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Winnipeg: On the Trail of La Vérendrye and Louis Riel
Winnipeg: On the Trail of La Vérendrye and Louis Riel
Pierre-Brice Lebrun - 2010-09-02
Captain Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, known as La Vérendrye, built Fort Rouge at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in 1738. The settlement he established there would become Winnipeg, Canada’s eighth largest city and capital of the province of Manitoba.
Of French parentage, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes (1685-1749) was born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, where his father, a lieutenant in the Carignan Salières regiment, was stationed. René Gaultier de Varennes, a native of Angers, had arrived in New France on board the St. Sébastien, a 250-ton ship commanded by Captain Sieur Du Pas de Jeu which had set sail from La Rochelle on 24 May 1665 and arrived in Quebec on 12 September.
All the way to The Bay
La Vérendrye made a name for himself in France and in Newfoundland, where he fought alongside Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, who, having driven away the English, was named Governor of Plaisance.
Having also fought in Flanders during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), which involved, among others, the French Bourbons and Austrian Habsburgs, La Vérendrye left the army in 1712 and settled in Montreal. From his home base there, he set off on numerous expeditions to the Lake Region to trade in furs with the Indians.
A military man at heart, La Vérendrye peppered his territory with forts such as FortMaurepas, a trading post named after Louis XV’s Secretary of State of the Marine and the Royal Household, on the banks of Lake Winnipeg. It was this vast lake, bigger than all of Wales (almost 26,000 km2) that the Cree Indians called win-nipi, ‘troubled waters,’ giving Winnipeg its name in 1876.
At the time, the region was highly sought after due to its abundant wildlife, lakes and rivers. The Red River, for example, flows out of North Dakota and crosses through Winnipeg where it merges with the Assiniboine, before ending up in Lake Winnipeg. The Churchill and Nelson Rivers flow north out of Lake Winnipeg into the Hudson Bay, a body of water over three times the size of the UK (822,324 km2).
European ships followed these nautical routes to trade goods such as gunpowder, guns and cloth for furs bought from trappers and Native Americans.
Today, Hudson Bay is famous for polar bear watching (in winter) and whale sightings (in summer), both organised around the town of Churchill.
Another illustrious Churchill
The English general John Churchill was Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company; both the town and the Churchill River were named in his honour (for the Cree, the river is missi-nipi, ‘Big River’).
When the Hudson’s Bay Company merged with the North West Company in 1821, Fort Gibraltar, built in Winnipeg in 1810, was renamed Fort Garry. In 1978, to ensure the preservation of the fort, the entire structure was moved to St. Boniface on the banks of the Red River by members of the Festival du Voyageur, which it hosts every year in February. Named Fort Gibraltar once again, it’s been transformed into a remarkable museum that tells the story of the first settlers and of the Native Americans they systematically massacred, cheated and enslaved long before ultimately coming to hold them in the highest regard.
In the 19th century, traders came to the fort to stock up on pemmican, a sort of high-energy pâté made of sun-dried meat (bison, elk or moose) pounded into powder and mixed with tallow and dried fruit such as Saskatoon berries, cherries, redcurrant and cranberries. Pemmican, which apparently never goes bad, can be preserved for dozens of years, but a pound of pemmican is worth twelve Big Macs!
En Français, s’il vous plaît
Manitoba joined Canada in 1870, after Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It was followed by British Columbia. Today, there are approximately 1.2 million Manitobans. Though most inhabitants are English speaking, there are around 100,000 Francophones, including a large number of Métis: local people of mixed race.
In Winnipeg, population 650,000, most members of the French community live in the St. Boniface district, known as ‘the French Quarter.’ Here, schools, a newspaper, community radio and cultural centres all attest to the skill with which Winnipeg’s French community has defended its rights and linguistic identity.
In St. Boniface, you can enjoy French croissants with coffee (sadly not French but Canadian), read French books, particularly those by famed local author Gabrielle Roy (1909-83) whose residence remains open to the public and conduct business with the local and provincial governments in French.
St. Boniface cathedral, destroyed by fire on 22 July 1968, has been rebuilt behind its original façade that was fortunately spared and it’s here that you can come to honour the memory of Louis Riel (1844-1885) who led the Red River Rebellion of 1869-1870. The St. Boniface Museum has a special exhibit dedicated to Riel, though to truly understand his role in Canadian history, you should go back to the origins of the province of Manitoba.
Between Wayne Gretzky and Celine Dion
Before the arrival of the Europeans, Manitoba was inhabited by the Ojibwas, the third most populous First Nations group. Sir Thomas Button seems to have been the first ‘pale face’ to set foot on the banks of Lake Winnipeg in 1612, having arrived via the Nelson River.
But it wasn’t until the expeditions of La Vérendrye that French trappers began settling in the region. Soon there were bi-racial couples, most often French men and native women, giving rise to a new ethnic group: the Western Métis.
Great Britain and France were enemies during the Seven Years War. At the end of the conflict, on February 10th 1763, the Treaty of Paris gave Great Britain dominion over Canada and all of its islands with the exception of St. Pierre-et-Miquelon.
Following this, the first English-speaking colonists, primarily from Scotland and Ireland, began pouring into Canada in great numbers, many settling around the outpost that was to become Winnipeg.
In 1818, the St. Boniface Catholic mission was established on the eastern bank of the Red River, growing into a parish before becoming a municipality of its own right (1883). In 1970, St. Boniface was integrated into Winnipeg and now has 65,000 inhabitants including 40,000 Francophones.
In 1869, Louis Riel, a French-speaking Métis, claimed that the rights of the Métis were not being sufficiently taken into account and, during the Red River Rebellion, he declared Manitoba an independent province and set up a provisional government.
Riel negotiated Manitoba’s entry into the Canadian confederation. At the time, Anglophones of British origin comprised less than 5% of the population, while 45% were those of French ancestry and French-speaking Métis and approximately another 45% were Aboriginals.
Little by little, the implantation of British colonists and the ban on the French language transformed Manitoba into an English-speaking province. Today, French is spoken by 31% of the total Canadian population (94.6% in Quebec) and Canada’s third language is... Mandarin Chinese.
Louis Riel fled to the United States before returning from exile in 1884 to what is now Saskatchewan, the province next to Manitoba, to again found an independent state. Negotiations degenerated into armed conflict, named the North-West Rebellion, which ended with Riel’s arrest, trial for treason and hanging on 16 November 1885, in Regina.
The vast majority of Canadians now consider Louis Riel to be a hero and symbol of national independence, and it is hoped that his name will soon officially be cleared. In November 2004, CBC placed Riel in 11th place in its ‘The Greatest Canadian’ programme, just after hockey icon Wayne Gretzky. Celine Dion came 27th between the Unknown Soldier and Jim Carrey.
The Trans Canada: 18,078 kilometres long
Between 1890 and 1920, Manitoba developed very quickly indeed. Winnipeg city planners had prepared to accommodate up to 2.5 million inhabitants, which explains why some of its infrastructures are so grandiose.
Winnipeg has an international airport (essentially serving North America), from which visitors can begin Polar Bear Safaris, as well as a major train station on the Canadian Rail line from Toronto to Vancouver (three days, four nights). The Hudson Bay, a comfortable train that crosses the tundra en route to Churchill, also leaves from Winnipeg, arriving at its destination after 46 hours of travel through splendid northern scenery.
The city is on the Trans Canada Trail, an 18,078-kilometre long recreational trail which crosses through all of Canada’s provinces. Upon completion (planned for 2017), the world’s longest trail will connect the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans, allowing valiant travellers to visit all of of Canada’s regions on foot, by bike or by other means of transport.
USEFUL INFORMATION
Destination Winnipeg (city tourist office)
Travel Manitoba
Lots of information and free info kits
Getting there
Flying to Canada
Flights to Winnipeg from the UK require a connection in Canada or the US. Return prices from London (Air Canada, Continental, etc.) begin in the low £600s. Flights from Heathrow to Toronto (on IcelandAir, for example) start at around £ 430.
Via Rail Canada
Enjoying St. Boniface and Winnipeg
Ô tours
A multi-lingual travel and tours agency in Winnipeg
Fort Gibraltar
Musée de St. Boniface Museum
Manitoba Museum
The Maison Gabrielle-Roy
Le Festival du Voyageur
http://festivalvoyageur.mb.ca/wp/
Food and lodging
Chez Sophie, a local bistro-pizzeria with a French flair
248, Avenue de la Cathédrale
St. Boniface
B&B de la Cathédrale
581, rue Langevin
St. Boniface
Tel: (204) 233 7792
Boulangerie Française Le Croissant
276, avenue Taché
St. Boniface
Hôtel**** Fairmont Winnipeg
Lombard Place (centre city)
Captain Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, known as La Vérendrye, built Fort Rouge at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in 1738. The settlement he established there would become Winnipeg, Canada’s eighth largest city and capital of the province of Manitoba.
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Johannim
5/5
Review information
- Language: gbr
- Position : Alone
Pros
Winnipeg is absolutely Canada's best kept secret. Food is awesome best in North America, culture is a fusion of British-French and Eastern European. Architecture is superb, Parliament buildings at once mysterious and stikingly beautiful in the style of Beau art.Churches and cathedrals rival Europe. Everything from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet to the fringe festival to festival du Voyageur. For a young city only 175 yrs old very elegant. u gotta go folks Soon to open the National museum of Human rights architectually futuristic, (it better be for almost half billion dollars).
Cons
The articule on Manitoba was loaded with teeth gritting errors (don't know where you got the info for this Province. !. Winnipeg is 6th largest city in Canada not 8th. Fort Gibraltor was always in St. boniface Michilin is mixin it up with Ft Garry.Aboriginals the PC word aka Indians were never "slaughtered in Manitoba or enslaved, where did that come from must be thinkin about the US Michilin. Really really screwed the history of Winnipeg and Manitoba up dude go back and re write the mess.Also best to go to the peg in the Summers, winter can hit minus 40 f/c. This is from a Southern California boy and still a northender at heart.
