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I first heard that memories are passed down through the blood from Sherry Farrell Racette at the conference called Metis in the 21st Century Conference in Saskatoon in 2003. This is not new knowledge of course, but it was the first time I heard it and it really hit home. I think my artwork is a perfect example of how true this is.

The oldest photograph is our family album is "Mrs. Julien L'Hirondelle." That is all that is written on the back of the photograph. In our geneological records, the only Julien L'Hirondelle listed was born in 1855 to Pierre "Marteau" Alexis L'Hirondelle (b. 1820) and Josephte Amyot ("Gladu-Sauteuse") who married in 1847. Mr. Julien L'Hirondelle is shown to have married a "Letendre" but no first name is included. Unfortunately, no one is left to tell us who the rest of the people pictured are. Nevertheless, it is a photograph that has captured my imagination as I can see the family resemblence from these people in the faces of my own immediate family and in myself.

Our family is very fortunate to have a detailed family tree. My dad, Tony, got the charts from Jack Bellerose, a mentor of his in the late 60’s or early 70’s.  Mr. Bellerose aquired them from the "Indian Health Services". On the charts, the Health Department, who commissioned them in the 40’s because it was doing research on a rare blood type from France, wrote:

“Rough Copy of paper presented at the Fifth International Congress of Blood Transfer of Hematology, Paris, Sept. 1954:  The Descendants and Contemporaries of Louis L’Iroquois; Consanguinity and Two Rare Matings, -D-/-D- x Cde/-D- and Cde/-D- x cDe/-D-.”1

A paper that accompanies the geneological charts quotes Pere de Smet’s records of 1846: “On the shores of Jasper, we met an old Iroquois, Louis Kwarakwante - ‘the travelling sun’ (le soleil voyageur), accompanied by his family composed of 36 persons.....”

These very large charts that were produced go back to 1750. They chart the decendants of four or five men and their wives. Of relevance to our family tree are Louis Kwarakwante and Ignace Kwarakwante (two brothers), Ignace Wanyante - all where Mohawk from Kahnawake - and Joseph Belcourt. On the chart the following was written:

Apparently, Joseph Belcourt headed back east, as most voyaguers did, and started up a second family near Penetanguishine (Georgian Bay in Ontario) - when he went west again, another child would be born to his first wife and when he came east...well, they alternated. 

So although I don't identify as Mohawk, Montagnais or French, I acknowledge these ancestors in my lineage.

Our own more immediate family traces its recent history from the Metis community of Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta. Lac Ste. Anne was originally a gathering place for Metis and Cree families during the summer buffalo hunt. In the fall they would leave to go to their winter camps. The lake was originally named Manito Sakahigan (Spirit Lake).

In 1841 a Métis named Pich travelled to St. Boniface to ask that a priest be sent to live among them. Bishop Provencher sent Father Jean-Baptiste Thibault, who spoke Cree to the area. Of historical note, Gabriel Dumont (probaby Sr.) guided the priest there.

By 1844, a mission was set up and a shack built to house Fr. Thibault and a young priest named Joseph Bourassa. Fr. Thibault, not understanding the meaning of the original name for the lake, thinking it meant "devil lake", he 'blessed' the already holy lake and renamed it Lac Ste. Anne. This was the first permanent Catholic mission west of Winnipeg.

Mission Life dominated the life of the people in and around Lac Ste. Anne and became part of the culture for the Metis and First Nations people living there.

Today Lac Ste. Anne is mostly known for its yearly pilgrimages. Each year in July up to 10,000 First Nations, Metis, and non-Native people from as far north as the NWT gather for mass and come to the healing waters of the lake.

My grandfather, Emile Belcourt, was born and raised in Lac Ste. Anne to his parents Jean Baptiste Belcourt and Marie Rose Laroque. Mary Rose came to Alberta from Manitoba originally.

My grandmother, Matilda Belcourt (née L'Hirondelle) was raised in Lac Ste. Anne by her grandmother Sarah Tourangeau. My grandmother was only about 5'4" so you can see the height of their doorway and the condition of the homes, which was the norm for Metis families in this era (below photo).

Raising a family in those days in Lac Ste. Anne was very difficult. Metis people suffered from severe discrimination and racism. A good paying job was difficult to find.

In a letter she wrote in 1989, my grandmother recalled, "after we were married we lived with grandma and grandpa until we had the little house up the hill...Dad and I barely survived. He tried to get the old farm going, trapped in winter, fished, and done odd jobs. I tell you it was hard. We were so poor at one point if it wasn't for Bill Solberg giving us fat to render for fat for our bread we wouldn't have had anything."

The way I was raised was very different from the way my dad and grandparents grew up in Lac Ste. Anne. Times had changed and I think the worst in our history was over. My childhood was dominated by Metis politics - so although I was raised in Ottawa - Metis history issues and people have always been a big part of my life. And despite the fact that my brother, sister and I didn't grow up in a "Metis" community, the memories of our ancestors still inform our lives today in many unspoken ways.

Sources

1. The paper acknowledges “Indian Health Services” and was prepared by D. I. Buchanan, M.B., Ch.B., D. P. H. (Edmonton) and J. McIntyre, M.B.E., R.T. (Toronto) of the Canadian Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service.

The list of references includes: