The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2004, Blaðsíða 17

Vol. 58 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
111
creek running into Icelandic River, at a
location he named Os. This was next to the
location where Ramsay, according to
Thompson, lived and had a garden on the
northeast side of the creek. Fridrik ambigu-
ously states, “Ramsay soon began to make
his presence known” while everyone
helped Olafur build his cabin, but some
time passed before an open conflict
occurred. One day, Ramsay three times
pushed the boat away from shore as the
men rowed across from their encampment
to commence work. Olafur finally held his
axe above his head and Ramsay angrily left
the scene. Later that day the settlers saw
two canoes filled with Natives firing their
guns in the air and occasionally at birds.
The Natives then entered the Icelanders’
temporary home without invitation. Later
Ramsay arrived with a translator, who
informed the Icelanders that the Saulteaux
considered the Icelanders’ settlement on
the river’s north shore an infringement of
Saulteaux land rights. They believed the
boundary lay on the south shore. The
Icelanders were uncertain because, as
Fridrik points out, the land had yet to be
surveyed.
Sometime after 17 August, Olafur,
Johannes, and Fridrik decided to head to
the Red River, where they expected to meet
with Sigtryggur Jonasson, who was arriv-
ing with a new group of settlers. They met
Sigtryggur and an unidentified Indian
agent, who assured the Icelanders that the
boundary extended north of the river. (It is
unclear on what basis he made this judge-
ment, given that no survey of the reserve
had yet been completed.) The Icelanders,
however, took his word as definitive.
Fridrik states that “the Indians - once
informed that they had no right to claim
ownership of the land north of the river -
made no further attempts to hinder the
Icelandic settlers from getting established.”
Ramsay appears to have eventually estab-
lished good relations with the Icelanders,
and this is the one aspect of the man’s life
that Icelandic-Canadian histories empha-
size. Ramsay’s character, physical strength
and generosity are celebrated; in Fridrik’s
account his good looks and cleanliness are
contrasted favourably to what the latter
terms the “slovenliness” of other
Aboriginal Peoples.
Fridrik’s account is incomplete. In fact,
Ramsay did not give up his quest to retain
his land. Correspondence amongst various
government representatives indicate that
Ramsay attempted at first to regain his land
and then, when that appeared impossible,
to seek financial restitution. Clearly
Ramsay considered the land his, no matter
what an anonymous Indian agent said to
the contrary. How much did Icelanders
know of Ramsay’s sense of entitlement? It
is difficult to determine, although John
Taylor, the Icelandic agent, was clearly
aware of it, and it seems unlikely this
would be information he would keep to
himself.
Smallpox epidemic
The first intimations of Ramsay’s
anger towards the Icelanders appear in a
letter of 12 April 1877, written by Dr J.S.
Lynch to the Indian Commissioner J.A.N.
Provencher.7 Lieutenant-Governor Morris
had appointed Dr Lynch to tend to the
Saulteaux dying from smallpox contracted
from the most recent Icelandic arrivals.
Kristjanson describes how at first the
Icelanders denied the severity of the epi-
demic that was afflicting their own people.
Only after Sigtryggur Jonasson returned
on 9 November from a trip to the east was
he able to persuade John Taylor to seek
help. Lynch left Winnipeg to begin his
duties on 17 November, a good two
months after the outbreak, and arrived in
Gimli on 20 November, a few hours after
another physician, Dr. Young, arrived
from Lower Fort Garry. Together, the two
men tended the sick and dying before
Lynch left with Joseph Monkman to travel
north to Sandy Bar. There they found the
Saulteaux community deserted. They
burned the buildings to contain the small-
pox; the following year some Icelanders
moved onto the land.
The devastation to the Icelanders was
immense - of about 1,200 people, 102 died,
although many of them had been immu-
nized in Iceland. But the impact on the
Saulteaux proved far worse: