The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2004, Qupperneq 16

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 58 #3
this, these families would have known
already that the Saulteaux were living at
Icelandic River, since a pamphlet about
Nyja Island distributed to the immigrants
included this information. The report made
to the Canadian government by the
Icelandic Deputation on 5 August 1875
provides evidence that the Icelanders saw
signs of Indian habitation on Icelandic
River and at Sandy Bar (directly east on
Lake Winnipeg). Joseph Monkman, a long-
time friend of John Ramsay and a member
of the St. Peters band, located south at
Netley Creek, had guided the delegation.
The deputation reports that:
We had a good guide with us, who had
been along with the surveyor of the coast.
We had also two other Half-Breeds.... But
we did see with our own eyes good pota-
toes which the Indians had planted in June,
and also what is termed Red River corn,
both growing at Icelander’s river. And at
the south end of the Lake Winnipeg good
wheat, potatoes, oats, peas and barley, as
well as the Red River corn just mentioned
were all cultivated with success. The
Indians catch fish all summer in their nets,
and manage to live on what they catch from
day to day, although in our opinion their
outfit is rather poor, and apparently they
never try anywhere but close to shore.5
It seems likely that the Icelanders had
contact with Ramsay’s people during this
visit. Evidence can be found in an extensive
letter written to Lieutenant-Governor
Morris on 3 August 1875 by the Icelandic
delegation. The letter drew Morris’s atten-
tion to the possibility of conflict over the
northern boundary:
We beg to call attention of your
Excellency to the fact that a number of
Norway-house Indians are at this time
contemplating a settlement on White Mud
river and on the adjoining coasts. This is
the very spot which we have selected as the
nucleus of our settlement, and therefore it
would be of the very greatest advantage
both to these Indians and to ourselves if
some very distinct and clearly defined line
of division could be adopted and enforced.
North of Grindstone Point would be very
suitable for them, and they are for the most
part content to go there.6
The phrase “contemplating a settle-
ment” is curious. By their own account, the
Icelanders had seen the gardens already
established at the White Mud River. It is
possible that they were told more people
from Norway House were intending to
join with the Sandy Bar-White Mud River
band. It certainly would be in the interests
of the Icelanders for the Indians to move
off the good agricultural land of Icelandic
River to make way for Icelandic settlement,
but we should not be too hasty to conclude
that the Icelanders were accurately report-
ing the desires of the natives they encoun-
tered. Raymond Shirritt-Beaumont (pers.
comm.) suggests that the Icelanders were
quoting from stories circulating at the time,
of a Cree exodus south from Norway
House. He refers to an undocumented
claim by Nan Shipley in The James Evans
Story that, as early as the 1840s, some of
the Cree at Norway House were thinking
of moving to Grassy Narrows in order to
take up farming, although an exodus did
not begin until after 1875. Nonetheless, the
events I relate below indicate that the
Saulteaux already established at White
Mud River were angered when three
Icelandic families moved in summer 1876
onto the land they occupied. Clearly, they
were not as willing to relinquish their land
as the delegation reports.
The letter of 3 August clearly indicates
that during their 1875 visit the Icelanders
learned of native interests and attachments
to land the Icelanders sought to claim. The
deputation noted, “The Government at
Ottawa has consented by telegraph to have
this tract of land set apart for the exclusive
settlement of Icelanders. Its boundaries
will be more clearly determined when it has
been surveyed and sub-divided into town-
ships.” It seems someone in the federal
government decided Icelanders could
occupy the land before its status had been
ascertained.
This is background to Fridrik’s
account of the summer of 1876. From
Fridrik’s account we can see that Ramsay
and his companions were likely attempting
to scare the Icelanders away. Olafur Olafs-
son - Fridrik was his foster son - began to
build a cabin on the northwest side of a