Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to generate a dynamic description of
cultural landscapes that moves current thinking beyond cultural
landscapes as artifacts that are considered to be final products. In
this paper, "cultural landscape" is defined as the physical
expression of the complex and dynamic sets of relationships, processes
and linkages between societies and environments. A society's
environmental perception, values, institutions, technologies and
political interests will result in particular planning and management
goals and objectives for a specific landscape. Indigenous resource
management systems often result in different cultural landscapes than
those of managerial ecology. The process of how an indigenous cultural
landscape is replaced by a cultural landscape of managerial ecology is
documented in this paper. The restoration of indigenous cultural
landscapes will first require recognition of the custodial
responsibility of indigenous peoples for the beings with whom they share
the land. This can then lead to alternative indigenous lands management
institutions and organizations and the restoration of indigenous
landscapes in northwestern Ontario. The developmental context
established by indigenous land management institutions and organizations
could also allow for a flourishing of novel resource management
practices and technologies.
L'objectif de cet article est de fournir une description
dynamique des paysages culturels qui depasse l'idee actuelle
voulant qu'il s'agit d'artefacts consideres comme des
produits finis. Dans cet article, le << paysage >> culturel
est defini comme etant l'expression physique d'un ensemble
complexe et dynamique de relations, processus et liens entre les
societes et les environnements. La perception de son environnement par
une societe, ses valeurs, ses institutions, ses technologies et ses
interets politiques, produiront une planification et des objectifs de
gestion particuliers pour un paysage specifique. Les systemes de gestion
des ressources indigenes produisent souvent des paysages culturels
differents de ceux de l'ecologie de gestion. L'article examine
la facon dont le paysage culturel indigene est remplace par un paysage
culturel associe a une ecologie de gestion. La restauration des paysages
culturels indigenes exige d'abord la garde par les peuples
indigenes des etres avec lesquels ils partagent la terre. Cela pourrait
mener des institutions et organisations indigenes de gestion des terres
et a la restauration des paysages indigenes dans le nord-ouest de
l'Ontario. Le contexte developpemental etabli par les institutions
et organisations indigenes de gestion des terres pourrait aussi
permettre l'epanouissement de nouvelles pratiques et technologies
de gestion des ressources.
Keywords
Indigenous lands management, cultural landscapes, restoration,
Anishinaabe, Northwestern Ontario
Introduction
What are meant by natural resources are game, fur, fish
and their supplementary adjuncts, such as wildberries, rice,
roots, maple sugar &c., which contribute to or entirely
provide the maintenance of a large proportion of the Indian
population, not only directly as food and covering, but
further as articles of commerce (The Annual Report of the
Department of Indian Affairs 1905: xxix).
What makes the study of natural resources and environmental
management so interesting is how it brings together societies,
environments and resources. This can be seen in the quote from the 1905
Department of Indian Affairs Annual Report. The report's author
defines natural resources--in the context of Aboriginal society--as the
things that are drawn upon for food, covering and commerce. He does not,
of course, include minerals, used to make pipes, nor timber, used to
make houses and generate heat--a principle means of survival in a
northern climate. The way in which a person, such as an agent of the
Department of Indian Affairs in 1905, views the linkages between
society, environment and resources is often based upon the cultural
perceptions, values and political interests of the person's
society. Some of the ways in which these linkages have been analyzed and
portrayed by western, scientific societies have been reviewed in
Davidson-Hunt and Berkes (2003). Many found that a useful concept for
probing the complex dynamics of "humans-in-nature" systems is
that of a cultural landscape.
In this paper, "cultural landscape" is defined as the
physical expression of the complex and dynamic sets of relationships,
processes and linkages between societies and environments. Cultural
landscapes are an expression of societies writing their history upon the
land or, as Ingold (2000) has said, the landscape is social history
congealed for a specific place and time. While Ingold (2000) does not
utilize the term cultural landscape, many of his observations regarding
landscape and temporal dynamics are relevant to the concept. Cultural
landscapes have a biogeophysical endowment. The cultural perceptions,
values and political interests of a society will lead to different
technological innovations and possible modifications in the
biogeophysical endowment. Likewise, cultural perceptions, values and
political interests will change how a society perceives things as
resources that can provide for a secure and meaningful life (Butz 1996).
The cultural landscape of one society is not always visible to members
of another society due to differing perceptions, values and political
interests. Perceptually, a cultural landscape only becomes visible as
you move within the landscape under the guidance of people who are
intimately aware of the forms, functions and processes of a specific
landscape (Davidson-Hunt 2003).
The strength of the cultural landscape concept is that it provides
a strong metaphor for the two-way relationship between people and place
for a specific time in history, it corrects the assumption that
people--especially indigenous peoples--lived off the bounty of nature
with little expression of agency. The weakness of the concept is that it
may be used to freeze the history of the relationship between society
and environment in time. The pieces of the cultural landscape that can
be restored are then extracted from the fabric of the cultural landscape
and preserved as an artifact of the past. Little thought is given to
their role in developing innovative indigenous cultural landscapes that
could provide secure and meaningful indigenous livelihoods for the
future (Ingold 2000). If we are not to abandon the concept of cultural
landscapes, we need to infuse it with a consideration of the ongoing
processes of cultural adaptation through the interactions of societies
and environments (Ingold 2000). A society's environmental
perception, values, institutions, technologies and political interests
will result in particular planning and management goals and objectives
for a specific landscape (Scott 1998).
There are many authors who have contributed to this emerging
consensus on dynamic cultural landscapes. One of the first to bring
forward the idea of human agency in relation to the shaping of the
environment was Carl Sauer (1956). A contemporary of Sauer was Omer
Stewart (1954) who looked specifically at how fire was used by humans to
shape their environment. Henry Lewis (Lewis and Ferguson 1988) and
Stephyn Pyne (1982) continued to explore the relationship between human
agency, fire and landscapes. Now it is not uncommon to see complete
books challenging the assumptions of "natural" landscapes
(Boyd 1999). This work has provided extensive support to the notion that
many, if not all, landscapes are dynamic, cultural expressions, related
to perception, values, institutions, technologies and political
interests. Cronon (1983) provided one of the first dynamic descriptions
of the process by which cultural landscapes change through the
interactions of societies and environments. He demonstrated that as
colonial perception, values, institutions, technologies and political
interests became dominant, the cultural landscape of the New England
Indians began to dissipate into the mists of history. The cultural
landscapes of colonial and industrial societies increasingly excluded
indigenous peoples of New England from pursuing their planning and
management goals and objectives to secure a meaningful livelihood.
Bavingtion and Slocombe (2002) draw upon the concept of managerial
ecology to characterize systems of resource management that displaced
indigenous North American systems. Managerial ecology, they suggest,
emerged from a complex set of historical relationships that favoured
centralized command and control. The pathologies of the command and
control model of resource management have been well documented
(Bavington 2002, Holling and Meffe 1996, Szabo 2002). One of the central
problems of managerial ecology is that it has managed for a single
commodity at the expense of the biological diversity of landscapes. The
simplified cultural landscapes of managerial ecology have not provided
indigenous communities with the resources necessary to secure meaningful
livelihoods (Rangan and Lane 2001).
This theme issue of Environments focuses on alternative models of
resource management as opposed to the critiques of managerial ecology
featured in the previous issue (Bavington and Slocombe 2002b). One of
the first steps, proposed by Berkes (this issue) for alternative
resource management models is a redefinition of terms. He suggests that
we expand the meaning of resources to include "ecosystem products
and services used by different groups of people (and different
species)" (Berkes, this issue: 9). Management he defines as
"governance, social relations, adaptation and the maintenance of
system resilience" as opposed to "domination and control of
people and nature" (Berkes, this issue: 9). Such alternatives may
allow for the development of novel indigenous land management
institutions and organizations and the restoration of indigenous
cultural landscapes and associated biogeophysical communities (Striplen
and DeWeerdt 2002).
This paper is based upon research undertaken as part of an
ethnobotany and ethnoecology project with Iskatewizaagegan No. 39
Independent First Nation (IIFN) located on Shoal Lake, Ontario as shown
in Figure 1 (Davidson-Hunt 2003). The research was undertaken under the
conditions specified by the research protocol signed by IIFN and the
University of Manitoba (Berkes et al. 2002). The material presented in
this paper is based upon a review of the historical record and informal,
unscheduled interviews with elders of IIFN in 2000 and 2001. Published
historical documents and archival documents were from the Lake of the
Woods Museum, Kenora Public Library, Hudson Bay archives and the
Government of Manitoba archives. Interviews were recorded on digital
video camera in Anishinaabe and then transcribed and translated into
English by the community researcher. Interpretations presented in this
paper were discussed with elders and community researchers during 2001
and 2002. Further details of methodology can be found in Davidson-Hunt
(2003).
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that indigenous land
management institutions (rules-in-use) and organizations (agencies,
enterprises) are a necessary prerequisite for restoring indigenous
cultural landscapes. Indigenous resource management systems provide an
alternative system of resource management that will result in unique
sets of forms, functions and processes on the landscape. The paper
begins by documenting an indigenous cultural landscape that is captured
in the historical record. Indigenous people played an active role in
shaping the land through their perceptions, values, institutions,
technologies and political interests. The paper then turns to the
historical period in which managerial ecology began to change the
cultural landscape of northwestern Ontario. This section of the paper
documents how the perceptions, values, institutions, technologies and
political interests of Anishinaabe people became excluded from resource
planning and management. The paper concludes by considering how
alternative resource management systems may allow for a re-emergence of
indigenous cultural landscapes.
The Cultural Landscape of the Fur Trade
The ancestors of Shoal Lake people-are said to have moved into
northwestern Ontario along with the early fur traders (Lund 1984). The
diaries of Alexander Henry "the elder" provide one of the
earliest written accounts of the types of roles played by the ancestors
of Iskatewizaagegan Anishinaabe people in the fur trade (Henry 1969). As
Alexander Henry moved into Rainy Lake and along the Rainy River he began
to record the resources that would be necessary to provision the fur
trade. He noticed, for instance, how the banks rose gradually from the
Rainy River and were covered with a luxuriant grass. As the soil was of
a fine grain he thought that these lands would be good lands for
agriculture. As he traveled through Lake of the Woods he noted how wild
rice (Zizania aquatica) grew in abundance throughout the lake and into
the Winnipeg River system. Birch (Betula papyrifera), maple (Acer
negundo), cedar (Thuja occidentalis) and black spruce (Picea mariana)
trees, along with moose and elk are all recorded in his journal. The
"frothing waters" during sturgeon spawning were also noted
with great interest (Holzkamm et al. 1988). Once he arrived on the
prairies his emphasis changed to the existence of the large herds of
buffalo. Alexander Henry re-traced the economic organization of the fur
trade established by the French in the 17th and 18th Centuries.
Alexander Henry knew that these resources were key to the
provisioning of the fur trade. Fertile lands allowed for the cultivation
of maize (Zea mays) and potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) while pasturelands
could be used to graze cattle and horses. Birch trees were a necessity
as the Anishinaabe were the main suppliers of canoes for the fur trade
that they built and repaired out of birch bark. Cedar and spruce were
also important in this regard as the bark of cedar and the roots of the
spruce were utilized to sew the seams of the canoes. The Anishinaabe
were also accustomed to trading sugar made from the sugar maple (Acer
saccharum) or the Manitoba maple (Acer negundo). Waterfowl were hunted
in the spring near the sugar groves and in the fall as people were
harvesting wild rice. Large game and fish were also an important source
of food at this time and the Anishinaabe traded some of these to the fur
posts. While all these resources were critical for the existence of the
fur trade, the buffalo were the key to the operation of the inland
posts. As such, it was essential to establish posts at the eastern and
northern edges of the prairies. Buffalo, turned into pemmican, provided
the main staple for the woodland fur posts that provided the bulk of the
furs. Alexander Henry's journal provided an inventory of the routes
of communication and the resources needed for the reestablishment of the
fur trade in the region (Henry 1969).
During this period the Anishinaabe were critical to the success of
the Northwest Company for the supply of furs and provisions (Bishop
1974, Lytwyn 1986). The 1793 post journal of the Northwest Company at
Lac La Pluie reflects the importance of the Anishinaabe people. John
McKay, of the Lac La Pluie post, records in the years between 1793 and
1796 how he had traded for wild rice, venison, goose eggs and other
provisions that he needed to survive (Lac La Pluie Post Journal HBCA
B.105/a/1-4). What is not reflected in the early records is how the
Anishinaabe people crafted the landscape to provision the fur trade.
While the economic organization of the fur trade drew upon the
Anishinaabe livelihood, the crafting of the landscape was necessary to
intensify the production of resources. The dual action of flooding and
soil deposition and the firing of those lands by the Anishinaabe, for
instance, created the meadows along the Rainy River over time. It was
this practice that created the disturbances, which provided berries (for
example, Vaccinium spp., Rubus spp., Ribes spp.), browse for some of the
ungulates, and birch stands for the canoes. As the demand for provisions
increased, Anishinaabe families tended and expanded groves of sugar
trees and wild rice stands. On the prairies, Anishinaabe fire practices
expanded the tall grass prairie and increased forage production for the
buffalo. Since the time of the French fur traders, this was a landscape
tended by the Anishinaabe for the commercial fur trade.
When David Thompson and Alexander Henry "the younger"
moved onto the plains they made constant reference to fire (Coues 1965,
Glover 1962, Tyrell 1916). Henry mentioned that the plains were on fire
every spring and every fall (Coues 1965). Henry and Thompson agreed that
these fires were intentionally set for a variety of reasons. One reason
they mentioned was for the purposes of warfare. Both the Sioux and the
Anishinaabe used fire as a method of war. Thompson and Henry also
commented on how spring fires were understood to be useful for greening
up the plains and meadows in the spring. Whatever the motive, the result
was that there was an extensive band of meadows that ran along the
eastern and northern fringe of the plains.
Thompson, as recorded in Box 1, recognized that the result of the
burning was the production of what he termed "meadows." These
meadows occurred on the deeper soils of the eastern and northern fringes
of the plains. Burning changed aspen bush into a lush meadow. As
meadowland increased there was a concurrent increase in the grazing
lands of the buffalo and the buffalo population. In other observations,
Thompson notes how these meadowlands could be easily opened by the plow
as the work of removing the trees had already been undertaken. Thompson
was also one of the first to notice the difference between burns on
different soil types. On stony pinelands he noted that fire tended to
reproduce pinelands. However, when pines growing along rivers were
burned, the plant community tended to shift toward oak, ash and alder as
one moved south. In the north, fire in riparian areas tended to move the
plant community toward aspen, poplar and alders. David Thompson provided
the first description of how First Nations people utilized fire to open
and maintain meadows.
Box 1. David Thompson's Observations Regarding Fire on the Prairies
We journeyed on the west side of the River; the whole distance
was meadow land, and no other Woods than saplings of Oak, Ash
and Alder. From the many charred stumps of Pines it was evident
this side of the River was once a Pine Forest. In the more
northern parts, where Pine Woods have been destroyed by fire,
Aspins, Poplars and Alders have sprung up, and taken the place of
the Pines; but along this, the Red River from the mildness of the
climate, and goodness of the soil, Oak, Ash, Alder, and Nut Woods
have succeeded the pines.
This change appears to depend on soil and climate; for in the high
northern latitudes, where in many places there is no soil, and the
Pines spread their roots over the rocks, Pine grounds, when
burned, are succeeded by Pines; for Aspins Poplars and Alders
require some soil. Along the Great Plains, there are very many
places where large groves of Aspins have been burnt, the charred
stumps remaining; and no further production of Trees have taken
place, the grass of the Plains covers them: and from this cause the
Great Plains are constantly increasing in length and breadth, and
the Deer give place to the Bison. But the mercy of Providence has
given a productive power to the roots of the grass of the Plains and
of the Meadows, on which the fire has no effect. The fire passes
in flame and smoke, what was a lovely green is now a deep black;
the rain descends, and this odious colour disappears, and is
replaced by a still brighter green; if these grasses had not this
wonderful productive power on which fire has no effect, these
Great Plains would, many centuries ago, have been without Man,
Bird or Beast (Tyrell 1916: 248).
Bigsby, a commissioner of the 1822-1824 joint U.S. and British
boundary commission, was an astute observer of the Anishinaabe use of
fire to craft the landscape. In his book he wrote "The Indians burn
large tracts of pine barrens in order to favour the growth of very
useful autumnal fruits" (Bigsby 1969: 207). Later he mentioned how
the portage leading from Lake of the Woods to the Winnipeg river had
been burnt. He also noted how some points and islands on Lake of the
Woods have been burnt. Later in his journey he mentioned how a party of
Anishinaabe were gathering "black bilberries" that he calls
"Vaccinium Canadense." He noted that: "This fruit is
incredibly abundant all over these countries. For miles we cannot tread
without crushing them under our feet; and we owed much of our health and
strength to the free use of them. The berries are very deep purple, as
large as the out-door English grape, and they grow on a low creeping
shrub. Their flavour is sweet and agreeable; most so in the spring, when
they have lain a winter under snow" (Bigsby 1969: 313-314). He also
recorded how the promontory near Pipestone Island was well wooded but
became naked towards its middle as the Anishinaabe purposely fired it.
The comments by Bigsby completed the picture of the landscape and
clearly drew the linkage between fire, Anishinaabe people and the fur
trade livelihood.
In the year 1857 the Palliser (Spry 1968) and the Canadian
expeditions (Dawson 1968; Hind 1860; Hind, Dawson and Gladman 1858)
passed through Lake of the Woods. These expeditions confirmed the basic
pattern of the fire-generated landscape reported since the time of
Alexander Henry "the younger" and David Thompson. In the
Canadian Shield country there were many reports of burnt forests that
seemed to be noted mainly in the pinelands (Spry 1968). Often the
pinelands were burnt so that berries could be obtained, or the berry
patches themselves were burned to maintain the berries. The banks of
rivers were often burnt and these were covered by meadows. Palliser at
points noted that these meadows were the sites of Anishinaabe camping
grounds (Spry 1968). There were swamplands which provided decent hay
especially if burnt off in the spring. These open meadows created safe
places to camp as well as providing pasturage for the main ungulates
which were hunted.
Moving onto the prairies the basic pattern of meadows and open
groves of oaks and other hardwoods was found along the rivers. Fire also
expanded the open meadows and pushed back the aspen woodlands to the
east and the north. The expedition of Palliser picked up this early
observation of Thompson's. It was Palliser who divided the prairies
into the short grass and tall grass prairies and noted that the latter
were created by the inhabitant's long practice of setting fire to
the land (Spry 1968). The tall grass prairie zone extended from the
southwest corner of Lake of the Woods and swept in a great are toward
the northwest. As with the woodlands, the prairie was a landscape shaped
by fire and was crucial to the success of the fur trading enterprise.
The fur trading landscape was a fire-generated landscape. How much
of this was attributable to human agency? If the written record is taken
as accurate, it suggests that there was a mixture of human agency and
natural ignitions from lightening. In areas where burning was a frequent
occurrence there was little fuel to create large fires. As most burning
occurred in early spring and late fall it is likely that the burning
along rivers and in berry patches was localized. On the prairies the
fires that are reported appear to have been quite widespread. However,
even in the woodlands it is likely that in dry years, large fires, such
as those reported in 1803 and 1804, may have started small and expanded
into large conflagrations. Regardless, it is clear there was little
attempt to suppress fire. Rather, it was managed by reducing the fuel
load through frequent burnings. One of the few Anishinaabe voices on the
use of fire is presented in Box 2.
Box 2. Observations of Madeline Theriault on Indian Use of Fire
White man makes a farm to grow hay to feed his animals. He also
grows vegetables for food. Indians also feed their animals, only in
a different way. Around the middle of April, the Indian trapper
looks around to find a bare spot, mostly up on the rocks where the
snow goes first, where there is still a lot of snow at the bottom of
the hill. They set a match to this bare spot and only burn where it
is dry and bare, so there's no danger of a big forest fire because
the fire stops when it reaches the snow.
Two years later you would find a big patch of blueberries in
amongst the bushes. And you would see all the hungry animals
feeding on those blueberries: fox, wolves, black bear, partridge,
squirrels, chipmunks, and all kinds of other birds. No doubt they
were happy to find those berries. It was the trapper that got it for
them by setting the fire.
This is what I mean when I say Indians feed their animals too. As
we would preserve them for our winter use. After a few years,
young trees would grow on that burnt place. Then the rabbits
would get to feed from those young bushes. In later years, the
little trees would get bigger. Then the moose and deer get to feed
from it. So, you see the setting of these small fires can go a long
way in feeding many animals (Theriault 1992: 74-75).
The Cultural Landscape of Managerial Ecology
Seven years after the Palliser expedition ended in 1860, Canada
became an independent Nation with the signing of the British North
America Act. Two years later the Temporary Government of Rupert's
Land Act (1869) began the transfer of land from the Hudson's Bay
Company (Rupert's Land), to Canada. This led to the first of the
clashes between a fur trading way of life and settlement when Louis Riel
staged a rebellion against Canada. Troops were sent out via Lake of the
Woods from Canada to the Northwest Territory to put down the rebellion.
In 1870 the Manitoba Act was signed which created a new territory for
the Dominion of Canada. In 1873 Treaty #3 was signed by the Anishinaabe
people and the government of Canada at the Northwest Angle.
In the same year that the treaty was signed Simon Dawson surveyed
and built what later became the Dawson trail. The Dawson trail was a
mixture of corduroy roads and steamships that brought settlers through
Canadian territory to the Red River and to points beyond. 1873 was also
the year that Sir Sanford Fleming travelled west surveying the line for
a railway (Fleming 1879; Grant 1877). Part of the stimulus for signing
Treaty #3 was to establish the Dawson trail as well as to begin planning
for the Canadian railway that became the Canadian Pacific Railway.
These Canadian communication routes allowed settlers to move to the
prairies and ship their products back to the markets of the east. They
proved to be vital to the development of a Canadian Nation. The best
route to the west at this point in time was to use the railway through
the U.S. and then travel by paddleboat up the Red River. However, the
Canadian government feared that all produce from the west would start
flowing in that same direction. Canada needed the grain produced in the
west to feed the steady stream of immigrants entering into eastern
cities during the industrial development of eastern Canada. In order to
build the railway, they would also need access to timber for ties and
bridges. This had led to an order-in-council being issued to a man named
Fuller for a timber lease on Lake of the Woods in 1872 (Lake of the
Woods Museum Exhibits, Kenora, Ontario). Although this order-in-council
was not approved until 1875, it indicated the need for a Treaty in the
Lake of the Woods watershed.
The 1870's were an active period on Lake of the Woods as
settlers moved across the lake via steamship to the Dawson trail and
onto the prairies. In 1878, John Mather, a timber merchant from the
Ottawa valley, bought the Fuller timber lease and by 1879 was in Rat
Portage (Kenora), looking at a site for a sawmill (Mather Walls House
Exhibits, Kenora, Ontario). By 1882 the Canadian Pacific Railway had
made its way to Kenora, and Mather was supplying ties and timbers for
the construction of the railway into the prairies. Seven other sawmills
were operating around Kenora by 1886, supplying the railway and the
building boom taking place on the prairies. These seven mills supplied
50% of what was needed by the railway with the other 50% coming from
Minnesota. Between 1892 and 1895 Mather built a dam at the outlet of the
Lake of the Woods to the Winnipeg River. The purpose of the dam was not
only to supply electricity but also to raise the water level on the lake
so that it would be easier to move log booms.
In 1878 the first Fire Act was passed in Ontario. During the fur
trade era fire was a danger but not of grave concern. By the late
1800's however, fire was seen as a destructive force to be combated
and suppressed. Timber, along with mining to a lesser extent, became the
main economic drivers for northwestern Ontario. Interest in the forest
shifted from provisioning the fur trade toward an interest in mature
timber for railway sleepers and lumber. All of these Canadian economic
developments made it appear necessary to eradicate fire from the forest.
While the economic interest in timber was the main driver for
eradicating fire, the fear of fire also had roots in a number of
catastrophic fires that occurred in the late 1800's. The latter
half of the 1800's was the greatest period of settlement in both
Canada and the United States. Settlement depended upon the construction
of railways to move people west and to take the emerging products of
their labour to the east. Settlement and railways led to an increase in
the number of conflagrations that occurred in the northern woodlands of
Canada and the United States. Stephen Pyne traces the devastation of the
Wisconsin fires of 1871; the Minnesota fires of 1881, 1894 and 1910
(Pyne 1982). A similar pattern of fires was reported from the clay belt
of northeastern Ontario and the settlement areas along the Rainy River
(Lambert 1967).
Settlement created a complex set of factors that led to an
increased incidence of fire (Pyne 1982). In a dry year virtual
firestorms broke out. With settlers lighting fires to clear their land,
the increased amount of slash found on the landscape from land clearing
and logging could lead to tremendous fires. Railways themselves also led
to an increase in the amount of fire. Sparks from the steam fired
engines, or from the wheels during breaking and wheel slippage going up
inclines, could also start fires. As more people and built structures
became established in these regions, there was also a corresponding loss
of life and infrastructure. The protection of timber, however, was the
main impetus for fire suppression legislation. The political will to
implement the legislation came from the increase in deadly fires due to
settlement, logging and railways.
Pyne (1982) identifies the primary years of firestorms between 1850
and 1930. In Canada the period from around 1880 to the 1930's was a
time of active legislative development and enforcement of fire
suppression. After the first Fire Act in 1878 it was revised in 1887,
1897, 1913, 1914, 1917, 1927 and 1930. After that active period of
legislative development it was only revised again in 1937, 1948, 1950
and finally in 1960 (Lambert 1967). This legislation became increasingly
punitive in the fines and jail terms that could be given to a person
causing a fire. The first charge laid on Lake of the Woods was in 1914
to two settler fishermen who left a campfire burning (as reported by the
Kenora Miner and News). Legislative tools were created allowing the
province of Ontario to hire fire rangers with the power to charge people
with contravening the legislation. These same fire rangers also held the
power to detain people, question them and require them to leave the
bush. Finally, fire rangers were responsible to find areas of high
ground upon which to establish fire towers. It was during this period
that the province began to establish the legislative and technological
tools for the surveillance of fire risks and the enforcement of fire
suppression (Lambert 1967).
The same time period also saw an increase in efforts to educate the
public about the danger and economic loss resulting from forest fires.
There are few recorded incidents about fires being caused by the
Anishinaabe people. In Richard Lambert's (1967) book, an 1899 fire
in northeastern Ontario was attributed to the burning of a blueberry
patch by an "Indian." Such incidents led the Ontario
Department of Lands and Forests in 1900 to ask the Hudson's Bay
Company to distribute copies of fire proclamations in the Indian
languages along the main canoe routes. One such proclamation in Cree
syllabics was found in the MG1-A10 Boundary Commission file of the
Provincial Archives of Manitoba. The Kenora Daily Miner and News
reported on all forest fires during this period. The month of April
often contained a week called "forest fire prevention week."
During that week information would be published on the economic cost of
fires, dangers to the public and the cost to infrastructure. The cause
of fires was said to be 90% human with a variety of sources from
settlers, campers, railways and timber operations. There was a strong
moral tone to these campaigns with one using the title "Are you a
Canadian Nero = Fiddling while Forests Burn?"
The use of fire by Anishinaabe people became increasingly
difficult. However, as a result of the increase of fires during this
period, it also was a time when Anishinaabe people were very active in
the commercial blueberry trade. This confluence of events during the
1880 to 1930 period led to the emergence of a vigourous commercial
blueberry enterprise throughout the Lake of the Woods and the Winnipeg
and English River system. The fires of 1910 led to great blueberry
heaths throughout the district by 1915. The Miner and News reported in
1915, "The area in this district covered by blueberry plants is so
large that the crop gathered is only limited by the number of pickers
available." The crop was reported as a prolific one for that year,
with many people picking due to the employment shortage, along with
Anishinaabe people who were well known for their involvement in the
industry. During this period the Kenora Miner and News claimed that
Kenora was setting records for blueberry production in the whole
Dominion of Canada.
At the same time that the blueberry industry was thriving on
account of the large berry lands created through fire, the effort to
suppress fire was increasing. Throughout the 1920's The Miner and
News reported on the increase in fire rangers and the use of seaplanes
to spot fires and deploy men to put them out. There was also a
corresponding increase in the effort to educate the public. Careless use
of fire was seen as an economic and moral insult. However, this did not
stop fires from breaking out throughout the next cycle of dry years
during the late 1920's and early 1930's.
Large fires were recorded during the 1920's to the west of
Whitefish Bay and surrounding Redditt (Ontario Forest Research Institute
1998). In the 1930's fires broke out on the Aulneau Peninsula and
again around Redditt. It is difficult to know what started these fires.
Fires were often attributed, in the Kenora Miner and News from this time
period, to careless berry pickers, campers and fishermen as well as some
activities from logging. The fires around Redditt occurred near the rail
line so it is possible that they were started due to the railway. It is
also possible that they could have been due to natural sources such as
lightning. Regardless of the source of fire ignition, there is little
doubt that dry years combined with settlement, logging and railways
resulted in a blueberry landscape. It was a landscape that provided Ella
Dawn Green and Walter Redsky with their memories of blueberry picking
during the 1930's and into the 1940's. The memories of Ella
Dawn and Walter are recorded in Box 3 and Box 4, respectively.
Box 3. Memories of Ella Dawn Green Regarding Blueberry Picking
I have been asked to talk, to remember, about where they used to
pick berries and how they used to travel. As far as I remember in
Iskatewizaagegan, the people would gather together, the ones
who were going to go berry picking. Once there were enough
people that wanted to pick, they would go to Indian Bay. From
there they would get on the freight train. They all got on the freight
train. The boxcars that were connected. They would have with
them their clothes, their boats, their dogs. They would not leave
their dogs; they would take everything they owned. They go
toward Winnipeg, but not as far as that because they would get off
and get on another one. When we got on the other train we would
go toward Redditt. We rode the freight train all the way there and
this is where we got ready. They would all paddle, we would all
paddle to where we were going to set up a camp at a place they
called Ena. Once we got to Ena, we all supported each other to
get the camp ready and settle in. We stayed there all season to
pick berries.
There was a man there who ran a store and to whom we would
sell the berries to make money. I remember the old people would
play cards in the late afternoon. The kids would play what ever
they enjoyed to play. Everyone got sent to bed early in the
evening. Very early in the morning they would get ready. They
had to canoe a long way. They canoed for a distance and it took
awhile every day. They would be gone all day. They didn't get
back until the sun was setting. I was amazed at how every one
supported each other, even the kids supported themselves. They
would pick their own berries. I was happy that my mother made
me pick berries and she told me to try and fill up my container. At
the end of the season people would meet and decide when to
move to the wild rice fields (Davidson-Hunt, unpublished
transcripts, 2001)
Box 4. Memories of Walter Redsky Regarding Blueberry Picking.
I am going to tell you about when we used to go berry picking. My
kids were very small and this is where one of them learned to walk.
When we were finished picking berries, at the end of Armstrong
Lake, the buyer would come to buy the berries. We also lived with
people from Sageeng at Armstrong Lake. I used to hear that at
Ena that they played moccasin games. I wished I could go. And
over by Reddit there was a field, they had a baseball tournament.
Once a month they would play ball on that field. And over by
Reddit they would pick berries. As I was saying, we used to pick
berries all over. We camped all over. A man named Duggan
would come to buy the berries. People would come from all over
to pick berries, Sageeng, Whitefish Bay, Shoal Lake, Whitedog,
Northwest Angle, Grassy Narrows, everywhere.
I am going to talk about where they used to pick berries. They
picked all over. Across the lake in the river there was a big fire.
And over there, there is a river, that river is long. Its about three
miles in the bush. And here it was burnt black. The fire burnt a
long way, almost to the Manitoba boundary where the big border
cut is, that is as far as it went. After the fire that was when the
berries came. There were berries all over. There were about
three seasons after the fire, that is when the berries grew. After
that fire they didn't have to go to other places. They could pick all
the berries here on Shoal Lake and sell them to John Holmstrom
(Davidson-Hunt, unpublished transcripts, 2001)
Ella Dawn and Walter remember the time when the families from Shoal
Lake would travel west on the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway
toward Winnipeg. They would load up their canoes, dogs, tents and
anything else they needed for berry picking and ricing into the boxcar.
Where the rail lines met east of Winnipeg they would transfer everything
into a boxcar on the C.N. north line and head east to Redditt. There
they would get off and go to the lakes where their families would pick.
While Ella Dawn's family went to Ena Lake, Waiter's would go
to Armstrong Lake. Anishinaabe from all over the Lake of the Woods
watershed would be travelling to lakes near Brinka, Farlane, Jones,
Favel or McIntosh. The section stations along the railway often served
as the names remembered as the place they went picking as this is where
people went to sell their blueberries to the commercial buyers. The
Hudson's Bay Post records of Grassy Narrows indicate how people
would leave the community to go down to the "line," or Jones,
to pick berries. As far east as Dinorwic, the Hudson's Bay Post
reports on people going to pick berries. Clearly, the blueberry harvest
was an activity with widespread involvement by Anishinaabe people.
At the end of the blueberry season the Shoal Lake people would
travel to other spots known to them for wild rice. They travelled by the
C.N. or the C.P.R. line into what later became Whiteshell Provincial
Park, to lakes such as Lonepine Lake to harvest rice. After the rice
harvest, they would travel by the C.P.R. line back to Kenora to sell
their rice and purchase supplies for the fall. They would then travel by
canoe back to Shoal Lake as there was no road connecting the
Trans-Canada highway to Shoal Lake until 1965. Once back at Shoal Lake,
the children would go to residential school while the rest of the family
would head out to the trap line.
The bounty of the blueberry landscape and livelihood in
northwestern Ontario came to an end with the advent of the Second World
War. By the late 1930's a road had been built into Redditt, and
blueberries began to be shipped by truck. The biggest period of
blueberry shipment by truck occurred during the war when freezer trucks
would travel to Redditt to obtain blueberries from the Duggans. As told
by John Duggan and Larry Maki, these trucks were buying up blue