Minstrel Show at Kittson Hall

A broadside announcing an upcoming
performance (apologies re: language)
[Published by Pioneer Express] 

In the late 19th and early 20th century, live entertainment was king.  In Pembina, a good share of it was performed on the local opera house's stage, Kittson Hall.

Kittson Hall was a modest venue, seating 250 patrons, managed by W. C. Short.  It brought in various music hall and vaudeville performing acts - singers, comedy, theatre.  

Georgia Minstrels were coming to town:
Touring Vaudeville Shows at the city hall
[Source:  Pioneer Express,  December 29, 1898]

Troupes such as minstrel shows also came through town.  This example (including acceptable language for that time period that is no longer tolerated today) is for a minstrel group set to perform a variety show.

Even in our small villages, through the seemingly 'innocent' acts of entertainment, racial stereotypes were continually reinforced down through the years...

Water Cooler VII: School Memories - Bullying

Humboldt-St. Vincent School, like any other school, had its share of bullying and bullies...

Michael Rustad: I remember when Dave Boatz sang the Beatle's song, "He is a real nowhere man." He adapted it to Walter Petruska. "He's a real no-hair man!" Dave was a comedic genius. When we were altar boys together, he did his best to get me to laugh at the most inopportune times. He would have a running commentary on the qualities of the tongues at communion time. When Mrs. Friebohl (Grandma) and Toots Ryan went for communion, he had me in stitches with his descriptions!

Dave was never mean-spirited but did these pranks always in a spirit of fun. Ok, he went a step too far in dropping cherry bombs in the boy's toilet or putting Elmer's Glue in Martha Roberts lotion bottle. Martha would often use moisturizing cream and then wipe with her hanky She did this by habit not realizing that Dave had substituted glue for lotion! The class did not dare laugh, but did after class. He would also pick vegetables and flowers from neighbor's gardens and then with his angelic smile try to sell them back! I can tell you so many stories about Dave. Dave had a moral compass in always sticking up for any person with a handicap,. His brother Stevie was profoundly developmentally undeveloped and I think that his love for his brother was key in being empathetic. Randy Younggren, who as deaf and had difficulty speaking, was a case in point. Dave was so good to Randy and he had Randy drive out to our farm on his motorcycle nearly every evening. He was just happy to see us and it did not matter whether he could not speak many words.

Steve Ritter: No Way! Dave never did any of those things! Lol! Dave is one of the best...He has a heart of Gold!

Michael Rustad: I also think that Velma Isely did a great deal to stand up for those being bullied. There was bullying in Humboldt. When we moved to the farm when I was 7, I had to ride the bus and it was an ordeal. They took my stocking hat, did not leave a seat open, etc. It was relentless until around 6th grade. I could name each of the bullies and some were older girls with no moral compass.

Trish Short Lewis: You are so right, Mike. I was bullied a LOT by both peers and older kids, when I was little and up until junior high. My mom went to bat for me, but she also told me to ignore them, which was very hard but I did it so they had no satisfaction. To cope, I withdrew into myself, humming tunes, saying words or phrases over and over, closed my eyes, plugged my ears, read books, etc.

Michael Rustad: Our school bus was parked outside the Post Office and everyone was picking on Barbara Norberg. Mrs. Isely boarded the bus and essentially told everyone how ashamed she was and gave a long speech about compassion. She eluded authority and people stopped bullying her after she deboarded the bus and were off to Lake Bronson. I remember well how I dreaded the bus because Tony and I were bullied.

Steve Ritter: I think when we're young we all say things a little quickly. I am certainly not innocent. Sometimes it's a misunderstanding between young kids. Sometimes the physical side is how many of us have learned to deal with issues. I know that some of the meanest things I've heard came out of the mouth. I remember recesses when I was young being tormented by older kids. Being dogpiled and being on the bottom of several. It was not as much fun as people would think. I finally stood up and took on one of these people. I knew it would let my parents down if I got into a fight because my father and mother didn't believe in physical violence of any kind. But I'd had enough. I did get in trouble and was grounded for a period of time. but no one bothered me again. No one dogpiled me again. It's too bad people treat others in a negative fashion but sometimes and for whatever reason it happens. Most of the time it happens just straight out of ignorance and sometimes pain. Mrs Isley was a wonderful person!!

Trish Short Lewis: I agree with *most* of what you say, but I also think some people are just plain mean. Many who are mean got it from their role models, i.e., their parents. Either their parents are authoritarian, or abusive, or both. I wasn't perfect - I was a chatty girl who never knew enough to keep her mouth shut sometimes (not always) and that would get me in 'trouble' - it wasn't being mean, it was being inappropriate, interruptive, and/or loud. I definitely feel that is a LOT different than saying unkind and downright mean things to someone, or physically hurting someone, etc. That's a horse of another color entirely. So the bullying I and others suffered was mean and wrong. Period.

The Other Side of the Ledger

I discovered this film on the National Film Board of Canada website today, which I was not aware of before. I think it has a lot to say, things that needed to be said, and I want to share them with my readers. Some of the white traders the indigenous peoples worked with, knew the natives were being exploited and refused to participate. Others knew it was wrong but just looked the other way. But far too many knowingly and willingly participated, using dishonest and immoral business practices with them.

It is described as a documentary about...

The Hudson's Bay Company's 300th anniversary celebration was no occasion for joy among the people whose lives were tied to the trading stores. This film, narrated by George Manuel, president of the National Indian Brotherhood, presents the view of spokesmen for Canadian Indian and Métis groups. There is a sharp contrast between the official celebrations, with Queen Elizabeth II among the guests, and what Indians have to say about their lot in the Company's operations.

It was one of the first NFB films made by a [Canadian] First Nations filmmaker. George Manuel, then president of the National Indian Brotherhood, narrated the film; he presents the views of spokesmen from First Nations and Métis groups, including Métis historian and activist Howard Adams. They discuss the unscrupulous economic control the Hudson’s Bay Company held over First Nations and Métis peoples.

How Prohibition Affected Us

Liquor running. It has a long history in our region.

As a result of prohibition in the United States, a chain of liquor warehouses was established in the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Stocks of liquor running anywhere from 30 dollars to 100,000 dollars worth were kept in these warehouses. People from the United States would come over and buy this liquor to take back across the border. They took it as far south as Omaha and retailed it at enormous profits. This went on in 1920, 1921 and 1922 and when it first started, men most engaged in it were young chaps from the United States out of the army. Two warehouses in Estevan, two in Bienfait, one in Oxbow and one in Carnduff, Carievale and Gainsborough. These warehouses were called 'Boozoniums'. There was terrific traffic from Canada to the United States.

Another interesting fact of this era is that the involvement of the druggists. Druggists gave liquor for medical purposes but you had to have a doctor's prescription. You could get all the prescriptions you wanted but each one cost $2.00. The doctors and druggists had a thriving business.

From - Rum-Running Days

Prohibition has its own history in Manitoba, also.

A regional liquor runner mentioned before here - Art Gould - was probably one of the fellows running liquor from the over-the-border warehouses down into the States...

Pembina Metis Cemetery

Looking west towards I-29, a view from the Métis cemetery near Pembina, ND. Once more recognized, and given the dignity the persons buried there deserve...

One of dozens, this cross is the only representation that a man named Martin Jerome once lived in Pembina. An early settler, Martin was a Métis, the majority in this area for many years. In fact, at one time, Pembina was the heart of Métis country. It is sad how time, and the failure of memory, can almost wipe out a history of a place and its people. Thankfully, that has not happened in this case, due to the hard work and diligence of many people...

Eventually, the land was reclaimed from private ownership by Pembina County on behalf of the descendents. When asked why they did so, an assistant to the Commissioners said, because [the Métis] "...had just worn them out."

Many felt the land should have been put into a trust for the families, the descendents of those buried there; as to why it wasn't, the reasoning is thus:

The Little Shell group developed in Montana as an offshoot of the Turtle Mountain Tribe of North Dakota, and more specifically the Pembina Métis people of Chippewa and Cree descent who historically made up a majority population at Turtle Mountain. A minority subgroup were Métis who came to Montana directly from Canada, fleeing the oppression which followed the second Riel resistance of 1885. In Montana, this latter group intermarried with the Pembina Métis who had settled at St. Peter’s Mission at Cascade, the Dearborn Canyon, and the Teton River Canyon in the 1870s and 1880s.

One of the family lines represented in the cemetery are the Jeromes, and those intermarried into that family..."In 1844, he [Roulette] had six Red River carts operating between Pembina and St. Paul. This had increased to 600 by 1848. Roulette married Angeline Jerome, a mixed-blood French-Chippewa, whose relations lived in the Turtle Mountain area." - from a document outlining the family histories...


Crosses at the cemetery were hand-made and put up by Larry Quinto, a Pembina Métis descendant. Every year, the families try to come and pay their respects now.

For more background, see:

Swenson, Fern E. and Paul R. Picha. Pembina Cemetery Investigations at Dumoulin Mission and Cemetery Site, Pembina County, North Dakota. Bismarck, North Dakota: Archaeology & Historic Preservation Division, State Historical Society of North Dakota, October 1998.

In 1818, Father S. Dumolin established a Roman Catholic mission at Pembina in order to provide educational support to Métis families and to convert the Chippewa Indians. In the 1890s, the Church moved into the village and a new cemetery was established. During the 1920s a local farmer began ploughing the abandoned cemetery over objections that it was a sacred site. This paper summarizes the attempts to protect the site over the years, the research done to establish grave locations and the inter-ethnic conflicts that have arisen over this matter.

- From The History of the Métis Cemetery at Pembina: Inter-Ethnic Perspectives on a Sacred Site, Paper presented at the Plains Anthropology Conference, Saskatoon, October 1993.