Author: Frederick Leach
Title: 60 Years with Indians and Settlers on Lake Winnipeg
Description: Winnipeg: Frederick Leach, nd (ca. 1973). Paper bound in tapled lime-green wrappers, edition not stated, illustrated with black & white photos as well as maps at inside covers, Pp78. A tight and unmarked, very good or better copy. 155 grams. Scarce. Contents include: First Years in Canada; A Trip with the Treaty Party; Bloodvein; Little Grand Rapids; Indian Medicine and Their Remedies; Remedies Used by Indians in Olden Days; Nineteen Thirty Six; 1937 to September 5, 1965; Police Magistrate; Deputy Judge of the Juvenile Court; Transportation; My Friends the Indians; Progress. To give you a flavour of the book, here are the opening lines from 'First Years in Canada': I arrived in Canada from England in June 1911. I was then nineteen years of age. In the Old Country we had heard that Canada was a place where fortunes could be made. Somehow or other I never did become a millionaire, in fact a day or two after I arrived here I lost nearly all the money I had brought with me. It happened that at the time of my arrival at Winnipeg there was a Provincial fair which included a circus so I decided to go to it and spend a few pleasant moments. The visit wasn't as nice as I had expected for I had my pocket picked and was left with only very few dollars. I went to the Immigation Hall where newcomers could find employment. I was informed that there were plenty of men needed on farms. I accepted a job at Somerset. The train fare would be one cent a mile and my train would be leaving the following morning. I bought my ticket after which I had but a few cents left; they were spent buying a couple of sandwiches. After buying them I went and sat in the station most of the night and until the time of the departure of the train. Believe me, I found the owrk on the farm tough, especially during the harvest when we got up at four in the morning and worked in the fields until dusk. After stooking for such long hours I was more than ready for bed. But at times stooking haunted me even in my sleep and sometimes I would wake up to find myself trying to make stooks out of my pillows or blanket. My boss, Billy Arnold, was good to me but at the end of the harvest season, he, realizing that I was not cut out to be a farmer advised me to try and get a position as teacher in a school. He had heard that there was a shortage of teachers and that the Department of Education was trying to fill vacancies. Billy paid me my wages, fifty dollars for four months' work, after which I left for Winnipeg where, by chance, I came in contact with Mr. Roger Goulet, inspector of schools, who gave me a permit to teach in a school which was to be opened at Vannes, now called Abbeville situated on the Gypsumville line, forty miles north of St. Laurent. During my year of teaching I made friends with Father Herve Peran who little by little spoke to me about missionary life. After giving the matter considerable thought I decided to follow his advice or at least give it a trial. This decision I have never regretted. During my young days at college our master of social studies was a Mr. Turner. When teaching us the geography of Canada I remember him mentioning the inland seas. It seems hardly possible that half a century has gone since I first saw Lake Winnipeg. I had been teaching in other schools a couple of years when, in June 1918, Father Philippe Vales and I were named for Berens River, an Indian mission situated on the northeastern shores of Lake Winnipeg; the Father was to be director of the mission and I was to teach in a school to be built on our arrival.

Keywords: Indians Settlers Lake Winnipeg; Frederick Leach; Berens River Manitoba Manitoba


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