Lessons of loss and perseverance from Jane Klyne McDonald
During the early days of the Covid pandemic, I thought of my Métis great-great-great-grandmother, and the loss of three of her young children to scarlet fever in Edmonton in May 1845.
Stories tagged: Metis
Waltzing With the Angels: The Metis Ironworkers Who Built Edmonton’s Downtown
The people who did the most dangerous jobs constructing the skyscrapers in downtown Edmonton in the 1960s and 1970s were almost all Metis ironworkers. That included the CN Tower.
Part I – Marguerite Rowand-McKay: Matriarch, Naturalist, Armchair Traveler, Bison Ally
The 1821 merger of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and the North-West Company (NWC) harkened an era of unfettered commerce…
Louise Umphreville: Edmonton’s Forgotten First Lady
History is how we understand the past and that understanding is based on records made and kept by biased hands….
Gifting Indigenous Ward Names
On December 7, 2020, following over a year of planning and work by the Edmonton Boundaries Commission, Edmonton City Council…
The “Grand Lady of the Métis:” Dr. Anne Anderson’s mission to preserve the Cree language
When Dr. Anne Anderson was born on a river lot farm east of St. Albert in 1906, she was so…
Edmonton’s River Lots: A Layer in Our History
In 2018, a new Edmonton park was opened and given the name “ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞,” an appellation that evokes…
Richard Henry Secord and Métis Scrip Speculation
When history is told, it largely reflects events, understandings and individuals who best serve the desires of the recorder. In…
Peter Erasmus & Storytelling
There’s something about a good story and a good storyteller. Stories and facts aren’t exclusive, thank goodness. We all connect…
Metis Matriarch – Thelma Chalifoux
Our mothers are more than just a physical person, just as our houses are more than just a structure to…
Reconciling Edmonton
Too often Edmonton’s story is presented as one of pioneers, homesteaders and settlement where Indigenous Peoples are relegated to the…
Garneau: A Neighbourhood of Nations
As we go about our daily lives, driving the kids to school or walking the dog, we often forget that…