FORT QU’APPELE: Originally established as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in 1852, the town, current population about 2000, is located in the Qu'Appelle Valley approximately 65 kms NE of Regina. It is situated between Echo & Mission Lakes, the 2nd & 3rd of the four Calling Lakes. [The Qu'Appelle valley is graced with a beautiful chain of lakes over its 160 mile course to meet the Assiniboine River at St. Lazare in Manitoba.] The town of Fort Qu’Appelle, not to be confused with the nearby town of Qu'Appelle, is adjacent to the site of the original trading post which is maintained as an historical site & museum. The 1897 Hudson's Bay general store building, made of fieldstone, is still standing on main street, though long disused by the Bay.
The surrounding area is home to grain & cattle farms, small rural communities, & 16 Indian reserves, likely the main reason that Fort Qu'Appelle has the largest detachment of RCMP per capita in the country. The town's substantial growth, apart from its status as a Hudson's Bay Company "factory", first occurred in the 1880s & 1890s when the Canadian Pacific Railway moved westward & European settlers began arriving. Despite the accelerating decline of rural Saskatchewan in general, the town grew through most of the 1950s & 1960's because it served as a service center for the many summer cottage communities that developed all along the Qu'Appelle lakes in this area. As farms & other smaller centers steadily depopulated, the town also gained from urban drift, a process that quickly began to accelerate in 1964 when rural school districts were closed & school children from farms were bused to town schools. With many rural churches also closing in the 1950s, the collapse of rural farming communities was now assured. It benefited the larger centers like Fort Qu'Appelle, but impoverished the community as a whole.
The Fort Qu'Appelle area is a popular tourist destination both in summer & winter. The area lakes offer swimming, boating, fishing & other water related activities in the summer, & skiing (downhill* & cross-country) , snowmobiling & ice fishing in winter. (*The Mission Ridge Ski Hill is located just south of the town near the Treaty 4 Grounds.)
Origin of the name: Where did the name Qu’Appelle originate? Firstly, Qu’appelle (qui appelle) means “who calls?" in French. There are many interesting legends surrounding the naming of the valley, but the preferred one is from Pauline Johnson’s hauntingly beautiful poem "The Legend of the Qu'Appelle". The name likely derived from the Cree name "Kahtapwao" which in that language means “Who is calling?" According to legend, the old time Indians heard voices while paddling their canoes on one of the four chain lakes, so that lake was given that name. (The lake is now known as Lake Katepwa.) Since French was the language of the North-West Company, the translation of 'Kahtapwao'' to "Qu'Appelle'' (qui appelle = who calls) was quite natural. That also explains the name 'Calling Lakes' often used for the chain of lakes in the area.
The NWMP link: The North West Mounted Police (NWMP), the precursor to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, established a small outpost in Fort Qu'Appelle on the site of the present golf course in 1876. The headquarters were transferred from Fort Qu'Appelle to Regina in 1882. A cairn was erected in 1955 to mark the site where the barracks stood, & in 1976, an interpretive shelter was officially opened at the same site. Two large plaques outline some of the history of the NWMP.
Fort Qu’Appele was almost the capital of the province: Because the building of the railway was accelerated by 1878 & a more southerly route along the Qu'Appelle Valley was chosen, the existing NWT capital of Battleford was deemed too far away from the railway. A new site for the capital was thought necessary & then Lieutenant Governor E. Dewdney was given free hand in choosing the location in 1882. There were many advocates in favor of Fort Qu'Appelle for capital of the territory. The year before, however, a group who thought Fort Qu'Appelle would certainly be chosen, bought up most of the property suitable for a townsite and were holding it for an expected windfall. This fact, together with engineering problems, were likely big factors in the choice of Regina as capital instead. In retrospect, the valley no doubt remains more beautiful now as a result of this decision long ago.
The Louis Riel Rebellion of 1885 connection: General Middleton, who had brought his troops from Winnipeg by rail, chose Fort Qu'Appelle as the temporary headquarters & base of operations for his troops on their way to Batoche, Riel's headquarters in the Indian & Metis uprising of 1885. On April 6, 1885, he & his force of 402 (including scouts) & 120 wagons left Fort Qu'Appelle on their trip north to Batoche via telegraph hill on the Carlton Trail. The building General Middleton used for an office is said to have been one of the original Hudson Bay fort buildings, a building that is probably the oldest building in southern Saskatchewan & certainly the oldest Hudson Bay building in the Province. That log building now forms part of the Fort Qu'Appelle Historical Museum and is situated on the site of the original fort.
The town’s web site: http://www.fortquappelle.com/
A Short History of Fort Qu'Appelle & Area, including the story behind the name can be found here:
http://www.fortquappelle.com/hist.html Another great site for info:
http://www.virtualsk.com/current_issue/valley_of_legend.html
Info about the Qu’Appelle River system, in general, can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qu'Appelle_River
TREATY 4:
At Fort Qu'appelle in 1874, when 13 separate Cree & Saulteaux Nations (followed by the Assiniboine Nations) signed Treaty 4 with the Queen of Great Britain, they agreed to relinquish their right to 195,000 square kms of land to the Government of Canada, in exchange for reserve lands, annuity payments, tax exemptions, medical services, schools and a variety of other treaty rights. Among the rights granted were the creation of "Treaty Grounds", land set aside for treaty meetings, payment of annuities & other gatherings.
Twenty years later, in 1894, the amity & cooperation that led to the signing of Treaty 4 had largely evaporated. Although the federal government's Department of Indian Affairs officially transferred the ownership of the Treaty Grounds to the Department of the Interior that year, unofficially, the First Nations signatories to Treaty 4 had lost access to the land not long after the agreement was signed. Tensions between local tribes - who were facing ever-worsening living conditions, & the local settlers, had led government officials to ban large aboriginal gatherings. Their freedom of movement was further limited following the Cree uprising & North West Rebellion of 1885 when a pass system was imposed that prevented reserve residents from leaving their reserves without permission.
A hundred years later, in 1985, when an aboriginal burial ground was discovered on the site of the original Treaty Grounds in Fort Qu'appelle, the Treaty 4 First Nations filed a claim for the land. Ten years later in 1995, an agreement provided compensation to purchase the land & to re-establish the Treaty Grounds, and in 2001, the land was officially converted to Indian Reserve status. Today, there are 34 signatories to the Treaty 4 agreement including 27 First Nations bands from Saskatchewan and 7 from Manitoba.
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