Treaties like Constitutions Should not be written in stone.

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Treaties

 

 

Nipigon, Ontario

 

On the second day of our trip to Eastern Canada we travelled through Nipigon Ontario. Our first morning on the trip really started with a short tour of Nipigon and then breakfast at a local restaurant there by the name of Ducky’s. Inside the restaurant is graced with a lot of parts from trees. Such as Birch bark and slices of birch trees. Thank goodness we did not have to make toast out of those slices. The wall was hung with snowshoes and massive moose antlers. We realized we really were in the north woods. The French toast was excellent with generous portions of real maple syrup. And bacon. I don’t mind that bacon does not come from the north woods. Maybe it came from LA Broquerie Hy-life pork.

 

Nipigon is a place where some of the members of the Flying Post First Nation have settled. Members of the Flying Post First Nation are widely spread out. Many of them don’t live in their designated Indian Reserve. Some of them live near Nipigon Ontario where we had breakfast. Flying Post First Nation was at one time an independent First Nation as part of the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN), and later joined with or merged with the Wabun Tribal Council in 2007. Flying Post’s priorities include encouraging its members to pursue educational and professional ambitions and to create a sustainable economy for the First Nation that will create prosperity for future generations of its members.

Though most of the Flying Post First Nation members are located near Nipigon, others live in various parts of the country. The official territory of the Flying Post FN is located near Timmins, Ontario along the Ground Hog River. The Reserve lands were established between the government and First Nation people in Northern Ontario through the signing of Treaty #9 in 1905 and 1906 with later additional adhesions in 1929 and 1930. In 1906, Flying Post lands were identified in a ‘Schedule of Reserves’ in the Treaty #9 document and described the First Nation Reserve lands as follows – ‘In the province of Ontario, commencing at a point half a mile south of Six-Mile Rapids, on the east side of Ground Hog River, thence south a distance of four miles, and of sufficient depth to give an area of twenty-three square miles.’ As a lawyer who many times drafted land descriptions for various legal documents, I was amused by the looseness of the legal definition of the Reserve. But they are part of a Treaty and that makes them constitutional documents in Canadian law.

 

According to a subsequent Chief of the First Nation, Chief Murray Ray, the Treaty documents “included many discrepancies that came out of miscommunication.”   Chief Black Ice was the first recognized Chief of Flying Post First Nation. He had been informed of the treaty making process while his people were living near Groundhog River. However, they just happened to be there at the time, but they were nomadic, as were many First Nations people of Canada. The government of Canada did not respect the nomadic lifestyle of the Ojibway and Cree people of northern Ontario. As a result, the legal documents describing their Treaty lands were based on including the land which they happened to occupy at that time. Not necessarily the land they would occupy the net year. It was a like trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole. That process never ends well and it didn’t here either. This is just one example, among many, of how cultural differences between First Nations and Canadians of European descent mashed up their relationship.

When people of the First Nation realized what land they were entitled to under the Treaty, many were displeased as they considered it a poor permanent location. Some of the members of Flying Post First Nation joined other First Nations instead.

In the 1960s, some Flying Post First Nation members began to organize themselves during the formation of First Nation political organizations such as Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN). During that time, they re-established themselves as a First Nation entity and elected a Chief and Council to represent their people.

First Nations people of Canada usually made it clear to their Canadian government negotiators that they expected frequent revision and renewal of the treaties to iron out problems and keep them current in accordance with current expectations on both sides. Had such frequent renewals occurred there would likely have been fewer complications resulting in happier relations between First Nation peoples and the Canadian government. Treaties like Constitutions should always be living documents, not pressed in unmovable stone. A good example of this mistake is the American constitution. as a result of failure to amend in many years it has become calcified and an impediment to good government instead of a facilitator. While in earlier years amendments were common, in modern times amendments seem all but impossible leading to inevitable grief. It really is impossible to negotiate documents for ever. Neither party is long happy with the results. Such documents need to change. They  must be alive.

 

Fundamental Misunderstandings Lead to Fundamental Grief

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, civilization, Colonialism, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

As I have been saying many of the problems between Indigenous Canadians and non-Indigenous Canadians are the result of misunderstandings in the past, and misunderstanding that have continued.

 

As a result of all of these misunderstandings, when many years later the Europeans approached the Indigenous people to make treaties, it was very difficult for their differing world views not to influence what they thought they were agreeing to. For example, Indigenous People thought they were agreeing to share the land while the newcomers thought the indigenous people were agreeing to cede or give up the land to the newcomers.  That very fundamental differing point of view has seriously disturbed relations between them ever since.

According to Barbara Huck,

“Though decision-making was by consensus, most North American cultures put great stock in individuals and lauded efforts on behalf of the community. Status was achieved not by owning property but by giving it away.  Religion permeated every aspect of their lives and was based on respect for the Earth and all living things.”

 

That did not mean all relations between Indigenous groups were peaches and cream. There were conflicts between groups. And those conflicts were real and sometimes vicious. Europeans did not have a monopoly on violence. Disputes between indigenous groups often turned violent and often escalated after that. Yet the overall attitudes of newcomers were radically different.

The world views of the Europeans were very different from that of Indigenous peoples.

As Huck said,

“The newcomers from Europe had a very different world view. Theirs was a class society, governed in an authoritarian way by men who viewed land and its resources as objects to be exploited. They greatly admired the accumulation of personal wealth and assigned positions of power to those who were particularly successful at amassing goods and money. Generosity was viewed as philanthropy, an act of charity, not necessity.”

 

Some of us may be surprised to find that Indigenous people were more democratic than the new comers.

There was another very important difference between the two groups. The Indigenous People saw themselves as part of the natural world, particularly identified with the land in which they lived. They had a deeply spiritual relationship to that natural world as a result. The Europeans saw the natural world as something to own individually and exploit.  Barbara Huck explained the European attitudes this way:

“Their primary allegiance was to the concept of the nation-state and national identity was closely tied to language, religion, and race. They believed implicitly in European superiority and felt compelled to try persuade other cultures to embrace their world view. Yet with few exceptions, Europeans proved woefully unprepared for survival in North America. The first 250 years of European contact were fraught with disorientation, disaster, and privation. Native North Americans provided guiding services, information, interpretation, clothing, medicine and food., as well as wives and extended families. All this was in addition to the furs that were the primary objects of early French and later British interest. And time after time, they rescued the newcomers from starvation. Yet Europeans never did comprehend that this spontaneous, culturally entrenched generosity required  reciprocity. Instead, native North Americans in need were termed beggars.”

 

To the natives of North America, reciprocity was not just a cardinal virtue, it was a religious principle. The newcomers did not catch on. They were prepared to accept gifts from the natives, but often failed to reciprocate when the opportunity arose.  Who is the more civilized? These differing attitudes prepared the ground for misunderstandings and eventually conflicts.  As Huck said in her book on the fur trade of North America,

“This climate of misunderstanding colored the fur trade and the progress of Europeans across the continent. From the 16th century St. Lawrence Valley to the Pacific Coast 300 years later, the pattern was repeated again and again. Recognizing it is fundamental to appreciating the profound changes that took place in North America, between 1550 and 1860, and perhaps just as important in understanding today’s attempts to rectify some of the mistakes of the past.”

 

This is where learning comes in. To learn from our mistakes is important. But to do that our mistakes must be honestly confronted. How else can we get better? Unfortunately, people are often reluctant to admit mistakes, and that makes matters worse. Not better.

 

European Savages

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, civilization, Colonialism, History, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

On our trip across eastern Canada I had many opportunities to consider Canadian history.

The Indigenous people encountered by Europeans were definitely not savages.  They were members of sophisticated societies that all too often the Europeans did not well understand. Many of the Europeans were blinded by prejudice thinking that they could bring civilization and God to the barbarians and heathens. This was nonsense that the Europeans believed and passed on to their descendants and was largely responsible for the creation of white male supremacy favoured by their clans, but clearly absurd.  The indigenous people were civilized people and had a lot to teach the European newcomers while they were prepared to learn a lot from them as well. That is a wise attitude isn’t it?

It certainly was not true, as many Europeans thought, that this new land was empty of people. England, for example adopted the concept of terra nullius, a Latin phrase meaning “nobody’s land,” to justify their bloody claims. According to this theory, terra nullius included territory without a European recognized sovereign, where no one who counted lived.  Again, this was nonsense.

Contrary to such barbaric unfounded prejudices there were people all over the entire western hemisphere when Europeans arrived and these people mattered just as much as the visitors. The Europeans had no monopoly on civilization. In fact, often they revealed a startling lack of civilization. As Barbara Huck said in her book,

“Parts of North and Central America were among the most densely populated places on Earth. Some anthropologists have estimated the total population of the continent 500 years ago, including Mexico and Central America, at between 112 and 140 million. Mexico, the spectacular Aztec capital, was one of the three largest cities in the world when the Spaniards first laid eyes on it.

Much of Canada and the United States was considerably less populated than that—estimates put the total population of both between nine and 12 million—but North America was not, as some have imagined it, terra nullius, a land without people. And many societies, such as the Iroquoians, were healthier, more prosperous and less class-bound than their European counterparts of the same period.”

 

If first contact was indeed a case of civilization meeting barbarity, it is likely that the Europeans were the barbarians!  

It is also noteworthy, the Indigenous people who first encountered these Europeans in many ways did not share European attitudes and values. As Huck said,

“…the Americas were literally a world apart and North American values and beliefs were very different –in some ways almost directly contrary to the perspectives of the strangers who began to arrive on their shores in the early 1500s, the beginning of the contact period.”

 

For example, I have pointed out elsewhere that indigenous people of North American had views that were by no means all the same. They had many diverse views, just like Europeans.  The spiritual beliefs of indigenous people, for example, were very different from the newcomers, and in my view often preferable. We are of course, each entitled to our own views on that and I intend to continue commenting on those differences.

 

They also had very different views about how societies should be organized and how they should be governed and how wealth should be produced and shared. I find the differences profoundly interesting.  Barbara Huck in her book also commented on them:

 

“Indeed, it’s hard to imagine two more conflicting world views. Whether farmers or hunters, the vast majority of the people of what are now Canada and the United States lived communally in groups of varying sizes. The territories they inhabited were not owned, as we recognize land ownership, but rather commonly acknowledged  to be theirs to use. They governed by consensus, valued generosity and self-reliance, and loathed acquisitiveness and coercion. Stinginess and miserly behavior were strongly condemned. Almost everywhere it was considered immoral to allow anyone to go hungry if food was available.”

 

Not a bad way to live. Maybe the Europeans were the savages.

 

North American Farmers: Not What you Think

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, civilization, Colonialism, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous People before Contact

 

Speaking about the east coast and central regions of Canada which we visited on this wonderful trip we could try to answer Barbara Huck’s challenge to her challenge  to imagine a land where people just 500 years ago lived in towns and villages that were very different than we previously believed.  The people were not savages, as some of the Europeans erroneously believed. They were members of a thriving civilization.   As Huck explained,

“They tilled the soil and grew a remarkable array of crops—corn, squash, melons, beans, and tobacco. Not far away, the lakes and rivers were full of fish and the forests abounded with game. The women of this land did much of the fishing and farming; the men, for the most part, had other interests. While their wives and sisters and mothers planted and tilled the soil and cared for the children, the men travelled far from home, trading north and south, hunting, and as often as not, fighting. Theirs was a powerful nation, with many allies and intentions of expanding across a great river at the edge of their land.”

 

 

This all reminded me of what our guides taught us on our trip through the Africa;  often the women carry water and other vital goods on their heads, while the men sat around under trees and discussed important matters.

But who were these farmers Huck described in her book?  They were not Europeans as we might have thought. They were wholly indigenous. This is how she described them:

“The farmers were Iroquoian—the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk—who by 1500 occupied a large territory south of the St. Lawrence River and would soon unite to become the Five Nations Iroquois. To the north were Innu and their Algonquian speaking allies, from the Mi’Kmaq of the Atlantic Shores to eh Anishinabe of the Upper Great Lakes.

These cultures differed from one another as much as Scots differ from Spaniards today, or Finns from French. Some North American societies were settled and agrarian, others were seasonably mobile; some turned to the sea for their livelihood, others lived off the bounty of the inland plains.

As in Europe today, the societies of 15th century and 16th century North America spoke dozens of different languages. And like their modern counterparts most of these languages could be traced to a handful of common language groups.”

These Iroquois nations got together and created a democratic system of government that the framers of the American constitution were inspired by when they created what is often called the world’s first constitutional democracy. These Indigenous People y were certainly not savages.

History is Important

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Critical thinking, Death of Truth, History, Indigenous People After Contact, Truth Seeking

 

 

I believe there is a lot to be learned from history.   And much history can be learned from travel. History teaches us the truth about the past. At least it always tries to find the truth. Sometimes that truth lies underneath decades or even centuries of obfuscations or outright propagandist lies. Those lies were designed to obscure uncomfortable truths.  I want to face those truths; not escape from them.

Barbara Huck’s book has helped to do that and it has enriched our journey.  Huck made some very interesting comments about our Canadian history. As she explained,

Today, on the cusp of a new millennium, North Americans have more tools than ever before for travelling through time. Thanks to new technologies and new perspectives, we are well equipped to imagine life five thousand or five million years ago. We can contemplate doing blood tests on the body of  an ancient trader found high on an Alpine pass or cloning a woolly mammoth in China. Yet for the most part, an appreciation of life here just 500 years ago eludes us.

 

I did not want to elude that story. I wanted to approach that history on this journey.  I think it is important.

History is important because the truth is important. Nowadays a lot of people don’t want old monuments to be taken down.  Some say that is erasing history. I disagree. Paying homage to old statues, or refusing to critique history is to erase history. Many people don’t want to look at our past history because it might make them uncomfortable.  They prefer self-satisfying illusions.  Personally, I would rather be disturbed in my comfortable pew than sit there in ignorance ignoring the truth. If the truth is not challenging its probably not the truth.

 

 

A Fundamental Misunderstanding

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, civilization, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

When Europeans arrived in what they called, wrongly, “The New World,” they quickly encountered the people who already lived here. In fact, they had lived here for thousands of years and had done rather well at that.

The  indigenous people were shocked at how these newcomers from Europe were not as healthy as the people who lived here. The Europeans were shorter than the North Americans and much less healthy lives.  Added to that, the Indigenous People were shocked at the great inequality between the different newcomers. There were classes of people that did extremely  poorly while the elite lived extravagantly well.  The Indigenous people did not understand this. They thought this meant the newcomers were not really civilized. I think they were right.

The Indigenous People realized the newcomers had some good ideas. They had amazing technologies.  Guns, big ships, and horses to name a few. But the Europeans also had a lot to learn from the inhabitants.  They were not able to survive here without help from the native North Americans. At first, they learned quickly and well. In time the Europeans forgot how they needed help.

The indigenous people of North America knew how to live well in North America. Even though the continent had incredibly variable environments and circumstances, from freezing northern terrains, to lush forests, great plains, amazing deserts, and everything in between, the inhabitants new how to thrive. Not just survive. But thrive!

Barbara Huck in her wonderful book, Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America, which I have been reading on this trip described it this way:

“Europeans adopted a number of North American technologies such as snowshoes…toboggans, birchbark canoes, and pemmican, but largely misunderstood the continent’s cultures.”

 

And that misunderstanding has made all the difference. It has wreaked havoc. It has destroyed lives, including the lives of many young and vulnerable children. But, in my view at least, it is not too late to do better. We can do better. We must do better.

Indigenous People are talking a lot about land-based education. I like that idea. The land can teach us a lot. But only if we listen and learn. We must pay attention.

Islets in the Stream

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada

 

Ernest Hemingway loved Islands in the Stream. So do I.  He wrote a book with that name, but it was a modest little book. He actually did not want to publish it and it was published after he died.

But I also love islets in the stream. Those are the little islands in lakes and rivers of the Canadian shield.

Just past Kenora and highway 71 that runs south towards Sioux Narrows we saw our first of many little islet. Many lakes have them including of course n Lake of the Woods and Lake Superior.  This one was on Dixie Lake. This is quintessential North Woods scenery that we are frankly fortunate to see. It is a real blessing. Such scenes of small rocky islands exude the Canadian Shield like sacred breath, providing the myst to our souls. Sadly, some of the best little islets escaped the reach of my camera. It is often difficult to stop beside the road with its narrow shoulders. I vow to return to those I missed.  Next time I pledge. Sadly, the next time I usually miss them. But I am grateful for those whose images I could capture with my camera.

This was a fine little islet, though a bit on the scraggly side. I didn’t mind that. After all, less is more. I really was not able coax it to yield a great photo. The  light was too dull this afternoon.  Or perhaps more likely, I was too dull or in too much of a hurry. But, as I frequently say, ‘You gotta dance with the girl you brung.’

Later I realized I should have walked east rather than west from the rest area. There was a much better islet there, but sadly, as I saw as I was speeding past it, I felt it was time to move on. Next time. This is an emotion I felt often on the trip. Should I stop and go back and grab a photo or persist in moving on. I consider myself a meanderer so should always be able to stop. Sometimes it is best to continue. But sometimes it is best to go back for a second look. Meandering is always good. The only way to travel.

I love islets. To me they speak the modest language of Canada. They seem to arise from the depths of the lake and I never get enough of them.

Inukshuk

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Affinity, art, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

At Dixie Lake, not far past Kenora I stopped the car at a rest stop and strolled in the south side of the highway about a ¼ km along the highway shoulder. I noticed a proudly installed Inukshuk on the north side of the highway at the top of a granite wall created by blasting the top part to of the Canadian Shield.  For generations young boys and other miscreants have been painting information no one is interested in, onto the rocks beside the road. Things like their initials and the initials of their current girlfriends. They used to mar the countryside. Lately, government employees diligently try to paint over these markings as soon as possible. And they do a pretty good job.  Frankly, I consider the messages a desecration. Rarely do we see the graffiti anymore.

 

Building an Inukshut is an entirely other matter. I appreciate everyone of them I see. These I think honour the history of Canada and the places in which they are found. They are respectful. They don’t mar the countryside like painted initials.

But I like them for another reason. A more philosophical reason.

The word “inukshuk” means “in the likeness of a human.” For generations, Inuit have been creating these impressive stone markers on the immense Arctic and sub-Arctic landscapes of Canada to show others where they have been and sometimes to let others know where emergency food can be found. Inukshuks really serve more than one function. They are used to guide fellow travellers sort of like a modern GPS is used. Some warn strangers of dangers. Some help assisting hunters and other to mark sacred places.

Sometimes they show how the people are part of the land and the land is part of the people. Even rocks. After all, as Carl Sagan said, “we are all stardust.”

Humans were created out of the dust of ancient stars. Whenever I think of life that way I am in awe. Imagine that each one of us is created by dust sent into the atmosphere by the big bang billions of years ago.

Inukshuts are really just piles of rocks. Nothing more. But they are places where people show reverence to nature.   They show us how we are all connected. I consider them holy messages. The opposite of desecrations. They are spiritual manifestations created by artists to suggest those connections that are the essence of religion.

A hodgepodge

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous--Reconciliation

This is a badly burned hotel that has been abandoned it would seem along side the Trans-Canada Highway in northern Ontario.  I must admit, sometimes I think of Canada this way. Not always, thank goodness., but too often. Is this what Canada is like?  I will come back to this photo later.

I love travelling, and an essential part of travel, for me, is learning. I want to learn new things about new places from new people. Or, learn more about places I already know to some extent.

One of the things I wanted to learn about was Canada.  I lived in Canada my entire life except for the last 10 years where we lived in Arizona for 3 months and Canada 9 months each . Give or take.

I thought I knew Canada. But did I really know it?  Of course, not. I had a lot to learn. One of the things I have been trying to learn more about for at least a decade and even more, is the relationship between indigenous people and the descendants of the European settlers as well as an amazing array of immigrants and their descendants who came to live in Canada a country that was already clearly occupied. They have all made for an incredibly interesting place here in Canada. Not a melting pot. Rather, a hodgepodge.

What is a hodgepodge? According to Vocablulary.com

“A hodgepodge is a random assortment of things. A dorm room might be furnished with a hodgepodge of milk crates, antique mirrors, and a poster of a kitten hanging on a branch with one paw. Hodgepodge is a funny-sounding word for a somewhat funny occurrence — a grouping of things or people that don’t fit together.”

 

They don’t fit together. Yet they do. Somehow, inexplicably, they do. They make it work.  The phrase is partly French and partly English.  Pretty appropriate to Canada. We have been trying to put the French and English together for hundreds of years. Lately, we have come to realize there is another very important group of people we neglected for too long. These of course are the indigenous people who were here all along. Yet painfully, awkwardly, and wrongly forgotten or neglected. Again, according to Vocablulary.com,

“In the case of hodgepodge and hotchpotch, the rhyme is not an accident. These words came to English from early French in the form hochepot. The spelling was changed to make the second half of the word rhyme with the first. In French hochepot was a stew of many foods cooked together in a pot.”

 

I love stews. Through ingredients into a pot heat them up and enjoy. Great in theory. But does it work? We must admit it has not worked very well in the past. But we can do better. I think we want to do better. First, we must be willing to learn and willing to change. We must in humility admit our mistakes of the past and honestly try to do better. That is what reconciliation is all about.

How can we do that? I wanted to think about that and how we got into this hodgepodge in the first place. As Chief Justice Murray Sinclair, the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada often said, “You can’t understand where you are unless you understand how you got there.”

I wanted to consider that on this journey through the eastern part of Canada. How did we get into this hodgepodge? Is there a way out?

 

The Not So Glorious Winnipeg River

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada

 

 

For this trip we did something highly unusual. We woke and packed the car in a reasonable amount of time. I remember one year we were embarking on a trip to Arizona it took us so long to get going, it appeared that we might not get past St. Pierre Manitoba. That day we had a late lunch at Mitchell Manitoba about 6 miles from Steinbach. Not a great start. This year was much better. Far from perfect, but much better.

Our packing this year was suspiciously efficient. Christiane and I are not famous for being efficient. Something must be wrong. This time both of my two bags and Christiane’s 2 bags were not full!  Moreover, the car was not full either. Have we missed some urgent items?  Are they large ones? Any other explanation seems highly unlikely. Even the bulky walker we packed for Chris does not eat up all available space.

As we drove down the Trans-Canada highway we marvelled at the Canadian scenery.  The beauty of Canada is stunning. Some friends have actually said to us that there is nothing to see between here (Steinbach) and the east coast.  This is also insane. It is not Canada that is boring. People who think that are boring. They are boring.

We saw rocks and trees and lakes in endless combinations of beauty are that are never repeated and are boring only to the boring.

The golden phragmites beside the Trans-Canada highway in some places were a gorgeous unique white gold. The leaves of trees were just starting to turn colour. That is what we were hoping for. We expect to be about 6 weeks on this trip, going right through the leaf season and we want to soak it all in.

One thing I found frustrating about this trip and I noticed it within about 2 hours of the trip.  That was that it is very difficult along the Trans-Canada Highway to stop and take photographs.  I had purchased a new camera recently, since I had accidentally smashed it earlier in the year in Arizona. I wanted to take a lot of photographs.  I was still learning how to use the camera. But there is very little room to stop and take photographs on the highway. It is basically illegal in most places. More importantly, Chris gets easily annoyed with me and my frequent stops. So I did my best not to make too many stops along the way.

 

As a result I have no photographs of the historic Winnipeg River.

 

I had taken a book along as sort of a guidebook. An unusual guidebook. It was Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America, by Barbara Huck and had many interesting illustrations and photographs. Some of the photographs were taken by my friend, and great photographer,  Dennis Fast. The cover of the book invited us to “Discover the Highways that Opened a Continent.”  That is what I wanted to do.

 

At Kenora we crossed the historic Winnipeg River. Huck’s book had some interesting information on this river I had crossed many times:

 

Dropping from Lake of the Woods in the Canadian Shield into Lake Winnipeg at the edge of the Manitoba Lowlands, the voyageurs knew was a wild, beautiful waterway that traversed Earth’s most ancient mountains.  Eric Morse, historian and discriminating canoeist, called it “unquestionably the grandest and most beautiful river the Montreal Northmen saw on their whole journey from Lake Superior to Lake Athabasca.

 

This meant this was a fantastic river to cross in the first couple of hours of our journey.  What a great start. We were ready for adventures.

 

The book went on though in its description of this grand and beautiful river as she called it:

 

“Over its 225 kilometres length it drops 100 metres and was once a river of spectacular falls and rapids. Today, though tamed by eight dams along its length, parts of the waterway still invite even challenge, paddlers.”

 

What a pity. I love waterfalls and photographed many of them on this trip, but not the Winnipeg River. There were none to see from the highway. All gone in the dubious name of progress.  I have photographed the river on other occasions in many places, but not on this trip.

This also sums up our trip. The best of times the worst of times. We saw the good, the bad, and the ugly of Canada. We saw places of splendid beauty. We saw places of desolation.  we saw Canada rising and we saw Canada in sad decline.