Whitefish Lake
The Whitefish Lake community was begun by Reverend Henry Bird
Steinhauer in 1855, to serve the Cree. Steinhauer, or Shauwanegezhick
(his Ojibwa name), was an Ojibwa from Ontario who had been trained at
the Methodist Credit Mission and worked under Reverend James Evans prior
to his ordination. He came west with Reverend Woosey and began working
with the First Nations around Lac La Biche and the Fishing Lakes area.
The Fishing Lakes area was approximately 95 kilometres east of
Victoria Mission, in what we now know as the Lakeland. While the soil
was not the best for farming, being sandy and with many rocks, the First
Nations found the area still plentiful in the fruits of the land. The
small lakes all had healthy populations of fish, and wild game could
still be taken from the bush.
In a report titled "Beginning at Whitefish Lake" Reverend Steinhauer
wrote in 1857 about life as an isolated missionary. He had not only to
preach and visit his parishioners, but to build the mission buildings,
hunt for food, collect firewood, trade for those items he needed. Above
all that, he had to begin the task of breaking the ground for farming,
and teaching his parishioners to farm. He worked with the First Nations
people by accompanying them on their travels, much as Reverend Rundle
had, conducting a morning worship service, providing school lessons for
the children, and an evening service. Over time he did gain some
assistance. Benjamin Sinclair assisted at the mission, as he had
assisted Reverend Rundle, but he also had charge of the Pigeon Lake
Mission that had been started for the Plains Cree. Peter Erasmus was too
of some assistance, though he had to keep busy working to support his
family.
In 8 January 1867, the community composed a "Petition from the
Indians at the Whitefish Lake Wesleyan Mission." In this document,
community members requested more assistance for the building up of the
mission, and particularly for a school teacher to instruct their
children.
Peter Erasmus, a Métis from northern Manitoba who had attended
college, settled in the area after working at Fort Edmonton as
interpreter for Reverend Woolsey and with the Palliser Expedition as
special assistant to Hector. He worked for three years with Reverend
McDougall before moving to his wife’s community of Whitefish Lake in
1864. He had met her while assisting Reverend Steinhauer.
The community
that had grown up around the mission numbered around 250 by that time.
When Reverend Steinhauer had first arrived, there were only three
teepees, two for his family, and that of Benjamin Sinclair and family.
Chief Pakan or Seenum, was one of the first converts. The area became a
reserve for Chief (Pakan) Seenum’s band after the signing of Treaty 6 in
1876. Before treaty, many of the Métis people in the area joined in
community activities such as buffalo hunts.
During treaty negotiations, Chief Pakan requested a larger reserve,
to allow land for the people who had not been assigned a reserve. One
wonders if he was thinking of the Métis people, or of the many small
bands that still lived a mobile life in the unsettled land north of Lac
La Biche.
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