The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2004, Side 21

Vol. 58 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
115
redirected to Fisher River, north of the
Icelandic reserve.15 I have yet to find any
evidence that Provencher followed the
advice he received from Ottawa, and it
would seem from Morris’s advice to
Ramsay that there was an unofficial policy
of putting Ramsay off pursuing his claim.
No further action seems to have
occurred after this, since Ramsay officially
renewed his complaint two years later
(ibid.):
DECLARATION OF
JOHN RAMSAY
St. Peter’s Reserve
9th June 1879
County of Lisgar
The declaration of John Ramsay a
treaty Indian, taking treaty money from
the Government of Canada represents,
1st That I have occupied a certain par-
cel of land on the bank of the White Mud
River in the Territory of Keewatin now
included in the Icelandic Reserve during
the past fifteen years, or five years before
the transfer of this country to the
Dominion of Canada.
2nd That the said parcel of land con-
tains nearly as I am tell (sic) about forty
acres in a square form,
3rd That I have been prevented from
living on and farming the said parcel of
land during the last two years by the
Icelanders,
4th That the Icelanders took any tim-
ber which I had prepared and built two
houses on the lot in which they are now
living - and I make this declaration
Austentiously (sic) believing the same to be
true and in vistue (sic) of the Act inlituted
(sic) as Act for the suppression and volun-
tary and extra Judicial oaths, his
(Sgd.) John X Ramsay
mark
Declared before me at St. Peters
this 9th day of June A.D. 1879
first having read out and
interpreted,
(sigd.) L.S. Vaughan
a Commissioner in B.R.K.
Two days later, in Selkirk, Joseph
Monkman signed a declaration vouching
for the accuracy of Ramsay’s word. He also
reported on another confrontation
between Ramsay and the Icelanders at
Icelandic River.16
Selkirk, 11th June 1879
County of Lisgar
The declaration of Joseph Monkman
since of the Parish of St Peters, Province of
Manitoba 3word illegible]}
1st That I have known the land the
subject of a declaration of John Ramsay a
Treaty Indian during the past fifteen years
2nd That the land contains about forty
acres and lies on the bank of the White
Mud River in Keewatin.
3rd That I acted as interpreter for said
Ramsay during the present spring when he
wished to repossess himself of said land
from the Icelanders.
4th that he was prevented for so doing
by Icelanders who now have two houses
built on said land part of the material of
which houses was the property of said
Ramsay and was unlawfully taken from
him and used by the Icelanders. And I
make this declaration conscientiously
believing the same to be true and in virtue
of the Act for the suppression of voluntary
and extra judicial oaths.
(sgd) Joseph Monkman
Declared before me at Selkirk
the 11th day of June 1879
(sgd) L.S. Vaughan
a Commissioner in BR
Details of a second confrontation in
1879 between Ramsay and the Icelanders at
Icelandic River do not exist in the pub-
lished histories of West Icelanders.
According to Fridrik Sveinsson’s account,
“Ramsay and Olafur (Olafsson) reached an
agreement whereby Ramsay could camp
on the land (at Os) and cultivate his potato
plot as long as he wished, and the two lived
side by side in harmony from that day for-
ward.” That harmonious relationship was
shortlived, however, since Olafur, accom-
panied by Fridrik, left New Iceland for
North Dakota in March 1879 (Gerrard
211). Olafur lost his wife and one foster