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Nancy Millar
is known as Canada's Cheerful Tombstone Tourist. She's traveled
all over the country exploring graveyards and talking to people,
the result of which is Once Upon A Tomb, a history of Canada from
the back end, as it were. It's history as she found it in graveyards.
Once
Upon a Tomb - Saskatchewan
by Nancy Millar
Saskatchewan's
graveyards are a lot like Alberta's- for the most part silent
and modest to a fault. Time and time again, I'd find a gravemarker,
hoping for a bit of a story, but no - just names and dates. Just
the facts ma'am. W.R. Motherwell, for example, was an interesting
guy who came from Saskatchewan from Ontario with plans to revolutionize
farming. He figured it should be a profitable and proud occupation,
instead of the opposite. To make his point, he built himself a
grand stone house which is now an historic park.
But what does
his gravemarker at Abernethy say? Nothing, that's what.
Even in Livelong,
they don't write interesting stuff on their gravemarkers. I had
never heard of Livelong before I saw a sign pointing to it but
how could I resist? My friend Judy Swan was traveling with me
by this time and couldn't believe I would stop on the basis of
a name alone but I had to know - do people live long in Livelong?
Could I find a story or two? But no, it seems as if people there
live about as long as anywhere else, and they're just as silent.
Judy began to wonder what she had let herself in for.
The one thing
that does make it into graveyards is the North West Rebellion.
It's everywhere. In the northwest are the battle sites - Cut Knife,
Duck Lake, Battleford and Batoche. Maybe it was the storm that
followed us or maybe it was the mosquitoes that put us in a fighting
mood, but the battle sites were captivating. People pay tons of
money to go overseas to see Vimy Ridge and Dieppe and other battle
sites, but they should also see our own. We fought a civil war
on those sites and we ought to know about it because, as it happens,
we haven't finished yet.
Batoche is
the best. It tells its story without even trying. Everything is
there still- the white clapboard church where Louis Riel kept
some of his prisoners, the bumps and gullies where Metis soldiers
and government forces advanced and retreated, the clumps of bush
that hid them, the banks of the South Saskatchewan River where
Gabriel Dumont watched the steamer Northcote bringing guns and
ammunition to government forces, and finally, the cemetery itself.
The cemetery was there in 1885. The final battle raged around
and over it. And when the guns won, as guns have a habit of doing,
Riel and Dumont and the Metis cause were defeated.
This was Canada's
only all-Canadian war. This was not for a change, the British
fighting the French, or the Irish fighting the British, or the
British fighting the Americans, the fact they fought on Canadian
soil being almost incidental. This was us fighting us. And there
was an "us" by this time. We had become the Dominion
of Canada on July 1, 1867, but somehow the powers-that-be hadn't
given much thought to the people who had been here all along.
If there is
a hero in this most confusing series of battles, that hero has
to be Gabriel Dumont. Louis Riel had his crazy moments, so did
the Canadian government, but Dumont held to one indisputable fact-
the Metis were not being treated fairly, what's more they were
starving. Why couldn't the government see that?
Dumont has
the biggest individual gravemarker in the Batoche cemetery: a
great slab of rock on the river bank marking the spot where, the
story goes, he's buried standing up, the better to see the enemy
coming from the river side. It's a great story- tourists love
it- but even if he's not buried standing up (he's not), it's somehow
right that he should be close to the river. The river remains.
It's one thing that hasn't changed.
His plaque
reads, in part:
GABRIEL DUMONT,
1838-1906
HE COMMANDED
THE METIS FORCES IN 1885 AND DISPLAYED CONSIDERABLE MILITARY ABILITY.
AFTER THE FALL
OF BATOCHE,
HE ESCAPED TO THE U.S.
HE RETURNED YEARS LATER
AND RESUMED THE LIFE OF A HUNTER.
Near Dumont
is a mass grave for other Metis who died at Batoche, marked by
tall wooden crosses contained within a tall wooden picket fence.
No names, just crosses. There are names of those who fell at Batoche,
Fish Creek and Duck Lake. the first on the list is J. Ouellette,
aged 90 years.
We had a 90
year old man fighting that battle. Puts it in a different light,
doesn't it?
Batoche is
a natural historic site now but all the mod cons that go with
such a designation- audio visual presentations, shiny bathrooms,
interpretive panels- are located quite a distance from the cemetery.
It's still able to speak for itself and I think it's the best
graveyard in Canada.
Other graveyards
that tell the story of the 1885 rebellion include the police cemetery
at Fort Battleford where NWMP members who died in the battles
are buried. On a slope just below the fort is another burial site,
this one for eight Metis men who were captured during the battles.
After a trial of sorts during which they had no legal counsel
at all, they were sentenced to hang and their bodies were put
in a common grave on the hillside. For years, they lay there without
a stone or words above them but that much, at least, has been
corrected. There's a stone now with the words in Cree and English.
And finally,
there's Cut Knife Hill. Don't ask me how I got there. Judy and
I drove through rain and slippery roads and finally got stuck
right at the bottom of the famous hill, but it was worth it. Speak
of virtual reality! Here we were on the highest ridge in the area,
lightning and thunder was crackling all about us, the mosquitoes
were out in force as the storm approached, wind tore at our coats,
and it was about as exciting as anything could be. This was Poundmaker's
hill. Here, he and his men held off the government forces- for
a while at least. Here men had fought and died and been buried.
We were standing on history.
Judy was not
as thrilled as I was so I hustled around, got pictures of Poundmaker's
grave, and with my dad's advice ringing in my ears- Straighten
your wheels- I got out of the mud. But it was a peak moment for
me in so many ways.
So, don't
let folks tell you that Saskatchewan is boring. Its tombstones
are fairly silent but it has graveyards that speak volumes.
Nancy
Millar's books about graveyards include Remember Me As You
Pass By, (stories from Alberta graveyards) and Once Upon A
Tomb (stories from Canadian graveyards.) Both are a combination
of history, story and travel. They are available from many
bookstores, see the Links provided, or from Deadwood Distribution,
e-mail nemillar@shaw.ca.
Her other books include Once Upon A Wedding - Canadian history
through actual weddings; The Famous Five: Emily Murphy and
the Case of the Missing Persons, and Once Upon An Outhouse.
Also available from Deadwood.
This story,
with permission from the author, Nancy Millar, was supplied to
us by Canadian Funeral News, a magazine dedicated to the advancement
of funeral service in Canada and is published 12 times per year
by OT Communications. Suite 1025, 101-6th Ave. SW Calgary, AB,
T2P 3P4 Tel: 403-264-3270 Fax: 403-264-3276
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