The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2004, Blaðsíða 14

108
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 58 #3
Icelanders could freely inscribe their own
dreams and desires. The native and non-
native presence in the region was silenced,
as were everyday interactions Icelanders
had with the people already in Canada.
Icelandic-Canadians have extensive
written records about themselves. The First
Nations peoples of the Manitoba Interlake
have had far less opportunity to put their
histories into written and published form
or to have their stories heard outside their
own communities.4 Most of John Ramsay’s
band was decimated by the same smallpox
epidemic that killed many Icelanders.
Survivors were absorbed into bands at
Grassy Narrows, Hollow Water and Fisher
River along both shores of Lake Winnipeg.
Their stories so far remain undocumented
in the scholarly literature, although mem-
bers of the Fisher River band have under-
taken an oral history project. Ethno-histo-
rians have been actively reconstructing the
pre- and post-contact periods of what once
was Rupert’s Land by means of oral histo-
ries and detailed archival research (cf.
Brown and Brightman; Carter; McColl;
Titley). Such research provides a general
background for the events discussed in this
paper.
Although their origins are found in
more easterly Ojibwa populations in
northwestern Ontario, the Saulteaux dis-
placed the Cree around Lake Winnipeg by
the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The Cree worked the York boats on the
lake, transporting trade goods for the
Hudson’s Bay Company, and lived with
and sometimes intermarried with the
Saulteaux (Steinbring). The most detailed
ethnographic work on the Saulteaux is by
Hallowed, who called them Northern
Ojibwa (1942; 1955; 1992). Hallowed spent
almost 10 years living with the Berens
River people, who are located on Lake
Winnipeg north of New Iceland. But the
ethnographic record is not complete, in
part because of the Saulteaux’s migratory
movements in the early contact period and
their more remote locations. Coupled with
confusions over European attempts to cat-
egorize groups by origins and language, the
character of the White Mud and Sandy Bar
people is not entirely clear.
According to Steinbring, the Saulteaux
are distinct from another group referred to
as “Northern Ojibwa” in the Handbook of
North American Indians, because the
Saulteaux have traits the Northern Ojibwa
lacked, such as the Midewiwin or Grand
Medicine Society. These traits relate them
to the southern Ojibwa or Chippewa.
According to Winona Stevenson, 17
Saulteaux bands could be found on Lake
Winnipeg. Sometime during the nineteenth
century, the Red River Saulteaux joined
with the Ottawa, who were planting corn
next to Netley Creek, which was to
become the southern boundary of New
Iceland. The Netley Creek Saulteaux left
the St Peters settlement to the south after it
was missionized sometime between the
1830s and 1864. This split the community
into traditional and Christian factions.
Ramsay was possibly a member of the tra-
ditional faction. He was amongst those
who left for Netley Creek. The White
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