Metis Settlement
The Métis community of Red Deer Forks was located below the confluence
of the Red Deer and South Saskatchewan rivers, at a site across the
river from the Bull’s Forehead Hill. It was the first settlement in what
is now the R. M. of Chesterfield, and was probably the site of the first
church and cemetery. (In 1978, a team of local researchers discovered
evidence of both the House Chapel and the Cemetery) It has been
established that the first clergyman at the settlement was Father J.
Lestanc. He was probably succeeded by Father de Corby, who in turn was
followed by Father Hugonard. All were Oblate missionaries.
No one knows when the first Métis families established themselves at
Red Deer Forks, however, there is conclusive evidence in report of the
Palliser expedition to indicate the Métis avoided the area until at
least 1860, having discovered from bitter experience that the First
Nations there were more hostile and unpredictable than those in any
other place. The Métis felt more secure at Red Deer Forks after the area
came more fully under the control of the Plains Cree.
Logically, the earliest time for the establishment of the community
would be after the disastrous smallpox epidemic of 1870 had decimated
the Plains tribes. There is an account of two Métis traders, Frances
Laframboise and James Milligan, who were in the area between 1872 and
1878. It is not clear, however, if the Hamlet of Red Deer Forks existed
at that time.
Family evidence places a Métis community of 100 families in the area
in the early 1870s, when Billie McKay, 16, was sent north from Cypress
Hills with his father’s horse herd. The Edward McKay family moved to
Cypress Hills from the Qu’Appelle area in 1869 or 1870, being settled in
the Fort Walsh area before the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) were
established there.
[Top] [Back] |
|