Sioux, I deem it proper to state that I am of one-fourth Sioux blood.

My maternal grandfather, Captain Duncan Graham, a Scotchman by birth, who had seen service in the British Army, was one of a party of Scotch Highlanders, who in 1811 arrived in the British Northwest by way of York Factory, Hudson Bay, to found what was known as the Selkirk Colony near Lake Winnipeg, now within the province of Manitoba, Canada.

Soon after his arrival at Lake Winnipeg, he proceeded up the Red River of the North and the western fork thereof to its source, and thence down the Minnesota River to Mendota, the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, where he located.

My grandmother, Hazahotawin, was a full-blood of the Mdewakanton band of the Sioux tribe of Indians.

My father, Joseph Boysen, born near Montreal, Canada, was connected with the American Fur Company, with headquarters at Mendota, Minnesota, which point was for many years the chief distributing depot of the American Fur Company, from which the Indian trade conducted by that company on the upper Mississippi was directed.

tide farther to the actual mouth of the river the savage had not gone for fear of enemies but he had been told that it emptied into a great body of salt water upon the shores of which lived

many people we may be sure that la forgornilla read into the words of the savage the meaning which he himself desired and that in reality the indian was describing only the waters which flow into lake winnipeg la vrendrye was all eagerness soon we find him back at quebec stirring by his own enthusiasm the zeal of the marquis de beauharnois the governor of canada and begging for help to pay and equip a hundred men for the great enterprise in the west the governor did what he could but was unable to move the french court to give money the sole help offered was a monopoly of the fur trade in the region to be explored a doubtful gift since it angered all the traders excluded from the monopoly la vrendrye however was able by promising to hand over most of the profits to persuade merchants in montreal to equip him with the necessary men and merchandise there followed a period of high hopes and of heart-breaking failure in seventeen thirty one la dria set out for the west with three sons a nephew a jesuit priest the indian okagak as guide a party numbering in all about fifty he intended to build trading posts as he went westward and to make the last post always a base from which to advance still farther his difficulties read like those of columbus his men not only disliked the hard work which was inevitable but were haunted by superstitious fears of malignant fiends in the unknown land who were ready to punish the invaders of their secrets the route lay across the rough country beyond lake superior there were many long portages over which men must carry the provisions and heavy stores for trade at length the party reached rainy lake and out of rainy lake the waters flowed westward the country seemed delightful fish and game were abundant and it was not hard to secure a rich store of furs on the shore of the lake in a charming meadow surrounded by oak trees la vrendrye built a trading post on waters flowing to the west naming it fort st pierre the voyageurs could now travel westward with the current it is certain that other frenchmen have preceded them in that region but this is the first voyage of discovery of which we have any details escorted by an imposing array of fifty canoes of indians la vrendrye floated down rainy river to the lake of the woods and here on a beautiful peninsula jutting out into the lake he built another post fort st charles it must have seemed imposing to the natives on walls one hundred feet square were four bastions and a watch-tower evidence of the perennial need of alertness and strength in the indian country there were a chapel houses for the commandant and the priest a powder magazine a storehouse and other buildings la verandria cleared some land and planted wheat and was thus the pioneer in the mighty wheat production of the west fish and game were abundant and the outlook was smiling by this time the second winter of la vrendrye's adventurous journeying was near but even the cold of that hard region could not chill his eagerness he himself waited at fort st charles but his eldest son jean baptiste set out to explore still farther we may follow with interest the little group of frenchmen and indian guides as they file on snowshoes along the surface of the frozen river or over the deep snow of the silent forest on ever on to the west they are the first white men of whom we have certain knowledge to press beyond the lake of the woods into that great northwest so full of meaning for the future the going was laborious and the distances seemed long for on their return they reported that they had gone a hundred and fifty leagues though in truth the distance was only a hundred and fifty miles then at last they stood on the shores of a vast body of water ice-bound and forbidding as it lay in the grip of winter it opened out illimitably westward but it was not the western sea for its waters were fresh the shallow waters of lake winnipeg empty not into the western sea but into the atlantic by way of hudson bay its shores then were deserted and desolate and even to this day they are but scantily peopled in that wild land there was no hint of the populous east of which la vrendrye had dreamed at the mouth of the winnipeg river where it enters lake winnipeg la vrendrye built fort maurepas named after the french minister who was in charge of the colonies and who was influential at court the name no doubt expresses some clinging hope which la vrendrye still cherished of obtaining help from the king already he was hard pressed for resources where were the means to come from for this costly work of building forts from time to time he sent eastward canoes laden with furs which after a long and difficult journey reached montreal the traders to whom the furs were consigned sold them and kept the money as their own on account of their outlay la vrendrye in the far interior could not pay his men and would soon be without goods to trade with the indians after having repeatedly begged for help but in vain he made a rapid journey to montreal and implored the governor to aid an enterprise which might change the outlook of the whole world the governor was willing but without the consent of france could not give help by promising the traders who were now partners in his monopoly profits of one hundred per cent on their outlay la vrendrye at last secured what he needed his canoes were laden with goods and soon brawny arms were driving once again the graceful craft westward he had offered a new hostage to fortune by arranging that his fourth son a lad of eighteen should follow him in the next year la vrendrye pressed on eagerly in advance of the heavy-laden canoes grim news met him soon after he reached fort st charles on the lake of the woods his nephew la a born leader of men who was at the most advanced station fort maurepas on lake winnipeg had broken down from exposure anxiety and overwork and had been laid in a lonely grave in the wilderness nearly all paris near work is a record of tragedy and its gloom lies heavy on the career of la vrendrye a little later came another sorrow-laden disaster la vrendrye sent his eldest son jean back to rainy lake to hurry the canoes from montreal which were bringing needed food the party landed on a peninsula at the discharge of rainy lake into rainy river fell into an ambush of sioux indians and were butchered to a man this incident reveals the chief cause of the slow progress in discovery in the great west the temper of the savages was always uncertain there is no sign that la vrendrye wavered in his great hope even when he realized that the winnipeg river was not the river flowing westward which he sought we know now that the northern regions of the american continent east of the rocky mountains are tilted towards the east and the north and that in all its vast spaces there is no great river which flows to the west la vrendrye however ignorant of this dictative nature longed to paddle with the stream towards the west the red river flows from the south

into lake winnipeg at a point near the mouth of the winnipeg river up the red river went la vrendrye

and found a tributary the assenina bowine flowing into it from the west at the point of juncture where has grown up the city of winnipeg he built a tiny fort called fort rouge a name still preserved in a suburb of the modern winnipeg the explorers went southward to the red river and then went westward on the assenina bowine river only to find the waters persistently flowing against them and no definite news of other waters leading to the western sea on the assenat bowine near the site of the present town of portage la prairie in manitoba la vrendrye built for la reine its name is evident still perhaps of hopes for aid through the queen if not through the king of france in seventeen thirty seven la vrendrye made once more the long journey to montreal his fourteen canoes laden with furs were in earnest of the riches of the wonderful west and so pleased his montreal partners that again they fitted him out with adequate supplies the summer of seventeen thirty eight we find him at fort la reine rich for the moment in goods with which to trade keen and competent as a trader and having great influence with the natives all through the west he found indians who went to trade with the english on hudson bay and he constantly

urged them not to take the long journey but to depend upon the french who came into their own country

truth is sometimes stranger than fiction one hundred and seventy years later on february sixteenth nineteen thirteen a school-girl strolling with some companions on a sunday afternoon near the high school in the town of pierre south dakota stumbled upon a projecting corner of this tablet which was in an excellent state of preservation thus we know exactly where the brothers la vrendrye were on april two seventeen forty three when they bade farewell to their indian friends and set out on horseback for fort la spring had turned to summer before the brothers reached their destination on july two seventeen forty three they relieved the anxiety of their waiting father after an absence of fifteen months moving slowly as they did could they have travelled from the distant rockies from the time in january when they turned back it seems doubtful and in spite of the long-cherished belief that the brothers reached the foothills of the rocky mountains it may be that they had not penetrated beyond the barrier which we know as the black hills the chance discovery of a forgotten plate by school children may in truth prove that as late as in seventeen fifty the rocky mountains had not yet been seen by white men and that the first vision of that mighty range was obtained much farther north in canada after seventeen forty three the french seem to have made no further efforts to reach the western sea by way of the missouri if in reality the brothers had not gone beyond the black hills in south dakota then their most important work appears to have been done within what is now canada as discoverers of the saskatchewan the mighty river which carries to far distant hudson bay the waters melted on the eastern slopes of the rocky mountains it was by this route up the saskatchewan that fifty years later was solved the tough and haunting problem of going over the mountains to the pacific ocean la varendria now ascended the saskatchewan for some three hundred miles to the forks where it divides into two great branches he was going deeper into death but he hoped always for help from the king it is pathetic to see to-day on the map of that part of western canada which he and his sons explored a town a lake and a county called dauphin in honor of the heir to the throne of france no doubt la vrendrye had the thought that some day he might plead with the dauphin when he had become king for help in his great task before the year seventeen forty nine had ended la vrendrye who had returned to montreal was in his grave his sons partners in his work expected to be charged with the task to which the king in seventeen forty nine had anew appointed their father of continuing the work of discovery in the west franois for a time ill wrote in seventeen fifty from montreal to la jonquire the governor at quebec that he hoped to take up the plans of his father the governor's reply was that he had appointed another officer le jardeur de st pierre to lead in the search for the western sea franois hurried to quebec the governor met him with a bland face and seemed friendly franois urged that he and his brothers claimed no preeminence and that they were ready to serve under the orders of st pierre the governor was hesitant but at last told franois frankly that the new leader desired no help either from him or from his brothers franois was dismayed ina's brothers were in debt already he had sent on stores and men to the west and the men were likely to starve if not followed by provisions his chief property was in the west in the form of goods which would be plundered without his guardianship to tide over the immediate future he sold the one small piece of land in montreal which he had inherited from his father and threw this slight sop to his urgent creditors st pierre strong in his right of monopoly insisted that the brothers should not even return to the west franois urged that to go was a matter of life and death in some way he secured leave to set out with one laden canoe when st pierre found that franois had gone he claimed damages for the intrusion on his monopoly and secured an order to pursue franois and bring him back he caught him at michilimackinac the meeting between the two men at that place involved explanations face to face with an injured man st pierre admitted that he had been in the wrong paid to franois many compliments and regretted that he had not joined hands with the brothers the mischief done was however irreparable franois crippled by opposition could not carry on his trade with success and in the end he returned to montreal a ruined man overwhelmed with debt he wrote to the french court a noble appeal for relief i remain without friends and without patrimony a simple ensign of the second grade my older brother has only the same rank as myself my younger brother is only a junior cadet this is the result of all that my father my brothers and myself have done there are in the hands of your lordship resources of compensation and of consolation i venture to appeal to you for relief to find ourselves excluded from the west would mean to be cruelly robbed of our heritage to realize for ourselves all that is bitter and to see others secure all that is sweet the appeal fell on deaf ears the brothers sank into obscurity during montcalm's campaigns from seventeen fifty six to seventeen fifty nine pierre and francois seem to have been engaged in military service francois was killed in the siege of quebec in seventeen fifty nine after the final surrender of canada the auguste a ship laden for the most part with refugees returning to france was wrecked on the st lawrence among those on board who perished was pierre de la vrendrye he died amid the howling of the tempest and the cries of drowning men tragedy unrelenting had pursued him to the end le jardeur de st pierre the choice of the marquis de la jonquire to take up the search for the western sea in succession to the elder la vrendrye himself went only as far as fort lorraine it was a subordinate the chevalier de nidaville whom he sent farther west to find the great mountains and if possible the sea the winter of seventeen fifty to fifty one had set in before niveville was ready he started apparently from fort maurepas on snow-shoes his party dragging their supplies on toboggans before they reached pascoya on the saskatchewan the modern le pas they had nearly perished of hunger and were able to save their lives only by catching a few fish through the ice neversville was ill he sent forward ten men by canoe up the saskatchewan they travelled with such rapidity that on may twenty ninth seventeen fifty one they had reached the rockies

they built a good fort

which they named fort la jonquire and stored it with a considerable quantity of provisions if as seems likely the brothers la vrendrye saw only the black hills these ten unknown men were the discoverers of the rocky mountains st pierre braced himself to set out for the distant goal but he was easily discouraged neveville he said was ill the indians were at war among themselves some of them were plotting what st pierre calls treason to the french and their perfidy surpassed anything in his lifelong experience the hostile influence of the english he thought all pervasive obviously these are excuses he did not like the task and he turned back as it was he tells a dramatic story of how indians crowded into fort in a threatening manner and how he saved the fort and himself only by rushing to the magazine with a lighted torch knocking open a barrel of powder and threatening to blow up everything and everybody if the savages did not withdraw at once he was eager to leave the country in seventeen fifty two he handed over the command to st luc de la corne and in august of that year having experienced much wretchedness on his journeys he was safely back in montreal the founding of fort la jonquire was no doubt a great feat where the fort stood we do not know it may have been on the north saskatchewan near edmonton or on the south branch of the river near calgary in any case it was a far-flung outpost of france the english had always been more prosaic than the french the traders on hudson bay worked indeed under a monopoly not less rigorous than that which canada imposed without doubt many an englishman on the bay was haunted by the hope and desire to reach the western sea but the servants of the company knew that to buy and sell at a profit was their chief aim they had been on the whole content to wait for trade to come to them by seventeen forty the indians who made the long journey to the bay by the intricate waters which carried to the sea the flood of the saskatchewan and lake winnipeg were showing to the english articles supplied by the french at points far inland it thus became evident that the french were tapping the traffic in furs near its source and cutting off the stream which had long flowed to hudson bay in june seventeen fifty four anthony hendry a young man in the service of the company left york factory on hudson bay to find out what the french were doing we have a slight but carefully written diary of hendry's journey he does not fail to note that in the summer weather life was made almost intolerable by the mosquitoes travelling by canoe he reached the saskatchewan river and tells how on the twenty second of july he came to a french house it was fort pascoia when henry paddled up to the river bank two frenchmen met him and in a very genteel manner invited him into their house with all courtesy they asked him he says if he had any letter from his master and where and on what design he was going inland his answer was that he had been sent to view the country and that he intended to return to hudson bay in the spring the frenchmen were sorry that their own master who was apparently the well-known canadian leader st luc de la corne the successor of st pierre had gone to montreal with furs and added their regrets that they must detain henry until this leader's return at this henry's indians grunted and said that the french dared not do so next day henry took breakfast and dinner at the fort gave two feet of tobacco at that time it was sold in long coils to his hosts and in return received some moose flesh the confidence of his indian guides that the french would not dare to detain him was justified next day henry paddled on up the river and advanced more than twenty miles camping at night by the largest birch trees i have yet seen henry wished to see the country thoroughly and to come into touch with the natives the best way to do this and to obtain food was to leave the river and go boldly overland he accordingly left his canoes behind and advanced on foot the party was starving on a sunday in july he walked twenty-six miles and says neither bird nor beast to be seen so that we have nothing to eat the next day he traveled twenty-four miles on an empty stomach and then to his delight found a supply of ripe strawberries the size of black currants and the finest i ever eat the next day his indians killed two moose he then met natives who when he asked them to go to hudson bay to trade replied that they could obtain all they needed from the french posts the tact and skill of the french were such that as henry admits reluctantly enough the indians were already strongly attached to them day after day henry journeyed on over the rolling prairie in the warm summer days he came to the south branch of the saskatchewan near the point where now stands the city of saskatoon and crossed the river on the twenty first of august then on to the west eager to take part in the hunting of the buffalo henry is almost certainly the first englishman to see this region in the end he reached the mountains he makes no mention of having seen or heard anything of fort la built three years earlier he had aims different from those of la vrendrye and other french explorers not the western sea but openings for trade was he seeking his great aim was to reach the tribe called later the blackfeet indians who were mighty hunters of the buffalo henry was alive to the impressions of nature the intense heat of august was followed in september by glorious weather with the nights cool and the mosquitoes no longer troublesome the climate was bracing he complains only from time to time of swollen feet and we did not wonder since his daily march occasionally went beyond twenty-five miles sometimes for days he saw no living creature at other times wild life was prolific there were moose in great abundance bears including the dreaded grizzly one of which killed an indian of his company and badly mutilated another