Within the rich lineage of Alberta Métis Cultural History and indigenous history overall, Ralph Richard offers up his own experiences.
When asked “who are the Métis people in your own words?”, Richard stated, “Well, the Metis people are… Metis is a French word. Which means mixed blood, and that’s where we come from. We are the Metis people.”
Reminiscing on some of his favorite childhood memories in Paddle Prairie, Richard said, “Remembered when the first store was built in Paddle Prairie. The summer of 1942 is when the Betterment Act moved in. They built; the farmers mind you, there wasn’t many farmers then because like I say there was seven families that moved in 1939. When we moved in here the spring of 39, Prescilla’s grandparents, the Christians, John Christian and Marie Christian, they were living here already. They’ve been living here, I think since the 20s or so. My memory is I guess when the first store was built. Well before then, the people had to drive to Keg River post.”
Alberta Métis Cultural History
“They had a Hudson Bay store there. In fact, there were three stores at one time. Frank Jackson had a trading post and Remlen Ferry brothers had a store and Hudson Bay had a store. It was 20 miles west from Paddle Prairie. That’s where the people that moved in in the early days, that’s where they had to go and get their groceries. But finally, in 1942 when, like I said, when the Metis Betterment Act moved in, the farmers got together. They built a log store and a residence. And we did get our freight then, our groceries, etc in the summertime by either Hudson Bay boat or Jack O’Sullivan sticks and boat.”
Richard continued, “There was other boats that was traveling the rivers from Peace River to Fort Vermillion. That’s how we got our freight. In wintertime, funny well the highway wasn’t even built, there was a guy by the name of Tony Tredik, he had a truck. Winter time…someone they’d bring freight up to here… I’ll go back. In 1943 is when there was enough children to go to school and that’s when we started school. I was a seven-year-old then. Them are the two biggest memories that I have in childhood, of course. So the settlers they had their farms, you know. They pretty well lived off the farm animals then.”
Ralph Richard left High Prairie in October of ’38 for Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement. The government moved in during 1942 and brought with them a big sawmill as well as a large steam engine. As a teenager, Richard eventually got a job at the mill as a lumber scaler.
Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement
Dragging around farm machinery and curating gardens early on proved difficult. But people within the community relished in the task. Eventually getting a store in town proved to be a big difference-maker early on.
There was a strong sense of community, dancing to fiddle music, and playing of ball games. These proved to be great memories during Richard’s earlier upbringing in Paddle Prairie. All of those aforementioned things resonated as important Metis cultural practices to him. Camping, picking berries, and hunting were also big activities among Metis families in the settlement during that era.
Richard began playing guitar at seven and collaborating with prominent fiddlers during his day also seemed to creatively stimulate him. He focused more on farming and learning from his father as opposed to hunting, gathering, or trapping.
Some noticeable changes have taken place in the land and ecosystem with Richard noticing far less Prairie chickens generally. Also, the seemingly lowered amount of birds migrating on an annual basis. Richard notices the land itself being rented out more nowadays and as a legacy farmer, it seems to bother him that there are very few genuine farmers in the local area anymore.
Ralph Richard
The loss of language in the settlement is something Richard has noticed in the younger generations. He quipped, “I think yeah, although I think that’s where a lot of us what went wrong. We didn’t like… Mary and I both speak Cree. None of our kids speak Cree. How many? You don’t speak Cree. That’s the sad part of it, you know. My mama of course my mom never spoke Cree. She was in the mission, her. But my dad, if it wasn’t for my dad, us boys may never have…. Our sisters couldn’t speak Cree. They tried to. But this is how we… But I think I’ll share like it. We should teach our children, our language; the Cree language.”
“Like I go down to John D’Or when I was working in John D’Or. All the other reserves, straight Cree them kids. I was driving back, all I heard was Cree and I used to go to John D’Or, pick up students for volleyball games. You know on weekends when I was working in High Level. It was so nice to hear that ’cause I could understand every word they’re saying, you know. Just happy as a lark. But today’s lost. Sure we have Cree teachers here but tell me how many of the students from way, way back that were taught to speak Cree, could they carry out a sentence in the Cree? I don’t think so.”
Liberty Multimedia Inc. and Paddle Prairie Métis Settlement would like to thank Alberta Culture for its support of these interviews and dedication to preserving Alberta’s history.