Another Contact

I received the photos and information below nearly a year ago. I didn't post it until now because I was going to try and research the names the reader provided. I still haven't had the time to do that, but I fully intend to. In the meantime, I figured why hide the information? Perhaps one of you reading this knows this family and can respond. Feel free to comment here or contact me directly...


Hi there,

I saw the St. Vincent memories site. That is pretty cool and interesting. I love that site. I like looking at old pictures and hearing about the stories. I was wondering since you know quite a bit about North Dakota and its history. I was wondering if you know much on families there. I am trying to do genealogy on my dad's side of the family. I keep coming up with road blocks. My dad was raised by his great aunt in Canada and his brothers were put in an orphanage after their mother passed away from childbirth. My grandfather decided not to raise them and probably never know why. My father died a few years ago and i am trying to find info out. He didn't know much information. I have some information. I found out my dad's mother's side were native American Indians. His father's side was french Canadian. My dad's mom side has been published in books by Gail Morin. My grandmother was Marie Blanche Campbell or 'Pearl'. She was born June 16, 1903 in Leroy, North Dakota. Her parents were Charles Campbell (he was born April 19, 1880 in Leroy, North Dakota baptized at St. Joseph - his parents were James Campbell (parents were William Campbell and Eliza Ross) and Isabelle Delorme (daughter of Joseph Delorme and Isabelle Gourneau) and Marie Veronique Ritchot (she was born March 16, 1877 in Leroy North Dakota - her parents were Raphael Ritchot and Isabelle Gladu). My grandmother was married August 25, 1922 in Walhalla North Dakota at St. Boniface Catholic church. She married Charles V. Dumas (born February 28, 1891 in St. Rock, Quebec, Canada - his parents were Charles Dumas and Rosalie Dumas (1st cousins) - I freaked out when I found out....Charles V. Dumas is the son of Joseph Dumas (son of Francois Dumas and Mary Marthe Cartier) and Esther Allaire (daughter of Olivier Allaire and Catherine Leduc). Rosalie Dumas is daughter of Treffle Dumas (same as Joseph's) and Rosalie Bresse (daughter of Charles Bresse and Mary Rocheleau).

My grandparents had several children - all boys - now all deceased. My cousin, me, and my brother are left from my grandparents. My parents had me later in life. My brother is old enough to be my dad. He is almost 20 years older than me. My parents didn't think they could have kids in their late 40's and I come along and surprised them. I was wondering if there are old newspapers articles from Walhalla area on any of these family members I am particularly looking for the Campbell side. The only thing that I do know is that my grandfather told my aunt that he descended from Scottish lines because they had accents. Genealogists that I have contacted can't seem to find out where the family comes from. the other family is documented. I find it strange that the Campbells can't be found. It seems like someone is really not wanting to me to find out and I don't know why. I was hoping maybe that you might know or maybe give a direction where i could look. I appreciate any advice. Hope to hear from you soon. Have a great day and weekend.

Thank you,
Trisha Dumas

Connections to the Past

One of the amazing things I've learned by my (so far) 35 years of family history and local history research, is that my family has many interesting - and surprising - connections with other early settlers. As I have said here many times, my mother's claim that we were related to almost everyone in the county, is not far from the truth. And it is not only on my mother's side of the family, who emigrated directly to St. Vincent, but also on my father's side, whose connection to the area is more indirect initially, but as deep in the end...

For example, my father's brother, my uncle Robert Short, married a local area girl by the name of Frances Gooselaw.

I didn't realize until recently, when I entered her information in the family tree, that her line traces back to the long-lived Angelica Zaste Gooselaw (Gosselin).

On my mother's side of the family, my uncle John married a local girl named Lena Paul. Aunt Lena was a direct descendant of Cuthbert Grant, an early prominent Metis leader.

Pembina Chippewa Métis Cemetery

After recently reading about a trip by a teacher and her students to the Pembina Metis Cemetery, I got in touch the instructor, Leslie Peltier.

I asked Leslie if she could share with me about the ties between Turtle Mountain and the Pembina area by answering the following questions:

1. Why is the Pembina Metis Cemetery important?
2. Does anyone have relatives buried there?
3. Does anyone have any biographical information and/or stories of people buried there?
4. I grew up with many Metis families, went to school with them, but didn't know they were Metis never hearing the term until many years later. I seriously doubt many Metis I knew really knew their own history. They were heavily integrated into our communities. Which is ironic, because after studying the history of our area, the Metis were the first and the majority in the Pembina area when it began being a settlement. Most Metis left, for various reasons, but some stayed. How do you see the legacy of the Metis people to the Pembina area?
5. Why did you choose to study about the Pembina Metis and/or the cemetery?

Their answers are below...

Dear Trish,

Thanks (Miigwech) for waiting for answers. The class is now over and the students are dispersed, doing other things this summer, but are still interested in the ongoing struggle to maintain our generational connections by ceremonies and grounds clean up as was done by our group on May 20, 2008 with tribal councilmen and Turtle Mt. Tribal dept. of Natural Resources. I spoke with the students and told them to answer your questions as they want. I will try now to do so.

1. The Pembina Chippewa Métis Cemetery is important as a direct line to our ancestry, as a part of our people’s gynecological history and to our cultural roots.

2. Yes, there are many Chippewa people here at Turtle Mt. Chippewa Reservation that can trace back to Pembina relatives 3-4 generations.

3. Such information would have to come from the elders memories. To do that and record it are another matter. It would be on an individual to individual family basis, family stories.

4. ...Yes it is ironic that the very people who worked so hard to make money for the big fur trade companies all moved on and were left penniless and unwanted, or ashamed to admit to being Indian. That is the one essential element that the faculty and students here at the Turtle Mt. Community College insisted on upholding in our research – that our sense of pride in being Chippewa extends to those ancestors buried there in Pembina and in all the other yet to be discovered places along the Red River cart trails extending from the Red River all the way across the present-day state of North Dakota. Today we teach that we (members of T Mt. Band of Chippewa) should have pride in our people’s knowledge of the land, the methods and techniques of the hunt and in our Indian customs.

5. Because there is so much unfinished and misleading information out there about us as a people. We also felt that a serious injustice has been done to our people that needed to be addressed. We studied it to uncover the truth and to look at the alternatives we have available to make wise decisions in the future if other burial sites are in peril both here on the reservation and off.

Hope this is what you wanted. Miigwech! Leslie

Background:

They are maintaining the cemetery now, showing respect by keeping the grass mowed and fixing the markers as needed. The tribe is also talking about sponsoring an archeological survey to verify grave locations and individuals' indentities in those graves.

Custody of the site was given to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa after an unsuccessful bid to make the area a state park by the Union Nationale Metisse, a Manitoba-based organization founded to preserve Metis culture. Earlier the same year, the group from Canada planted simple, wooden crosses to mark the graves of some of those buried at the site.

Controversy stirred in 2005, when the Union Nationale Metisse said members of Turtle Mountain weren’t taking proper care of the cemetery.

That’s not the case now, according to Brady Grant, the tribe’s natural resources director. For the past three years, he’s made the 300-mile roundtrip about six times a year to mow the grass and re-seed bare spots at the site.

Learning About the past

Leslie Peltier, who teaches Contemporary Indian Issues at the Turtle Mountain Community College, stood for the first time Tuesday at the cemetery’s edge. She offered tobacco — a sign of respect — as she stepped onto the site. It wasn’t until she glimpsed an eagle overhead that she said she felt their visit was the right thing to do, she said.

The visitors prayed and performed ceremonies of respect to honor the dead. A drum group from Turtle Mountain sang and prayed there as well.

Peltier and two of her students, Symone Morin and Alexis Zaste, visited the site as part of a class project.

“Since these are our ancestors, we decided to look into it. We didn’t know the history of it; I didn’t even know this was here,” Zaste said. Her class put together a presentation about the site, titled “Plowed Over,” and presented it to other students from tribal colleges in the state.

There are about 50 markers at the site on about two acres of land, but there’s an additional eight acres preserved. The additional acreage is covered by tall, unkempt grasses and possibly hides the remains of many more unidentified Metis.

Those in attendance talked about ways to improve the site, including adding a place for prayer and possibly planting trees.

Wilkie said the tribal council should fund an archaeological survey on the rest of the site.

“We need to take this back to the council and expand on it. I’m 85 years old, and I want to see the fruit of it come around,” she said.

Storymapping

Exciting times for telling stories of our lives, using technology to make it even more meaningful, and easier for all of us to connect.

Here are some examples...

That's my goal with this blog, too - connecting you with your past, making the present mean even more.

Long Hair & Lasting Friendships

Meet Helen Matthews.

When this photograph was taken, her hair was measured at six feet, four inches long.

Her photo was amongst my grandparents' things when my Grandmother broke up housekeeping in the early 1970's.

Helen was a member of the Matthews family, many who settled in our area. She was not among them, but was one of the family who stayed behind, and married, and eventually moved to Boston. But the families, who were neighbors back in P.E.I., kept in touch, for many years to come. Back then, friendships ran deep, and lasted long, despite distance...