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Place
Names of the Palliser Expedition: Part 1
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 Robert
Rundle's Pigeon Lake Mission
never flourished and after his departure no missionary
appointments were made for seven years. Protestantism west of Norway House
was left to the Aboriginal people to maintain and, with the help of
prominent figures like Robert Sinclair and Maskepetoon, it
survived the
interregnum.
 Sinclair, disappointed by the lack of support, abandoned the
Pigeon Lake Mission in
1850. It later served as residence for Thomas Woolsey
and was reopened as a mission by John McDougall in 1865. The
establishment of a
new mission on the Bow River in 1873 and the signing of Treaty 6 in 1876
eventually caused Rundle's Mission at Pigeon Lake to be sidelined.
 Although Rundle was criticized at the time for his wandering ways and
his lack of success in establishing a permanent mission, travellers to the
region and the new missionaries who arrived in the mid-1850s soon realized
the importance of his legacy. On a hunting trip in 1859-60, the Earl of
Southesk reported that Assiniboine communities still remembered
Rundle and practiced his teachings 12 years after his departure. In his
words, "these families were far from any mission station, and had not even
seen a missionary for many years; still they showed considerable
acquaintance with Scripture, and were regular in their morning and evening
devotions . . .Their knowledge is supposed to have been imparted by Rev. Mr.
Rundle."
 The Palliser
Expedition, which surveyed much of the area that stretched from Lake
Superior to the west
side of the Rocky Mountains, also paid homage to Rundle's influence and named a mountain in his
honour.
Rundle's
initiative to introduce agriculture to Aboriginal people in the Pigeon
Lake area is today recognized by a National Historic Monument at the
original mission site, erected in 1965. The importance of the site was
further acknowledged in
1997 and designated a Provincial Historic Site.
Citation Sources
Wilson,
Keith. Robert Terrill
Rundle. Canadian Biographical
Series. Winnipeg: University of
Manitoba, 1986.
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