Historic trail draws attention

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/12/2020 (1767 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An historic trail — a past-centuries equivalent of the modern-day highway — has captured the attention of a group in Treherne.

The Yellow Quill Trail, also written Yellowquill, is named after Chief Yellow Quill, who led Saulteaux First Nations living near Portage la Prairie during the late 1800s, according to the Turtle Mountain-Souris Plains Heritage Association. Yellow Quill is known for signing a treaty for land allotments with the Canadian government in 1875 and for being chief of two reservations: Swan Lake No. 7, and Long Plain No. 6.

The roughly 400-kilometre trail saw many an Indigenous trader travel upon it, then settlers.

“The first farming settlers came to the area initially via one of two trails. The Boundary Commission Trail ran a few miles north of the border and carried settlers arriving in Emerson west to the Turtle Mountain and Souris basin areas. The Yellow Quill Trail was used more by settlers leaving Fort Garry (present-day Winnipeg) hoping to live in the Brandon Hills or other places along the Assiniboine River. For a few years the trail became a major artery of travel,” according to the Turtle Mountain-Souris Plains Heritage Association.

The trail went from Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, to the Melita area, with some spurs off it, north and south toward the Long Plain and Portage area and down south to Swan Lake. Then, apparently, it continues all the way down to Mexico, said Craig Soldier, economic development officer for the Norfolk Treherne Community Development Corporation.

Soldier is also a Swan Lake member.

“It was a long trail that was followed by many settlers,” he said.

Karl Stone, a councillor at Dakota Tipi First Nation, spoke of the portion of highway (Road 64 N) with the same name.

“This is a part of the old Yellowquill trail, the old trail runs beside Dakota Tipi along the Assiniboine River and through to the Long Plain First Nation. Some of the old trail is still visible. The people from Long Plain and surrounding area used this trail a lot into Portage la Prairie in the old days, this I know,” said Stone.

Soldier said there may also be links to Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. He references the Brandon University archeology dig from the past couple of summers, which has yielded an intact hearth 15 kilometres south of Melita after a second season of work at the site in 2020.

That dig resulted from Erik Olson finding modified bison scapulae, likely used as hoes. Researchers said that might lead to knowledge about a pre-contact agrarian Indigenous society in southwestern Manitoba from the late 1400s to the 1600s or 1700s.

The trail is very much disappearing, as farmland and other activities have overtaken it these many years. Soldier and the board of the Treherne development corporation would like to ensure it’s not forgotten. To that end, they are hopeful Trails Manitoba, via its grant program, will help fund a project to commemorate the trail, including research about it.

Soldier, by way of board member Ian Pritchard, is in possession of a book by Ted Bancroft.

“A Man’s Personal Quest” is researched and written by Bancroft. He was a restaurant owner in Treherne.

“When he was in his restaurant, he heard about the Yellow Quill Trail and the more he heard, the more he got interested and he felt the need for it to be documented when he retired,” said Soldier. “Mr. Bancroft passed this summer and now another gentleman (Pritchard) would like to acknowledge the trail by having trail markers showcasing the trail. This would involve the First Nations of Swan Lake, Long Plain and possibly the Westman Dakota nations. He’d go down south for the winter, and he’d come home in the summer and dedicate his time to try to find this trail.”

Bankcroft’s book is also of interest for the relationship it paints between Indigenous people and settlers.

“It’s piqued my interest … Especially finding out the relationship between the First Nations and the farmers and the settlers was fairly well in regards to they got along, they helped each other out,” said Soldier. “The book talks about how one family … The father got sick. The mother had to do all the chores in the barn and she started getting sick. The daughter had to take over. Then the local Indigenous people showed up and they helped nurse the family back to health.”

So far, there are a few markers that point to the trail, but they are by no means a full accounting of the trail’s passage through the province.

The confluence of the Souris and Assiniboine Rivers was a major victualling centre for the fur trade, according to a Parks Canada web page.

“During the period 1793-1824, the Hudson’s Bay, North West, and XY Companies maintained posts in this area to trade with the Indians between Lake Manitoba and Missouri River for corn, pemmican and fur. The Yellow Quill Trail crossed this region carrying inter-tribal and fur trade traffic. Many famous traders and explorers, including John Macdonnell, Cuthbert Grant, Peter Fidler, David Thompson, Alexander Henry, and Daniel Harmon were associated with these posts.”

Soldier figures that among the many self-proclaimed historians in the province, some may be interested in preserving this bit of history.

“(The trail) is not very well marked so we’re trying to find the areas. What we want to do within the municipality here is try to get some grant money to put markers up to acknowledge the trail. If we can help other regions and get this marked as a provincial trail, that would be great.”

Anyone with information or interest can contact Soldier at treherneedo@gmail.com

» mletourneau@brandonsun.com

» Michele LeTourneau covers Indigenous matters for The Brandon Sun under the Local Journalism Initiative, a federally funded program that supports the creation of original civic journalism.