The Peacemaker Journey

(Saskatoon-Prince Albert) (Suggested duration: 2 to 5 days, depending on the addition of excursions)

History books have taught us that the Northwest was a land of rebellion, resistance and battles between Saskatoon and Prince Albert. Still, it turns out that the characters who made this amazing region of Saskatchewan famous were more in search of peace and prosperity.

Example # 1. In 1884, Louis Riel talked to several hundred settlers and Metis during a meeting in Prince Albert. He invited them to take peaceful means to address their grievances in Ottawa: "...wouldn't it be better to act together like a single group?... Gentlemen, do not compromise your rights. Protest if you are forced to, but do so within the limits of the law..." he would have said.

Example #2. In 1876, during the ratification of Treaty #6 at Fort Carlton, Poundmaker, son of a Metis woman and a Nakoda shaman was one of the negotiators who asked how the government, through a treaty, could claim their territory: "This is our land. This is not a piece of pemmican to be cut and returned to us in small pieces. It's up to us, and we'll take what we want." Poundmaker's position wasn't that of the majority. The other chiefs eventually signed the treaty. Yet Poundmaker refused to take up arms to support the Metis nation against Middleton's troops in 1885. He has been described as "a peacemaker," although he was imprisoned for treason. In 2017, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to Saskatchewan to exonerate Poundmaker without reservation of any crime or wrongdoing. His people saw in him a spiritual equivalent of the Dalai Lama or Mahatma Gandhi.

Example #3. Onésime Dorval was Saskatchewan's first officially certified teacher. Her work and dedication shaped the establishment of French and English education in the province. In the summer of 1880, she made an arduous journey by wagon from the Red River to Saint-Laurent de Grandin, a Metis settlement north of Saskatoon on the east bank of the South Saskatchewan River. Onésime Dorval spent many hours teaching there. Her kindness, faith and excellent memory earned her the admiration of many. After retiring from teaching in 1921 at the Presentation Sisters in Duck Lake, she continued her community and missionary activities and wrote her memoirs. She died in Rosthern on December 10, 1932, aged 87, and is buried in the St Michael's School cemetery in Duck Lake, a former Indian residential school.

This route features French-speaking communities: Saint-Denis, Vonda, Domrémy, Saint-Louis St-Isidore de Bellevue, Prud'homme, St-Brieux and Wakaw, not to mention the Fort Carlton Provincial Historic Site and the Batoche National Historic Site, in the heart of Saskatchewan's Metis homeland.

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