National Aboriginal Day!

National Aboriginal Day
By Laura Love

Today marks the 20^th anniversary of National Aboriginal Day in Canada. This day was first established in 1996 by Romeo LeBlanc, the Governor General at the time. After a national meeting was organized between The Sacred Assembly of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal spiritual leaders in 1995, it was agreed and encouraged that the federal government declare a ‘National First Peoples Day’ on or around the Summer Solstice as a day of unity, celebration, and to acknowledge the contributions of Aboriginal Peoples to Canadian society. This is also a day of reflection, to not only recognize and celebrate the bountiful gifts given to Canadian heritage by the Metis, Inuit and First Nations, but to also consider the darker side of this shared history.

There is a view that the residential school system is something of the past, an event that has little to no prevalence to today. There were over 150,000 children that went through these schools, 139 of these schools were federally funded across Canada and in Alberta alone there were 25 schools, the last of which closed in 1975. The total number of schools in Canada does not include the additional church run facilities.

Historica Canada has released the newest addition to their one minute history extracts of Canadian history. Most often told from the perspective of the settler, this year Heritage Minutes, instead of using an actor, has included a real live person. This is not a story from past eras, nor a portrayal of a historical figure, it is of a memory of a person that is still living, and of an event that is not so far back into our history that we need an actor to portray it. This acknowledgment of the relevance of residential schools and the impact it has on our contemporary society, can help continue the healing process. 

As a part of this healing process, the museum, in partnership with The Sagitawa Friendship Society, welcome everyone to explore an artistic interpretation of Canadian history by Ha-yalth-kingemecalled, ‘Witness Blanket.’ This exhibit will run from July 1^st to the 27^th of August and as requested by the artist admission is free.

Attached below is the website of Historica Canada where you can find their new video:https://www.historicacanada.ca/

First Nations Artifacts

With the arrival of Aboriginal Day on the 21^st of June, the Museum would like to shine a spotlight on the variety of early First Nations tools and artifacts that have been found in the Peace River area.

       The First Nations peoples did not work metal. Instead, they used rocks that they found already present in their natural environment to craft durable tools. Some examples include spear tips and arrowheads for hunting game, as well as scrapers for preparing hides to be used in clothing or the building of shelters.

White chert bifacial lanceolate

Banded grey chert lanceolate

        The rocks chosen for tool-making were not picked at random from the ground. The First Nations people would painstakingly gather special stones called chert (flint), quartzite and obsidian. These rocks do not contain planes of weakness in their crystal structure, so instead of fracturing randomly when struck, their shape could be carefully controlled. This is, of course, provided the striker possessed sufficient patience and skill. Chert and quartzite were the most common materials used, and come in a wide range of colours and hues. Considerably rarer, obsidian is a volcanic glass, and one of the sharpest known materials. It is usually quite dark and highly reflective. The obsidian scraper pictured below was likely traded from a distant region, as volcanism and its products are not typically found in the Peace River area.

Quartzite bifacial scraper

Black obsidian scraper

           More First Nations artifacts can be found in the Archeology Case in the Peace River Gallery.

Aboriginal Jadeite Adze

         As we approach the date of the Annual Aboriginal Gathering and Pow Wow, the recent donation of a jadeite adze found south of Grimshaw area by Bill Veidt comes at an opportune time.

Jadeite Adze (on loan from Bill Veidt)

         Jadeite is a variety of jade, a strong and hardy material characterized by its distinctive green hue. Its strength lends itself well to tool-making, though the material itself is quite rare. This adze was therefore most likely an object of great importance and prestige. The crafting of such an device was a labour-intensive process, with countless hours of sawing, cutting, grinding and polishing. The product of these efforts is a long-lasting and high-quality tool that is a testament to the skill and ingenuity of the First Nations craftsmen. The age of this adze could range from hundreds to thousands of years old. As you can see, it has withstood the test of time remarkably!

Bill Veidt

        While the majority of jadeite artifacts recovered in Alberta were found in the Peace River region, most jadeite tools are associated with the west coast of BC. This is because the First Nations peoples of BC had increased access to quarries and had developed larger-scale stoneworking and woodcutting practices relative to the more mobile people of the plains. The geology of BC is also such that jadeite, a metamorphic rock, forms much more commonly in mountainous regions raised by plate subduction. It is believed that this stone in particular came from the Fraser River Valley of BC. So, this tool was likely traded from afar and had quite a journey before arriving in the Peace Country.

Example of a completed adze

         Even more ancient tools can be found in the Archaeology Case in the Peace River Gallery of the museum, including chert and even black obsidian artifacts.

Family and great communities!

Family Day in Alberta is weekend filled with cultural, historical and recreational opportunities. The Museum offers something to add to this compliment of activities.


SS DA Thomas Steamboat was built in the
West Peace River Shipyards in 1916

The Historic Places Committee is holding a second Jane Jacobs Walk on February 16th, 2015 in Lower West Peace River.  This area was once a community in its own right, distinct from Peace River Crossing. It boasted banks, stores, blacksmiths and a hotel until the railway bridge was completed in 1918. That precipitated a relocation of its business community to the Crossing where greater traffic developed. Now a residential neighborhood, it is a unique place to live. Our walk will look at the special places found here and talk about the historical profile of this location.
Meet us at the Lower West Peace Playground on 91st Street at 1pm. Be prepared to walk for about 1.5 hours and we urge everyone to dress for the weather.

Beaded moccasin tongues or vamps

Staying with families and the value of creating memories together, we are pleased to host FNMI Coordinator Tanys Oxman on February 21st and 28th, 2015 for Aboriginal Art and the Child. This two part series is open to youth ages 7 to 12 years. They will create modern day wampum belts and par fleche bags while learning the cultural and historical significance associated with each object.  The sessions are free with the price of admission $2  and we ask you to pre-register as only 12 places are available.


For more information about either of these events, please call us at 780-624-4261 or email at lgloor@peaceriver.ca   Our public hours are 10am to 5pm Monday to Saturday.

Thank you to our speakers!

Inspiring Aboriginal Women

Our inspiring speakers panel shared their personal insights and memories as women who have and continue to contribute to their communities as mentors, leaders, mothers and grandmothers with an appreciative audience on the evening of November 20th, 2014. It was also an intimate salutation to the historical women who's artistry and work has been on exhibit these past months in A Sense of the Land and its People: an exhibition featuring the loaned artifacts from Dr. David Welch.

Featured left to right are Dianne Arcand Lavoie, Margaret Cardinal, Dianne Ireland and Tanys Oxman.

It's the last week to see the current exhibit "A Sense of the Land and its People" ...

We've been honoured to feature a personal collection of artifacts for the last year in our main gallery, those of Dr. Dave Welch. He began collecting First Nations artifacts and stone tools when he was 7 years old and it has been a lifetime passion for him ever since.

"A Sense of the Land and its People: A Personal Collection" features Northwest Coast and Plains First Nations artifacts, the majority of which feature the work and artistry of women. As a conclusion to this exhibit, we have invited a panel of women from the local region to speak about the influences their Aboriginal culture and heritage has on their work, community and family lives. Dianne Lavoie, Maxine Elter, Tanys Oxam, Dianne Ireland and Margaret Cardinal are mentors, leaders and artists in  unique ways.

Please join us on Thursday, November 20th, 2014 at 7 pm for the "Inspiring Women" panel discussion. This will also be the last chance to view the objects from Dr. Welch's collection. Check back on our blog next week for information on our upcoming exhibit, "Toy Stories: You've got a playdate with the Peace River Museum"

Artifact of the Week- Clovis Point

This projectile point was found, along with several others, in the Nampa area by early homesteader, Logan Sherris. The point was likely hafted or attached to a short spear called a dart, which was mid-sized: between the length of an arrow and a spear. It is crafted from Peace River Chert which is a high quality stone material with outcrops along the Peace River. The craftsman made the piece by removing small flakes of stone from a core or nucleus using another rock or a softer material such as antler or bone until the desired shape was attained. What is of particular interest is the age of the piece. Considering the shape of the dart point, we can tell that it comes from the Clovis Culture meaning that it is likely around 11,000 years old. Near the base of the point, the craftsman removed a few extra flakes to thin it out towards the middle of the piece. This is known as fluting which may have aided in hafting the point and is the most telling characteristic of a Clovis Point.

Although some argue that the Clovis Culture may be older than 11,000 years, at around 13,200 years, it is the earliest known stone tool culture to have appeared in the Americas. The fact that this early Paleo-Indian artifact was found in the Peace Region suggests that the area may have been inhabited for many thousands of years! Be sure to stop by the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre to see this ancient piece of history and the oldest man-made artifact in our collection!

Clovis Point- 89.35.4

Dr. David Welch speaking at the Museum on Wednesday, June 4th

This Wednesday, June 4, 2014, Dr. David Welch will be joining us in the Museum to speak about his stone and bone tool collection. Since finding his first arrowhead at the age of seven, Dr. Welch has spent a lifetime collecting worked stones and bones.

A large part of Dr. Welch's collection of Plains and Northwest Coast First Nations objects are currently on display in the exhibit "A Sense of the Land and its People: A Personal Collection". This exhibit includes a selection of stone and bone tools, including the first arrowhead Dr. Welch ever found.

For this Wednesday's presentation, Dr. Welch will be bringing in even more of his stone and bone tools. These items will be going on exhibit in July along with those already on display.

Join us tomorrow, June 4th, at 7 pm to hear Dr. Welch's stories and see a large selection of his stone and bone tool collection.

This event is free. All are welcome.

Label R (bottom middle) corresponds to the first arrowhead collected by Dr. Welch. 

 

Artifact of the Week - Bone Flesher

This week's featured artifact is a flesher, donated by Tom Rumball in 1973. This artifact
would have been used to de-flesh animal skins when preparing hides.

As people who utilized and lived with the environment around them, First Nations Peoples fashioned their tools out of bones and rocks.  In this case, a leg bone from a deer was fashioned into a tool used to scrape flesh from hides. The First Nations people would also eat deer meat, tan and use the hide for clothing and shelter, and use deer sinew for sewing. The First Nations people used every part of an animal, wasting nothing.

While bone tools were used for working meat and hide, rocks were fashioned into arrowheads and spear points to hunt animals.

Our featured artifact this week coincides with next week's presentation by Dr. David Welch. Dr. Welch will be speaking about his collection of stone and bone tools and the fascinating stories associated with them.

Dr. Welch will be speaking at the Museum on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 at 7 pm. Everyone is invited to this free presentation.

PRMA 73.540 Bone Flesher. 

Stone tools presentation by Dr. David Welch - June 4th at 7 pm

On Wednesday, June 4, 2014, at 7 pm, Dr. David Welch will be joining us at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre, to talk about his pre-historic stone and bone tools. After a lifetime's worth of collecting, researching and examining stone tools, he is a great source of information and stories.

This presentation complements our current exhibit "A Sense of the Land and its People: A Personal Collection" which showcases a variety of Northwest Coast and Plains First Nations Artifacts from Dr. Welch's collection.

The artifacts in the exhibit are representative of the environments that the Northwest Coast and Plains First Nations lived within and how those environments influenced their food, clothing, lodgings, hunting practices, artistic expression and ceremonies.

Please join us for this free event as we learn more about stone and bone tools, as well as hear Dr. Welch's stories and experiences collecting them.

For more information, please contact the Museum.

Thank you to our speakers!

The Museum hosted three stimulating local speakers in March, who presented on topics relevant to our current exhibit, "A Sense of the Land and its People: A Personal Collection".

Archbishop John Clarke spoke of growing up in Moose Factory, James Bay, Ontario and the 18 years he spent as a clergyman in the diocese of Moosonee. He worked with the community to develop education and training  opportunities for residents in this northern region. He brought cultural objects from these early years and fondly spoke of the people who created them. Some were given as gifts or, like the pair of Inuit dolls, gifted to his father in much earlier times.

Archbishop Clarke shows the audience some of the First Nations artifacts he has from his years in Ontario. 

Lyle Fullerton, of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, began with an historical overview of the buffalo in northern Alberta. He then described the current status of the population in and around Wood Buffalo National Park. His work monitoring the health and the habitat of these herds over the past 22 years makes him a most informative and engaging speaker. He even brought a leg bone from a buffalo recently killed by a wolf to demonstrate the shear size of these animals. Lyle has been asked to return for an update presentation this fall.

Lyle Fullerton speaks about buffalo herds with YL, the Museum's buffalo head, in the background. 

Roger spoke to an appreciative crowd, mainly artists themselves, about how his Cree culture influences the imagery he uses in his paintings. His years of work includes designing the current Northern Lakes College logo, 12 murals in the town of McLennan and works regularly featured in Alberta Native News. You can still see a selection of Roger's paintings at the Museum until April 17th, 2014. He calls the exhibit "My Cree People - the Sacred Circle". These works are for sale.

Roger Noskiye speaking about his art. Photo courtesy of Sharon Krushel. 

The Museum extends a very big thank you to all of our speakers and all those who attended the presentations.

Please stay tuned to our blog for information about our upcoming Speakers Series in May. We are in the process of firming up plans now and will bring that information to you soon!

March Speaker Series - Roger Noskiye speaks this Saturday about his art

Roger Noskiye makes his home on the Whitefish Lake first Nation 459 at Atikameg in northern Alberta. He started drawing and whittling as a child and his interest in art was supported at the Northland Elementary School in Atikameg.  He says he ‘drew his way through middle school’ and carried on with his schooling at Grande Prairie Regional College where he finished a visual arts program and from there transferred to New Mexico where he received a scholarship of $75,000 through his art in 1992. Unfortunately, in those days the Band was unable to help him stay and study further so he returned home and today continues to work with his art and his culture.  The Town of McLennan commissioned Roger to paint 12 murals on town buildings and he created a mural for the Lakeland Eagles Hockey club too.

The Alberta Native News featured Roger’s art on the cover in December, 2011 and included a story about his work and his journey as an artist.

Roger will be at the Museum, Saturday, March 22, 2014 between 2 and 4pm painting and talking about his work and how his culture inspires the images he uses.  He will have some works on exhibit and for sale.

This painting, by Roger Noskiye, is titled "Tea Dance". 

Book Launch with Larry Loyie this Saturday at the Museum

This Saturday, February 8, 2014, from 2 to 4 pm, the Museum is pleased to host Larry Loyie and his partner Constance Brissenden. Larry will be launching his newest book, "The Moon Speaks Cree" which tells the story of a young boy named Lawrence. Throughout the book and throughout the seasons, Lawrence learns many traditional Aboriginal lessons. Our first blog entry about this launch gives a greater view of the book and the author, and can be located here.

Larry and Constance will be bringing copies of all of Larry's books for sale. They are happy to sign copies and answer questions.

The Museum is located at 10302, 99 Street in Peace River. For more information please call the Museum at 780-624-4261.

This event is free. We hope to see everyone there.

Book Launch with author Larry Loyie

The Museum is honoured to host author Larry Loyie for a book launch of his most recent children's book "The Moon Speaks Cree: A Winter Adventure", on February 8, 2014 from 2 - 4 pm.

The Moon Speaks Cree (Theytus, 2013) is a winter adventure, a traditional time of family, learning and imagination, when toboggan dogs were part of everyday life. Based on Larry Loyie's traditional Cree childhood, the story teaches deeper lessons: respect for culture and history, the effect of change on Aboriginal people, and the importance of being good to animals.

Larry Loyie was born in Slave Lake, Alberta. He lived a traditional Cree life until he was nine years old, learning from his elders, many of whom he has written about in his children's books. From the age of nine to 14, Larry Loyie attended St. Bernard Mission residential school in Grouard, Alberta. At 14, he entered the work force, fighting fires, working in an oil camp and a mountain sawmill. At age 55, he returned to school to achieve a lifelong ambition of becoming a writer.

Larry Loyie is an invaluable resource on the history of residential schools in Canada. He is a survivor who has spent many years researching and writing about this hidden chapter in Canadian history. He also visits school classrooms.

Larry Loyie (Cree name: Oskiniko/Young Man) and his partner, writer and editor, Constance Brissenden have worked together since 1993. They created Living Traditions Writers Group to encourage writing within First Nations communities. Visit their website at http://firstnationswriter.com/.

Larry and Constance will bring copies of all their books to the Museum book launch. This is a wonderful opportunity to speak with them and to pick up copies for your family or your classroom.

Author Larry Loyie will join us on Saturday, February 8, 2014 from 2 - 4 pm to launch his new book. 

OTHER TITLES BY LARRY LOYIE        Goodbye Buffalo Bay      
When the Spirits Dance       The Gathering Tree        As Long as the Rivers Flow        Two Plays About Residential School
The Healing, a Memoir for Four Voices        The Wind Cannot Read

Celebrations and Masks!

Ceremonial life of the West Coast Nations is vibrantly on exhibit at the Peace River Museum! Thanks to a generous loan of artifacts from Dr. David Welch, the Museum is featuring, amongst West Coast and Plains First Nations objects, a colourful collection of West Coast masks.

Northwest Coast First Nations artists are renowned for their carvings, especially of totem poles. Totem poles are carved for many reasons. They can represent clans or families or serve mortuary, memorial, shaming or welcoming purposes. Similarly, dances performed with masks can serve specific purposes and have different meanings.

In wintertime, Coastal First Nations villages were visited by supernatural beings or spirits. This was the time of year when villagers would feast, dance, sing and for some, be initiated into secret societies. Dances performed with masks during these times were representative of the supernatural entities that were visiting the village from their caves, forests, waters and skies.

Animal and human figures appear on both carved totems and masks. Many animals, supernatural beings and spirits are carved with human features; similarly, humans are sometimes carved with non-human features. This blending of animal, spiritual and human characteristics is known as anthropomorphism. Features on anthropomorphized carvings can be enlarged, shrunk or distorted in order to fit the distinct shape of the material being carved.

The Portrait Mask is carved to represent a personal experience and here is painted in the principal colours red and black. The Bumble Bee Mask is black, red and yellow. Colours traditionally used on masks were primarily blue, green, black and red from natural pigments. Black was created using lignite, charcoal and graphite. Red came from pulverized ochre or hematite and the blues and green were derived from copper minerals.

The Sense of the Land And Its People : A Private Collection is on exhibit until September 2014.

Bumble bee mask 

Portrait mask 

Artifact of the Week - Woven hat and Child's moccasins

This week’s featured artifacts are a woven hat and moccasins. These artifacts are a part of a larger donation from the Anglican Church of Canada, Diocese of Athabasca. The objects come from St. Peter’s Residential School in Hay River, N.W.T., ca. 1895-98. Some of the other artifacts in this donation include birchbark rogans, a powder horn, dolls clothing made of deer hide, moccasins and a beaded tobacco bag.

The hat is woven of spruce or tamarack roots and decorated with a band of dyed porcupine quills. This hat was created by the Mackenzie River First Nations people in 1898.

The child’s moccasins are made of hide and decorated with fur and beading. They were made by the residents of St. Peter’s Residential School in 1898.

The Museum is featuring a new exhibit filled with Plains and West Coast First Nations objects, all from the personal collection of local Peace River doctor, David Welch. As an addition to all of Dr. Welch's pieces, the Museum has added some of those found in our First Nations collection. All of these wonderful pieces can be found in the Main and Fur Traders galleries at the Museum.  

A New Focus in our Natural History Display !

Over the summer we have been rearranging our natural history display to give both a more comprehensive overview of the regions natural history as well as giving more information about the artifacts. We rearranged our geology display, giving it better lighting and more identification, with an emphasis on the oil industry. Our osteology (bone) display now not only speaks to the bison and other ice age animals, but also several different animals that come from the north Peace Region with an emphasis on comparative craniology and dentition. We also identified more from our palaeontology display, which emphasizes ancient sea life in Alberta.  Finally, we improved our archaeology display, giving visitors the chance to see almost every angle of our stone tools.

Our Natural History display. 

The display features everything from dinosaur bones, to a meteorite, to a partial bison spine, to arrowheads, and even the tooth of a woolly mammoth.  We invite you down to the museum to get up close and personal with our artifacts and to learn from our new display.

The Osteology display case featuring bison bones and other animals. 

16th Annual Aboriginal Gathering and Pow Wow

This weekend (June 11th and 12th) is the 16th Annual Aboriginal Gathering and Pow Wow at the Peace River Ag Grounds (NOTE: new location from previous years). For more information, please see the Aboriginal Interagency Committee website for more schedules, directions, etiquette information and other details.

Award Winning Authors Visit the Peace Country

On Thursday, April 2nd for our final Storytelling evening until the fall, we were honored by a visit from Larry Loyie and Constance Brissenden, authors of a number of First Nations children's books, including "When the Spirits Dance", "As Long as the Rivers Flow" and his most recent book, "Goodbye Buffalo Bay."




An animated Constance shares a story with some young visitors to the Museum.

This was a wonderful way to end our storytelling series with Billy Joe Laboucan until this fall. The Museum would like to thank Billy Joe for his leadership in these events and also Larry and Constance for the stories they brought with them on Thursday.

Aboriginal Pioneers of the Peace - Alex Mackenzie

The "Aboriginal Pioneers of the Peace" is a feature written by Beth Wilkins, Curatorial Assistant and Researcher, in conjunction with the Museum's Treaty 8 Exhibit on display until the end of August. The articles have also been published on the Community Page of the Peace River Record-Gazette.

Alex McKenzie

PRMA 68.130

Alexander McKenzie was born November 1843, near Three Rivers, Quebec, to Alexander Mackenzie, Sr. and Mary Traversy, a Metis woman. It is said he is a descendant of explorer/fur trader Sir Alexander Mackenzie.

He was orphaned when only an infant and thus sent back to his father’s homeland, Scotland, to be nurtured and educated by his parental relatives.

Alex is among the first Peace River settlers, arriving in 1863, coming from Norway House to the Athabasca District on snowshoes. Peace River became his home for more than half a century.
He married Elizabeth (Eliza) Sawan, nee LePretre/LaFleur) at St. luke’s Anglican Church, Fort Vermilion, Sept. 30, 1876. Eliza died June 6, 1917.

Alex retired from the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1888 after 27 years. His successful, adventurous career, laden with hardships and hairsbreadth escapes, was admired even by his opposition for his cleverness and his attention to service. He was extremely popular with the natives, which made trading easier. Farming then became his main endeavour on River Lots 30 and 31 on the Shaftesbury Trail. His family continues to farm on those lots. The Province of Alberta, in 1993, lauded the family with the Alberta Century Farm and Ranch Award for having owned, operated and maintained the 285-acre farm for more than 100 years.

A well-known picture of McKenzie shows him wearing the typical coureur-de-bois outfit, formerly worn by all Hudson’s Bay Company employees and natives in the country – a blue blanket cloth mackinaw with cream blanket cloth cape and red trimmings, a turban cap to match and black pants with trimmings of Indian design.

Alexander McKenzie died Jan. 16, 1919 from the flu.

It was said that his death brought to an end the link between the Peace River Country of that day and the early days when the first of the Hudson’s Bay traders ventured into the unknown North to ply their trade with the natives of the country.



Sources: Peace River Record; Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre files; Peace River Record-Gazette; Caron Riley

Make sure to join us starting next week for Recollections from Jean Cameron Kelly, the second school teacher in Peace River and her journey north in 1913. The first installment was in our inaugural newsletter which is available to all members of the Museum. Information about Museum memberships is available here: http://peacerivermuseum.blogspot.com/2008/08/membership-drive-2008.html