Historic trail plaque unveiled at Legislature

Page

A large part of Western Canadian history, Metis history in particular was resurrected Feb. 17 at the Alberta Legislature when a commemorative plaque was unveiled by Metis Elder Delia Gray and Ron Hooper, a Canada Parks, Recreation and Wildlife official.

The Heritage Day tribute acknowledged the Fort Garry-Fort Edmonton Trail, which linked present-day Winnipeg with Edmonton over a distance of about 1, 440 km.

Back then in the 1800's the trail was nothing more than a well-beaten path, constantly rutted by the huge, screeching wood wheels of Red River carts, the primary mode of transportation for the Metis and freighters of old.

Also known as the Carlton, Saskatchewan and Fort Ellice Trail, the route was the main avenue across the west right through the 19th century and, parts of it, up into the 1920's and '30's, although the coming of the railways gradually superceded the trail. By the first decades of this century, the Fort Garry-Fort Edmonton Trail, along with other trails all over the West, was falling into disuse and gradually deteriorating.

Some of the route still makes up what travelers now know as the Yellowhead Highway, which is now part of the Trans-Canada Highway, and so the legacy continues.

Led by mounted police man in red serge, the platform party was piped in and included Gray; Metis Nation President Audrey Poitras; Stan Schumacher, speaker of the Legislature; city councilor Allan Bolstad; Canada's Historic Sites and Monuments Board delegate Trudy Cowman; the Historical Society of Alberta president Kathryn Ivany and Canadian Heritage representative Ron Hooper.

Following Gray's opening prayer, Poitras, Cowan and Ivany related the historic significance of the trail during the 19th and early 20thcenturies, and the huge involvement of the Metis in trade, commerce and industry sector of the then-developing Canadian West.

The actual unveiling was performed by Gray and Hooper to resounding applause from a mixed Native and non-Native audience, which lingered about after the unveiling for a traditional brunch of tea, bannock with jam and rice pudding.

Edmonton's Seni'ka Singers displayer their melodic harmony in singing the national anthem as well as a few of their own original numbers, then ended with "God save the Queen."

As a prelude to the days festivities, entertainment was provided by Metis fiddler extraordinaire Gilbert Anderson, accompanied by his wife Kathleen on piano, and some jigging and square dancing demonstrations which thrilled onlookers.

While all this was happening in Edmonton, a similar unveiling was occurring at the other end of the trail, in Winnipeg.