The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2004, Síða 24

118
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 58 #3
sumably had some value. But Fridrik
Sveinsson makes no mention of payment
being made to Ramsay or any other native
for a house. As well, Dr Lynch tended the
Saulteaux at Icelandic River during the
smallpox epidemic. He would know if
Ramsay’s house existed. Dr Lynch con-
cluded his letter with the statement, “I can
vouch for the truth of much of his state-
ment, and believe it to be wholly as stated,
in every particular.”19 This suggests Lynch
did not see anything to contradict
Ramsay’s version although the statement
does contain the hedge “much of.” Taylor’s
assurances that the Icelanders had good
feelings towards the Saulteaux is consistent
with Taylor’s at-times obsequious style
when communicating with the govern-
ment, and I interpret it as a rhetorical
device intended to shift blame for any con-
flicts onto the Saulteaux.
That aboriginal-built houses existed
somewhere at or near the Icelandic River
settlement is confirmed by a letter written
to his father by Bjorn Andresson on 6
March 1877, telling of his initial months at
Icelandic River: “Along with several others
I stayed in one of the Indian houses until a
month before Christmas when I moved
into the house Larus and I built on his
lot...” (Gerrard 33). A writer for the news-
paper Framfari (in Joakimsson 30) refers to
four or five Native huts (kofar) on the west
bank of Icelandic River in which Icelanders
lived during the winter of 1876-77. The
poet Guttormor Guttormsson, who often
expressed his great admiration for Ramsay
and was photographed in 1935 beside
Betsey’s grave, states that Ramsay had a
house on the south side of the river and a
tent on the north side (Ogmundardottir).
Magnus Stefansson reports tents and hous-
es (tjold og hus) at Sandy Bar, and when
Jon Bjornsson took land near Sandy Bar in
1876 he lived the first 10 months, along
with eight others, in a Native-built log
cabin measuring 10 feet by 12 feet
(Joakimsson 81). There are references to
the Saulteaux living in tents and log cabins
(bjalkakofar) in several other Icelandic
sources. The only further reference I have
found alluding to Aboriginal cultivation
concerns Stefan Eyjolfsson, who in 1877
planted a successful crop of wheat on what
is described as an “old Indian garden”
(garnlan Indianagard) at Icelandic River
(ibid.: 51). The existence of John Ramsay’s
house, however, is still a matter of dispute
for some people who assume the presence
or absence of buildings is relevant to deter-
mining rights to land.
John Taylor had a divine revelation
instructing him to guide the Icelanders in
their search for a block of land to settle in
western Canada.20 Helping the Icelanders
was his calling, and he laboured hard on
their behalf until his death in 1885. It is not
surprising, then, that he would strongly
rebuff Graham’s request that Ramsay’s
land be returned to him or paid for, if
indeed these were Graham’s instructions.
To what degree Taylor represented accu-
rately the views of Icelanders is in need of
further analysis; initial research suggests
that Taylor was not always the best judge
of a situation, as Houser attests. Many
Icelanders were discomfited by his actions,
and some by his religiosity (Ogmundard-
ottir: pers. comm.), or felt called upon to
note that, while his intentions were good,
his organizational abilities were lacking (cf.
Stefan Eyjolfsson in Joakimsson 12).
Without corroborating evidence, how-
ever, we are left with two conflicting
reports - those of Taylor and Ramsay - and
no means to evaluate the accuracy of either.
Further research may turn up more evi-
dence, yet I doubt if it could make the case
any less ambiguous. The circumstances
around Ramsay’s declaration fall into a
grey area in Canada’s history. The legality
of many actions taken during the settle-
ment of the country was dubious at best.
Determining the value of the timber or the
existence of a wooden house or the size of
the potato plot cannot in itself decide the
legal validity of Ramsay’s claim - if that is
one’s goal.
Dreams and the Ambiguities of Memory
My interest lies elsewhere, in under-
standing how history is selectively used to
construct present-day identities, both per-
sonal and collective. This is not cause for
moral judgement: constructing narratives