Saskatchewan Trail Walk — Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society

People sometimes ask why I walk, having done the Camino in Spain twice and undertaken local walks and hikes regularly. I love walking because I can see the environment at a slower pace. I can watch, hear, taste, feel, and smell the wind. I can appreciate my surroundings more deeply. I rely on only my own power (mostly, some other transportation usually involved) and carry only what I need.

Last summer I walked 34 miles over 3 days across southern Saskatchewan. This is really only a very short part of a much longer walk organized by the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society (SHFS). They have organized a 10-day walk every other year since 2015, so this was the fourth walk. It generally follows some known route with historic significance. This year, the plan was to walk from Fort Ellis to Fort Qu’Appelle, about 124 miles, closely following the beautiful Qu’Appelle Valley which, “has a rich history of trade and natural resource use that dates back prior to written records.”

Can you find me in the Fort Qu’Appelle Times?

While the valley has a history since time immemorial, the forts are relatively new and strong reminders of the colonization of the prairies and the displacement of Indigenous people.

Fort Ellice was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post for most of the 19th century. Fort Qu’Appelle was established by the North West Company, and is still served by the modern variation of their militia, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They were originally established to clear the plains of Indigenous inhabitants and protect the settlers - there is a lot of intergenerational trauma and hurt that continues from this relationship today. Fort Qu’Appelle is also the site where Treaty 4, the treaty between the Crown and local Cree and Saulteaux Nations, was signed in 1874. It is also a special place to me as I will try to articulate later.

Qu’Appelle Valley west of Ellisboro, looking north-west. Photo by Kristin Enns-Kavanagh.

I joined the walk to connect with nature and instead found myself connected to stories and people. I have to start out by thanking Hugh Henry from SHFS for the time and effort he puts into organizing these walks. His professional experience in museum direction is evident in the thoughtful programming and his caring nature shines in small gestures such as filling crates full of reused juice bottles with water every morning so that no walker goes thirsty. I got to walk with Hugh on my last day which happened to be a couple days after his birthday and the day before mine. His 66th, and my 33rd. He shared some of his stories and lessons in life that I will remember for a very long time and I am thankful for that. As a settler, Hugh has been an ally to Métis and First Nations people at the individual and collective level in the province, particularly in how their stories are curated in museums.

Marieval. All photos courtesy of the author unless otherwise noted.

On this journey, I also met a nun trying to reconcile between the faith she loves and the “broken” people who have done or are doing terrible things in the name of faith. This was particularly marked when, on my second day, we entered Cowessess First Nation, site of the Marieval Indian Residential School which was run by the Catholic Church at one point. This place recently received press for the 700+ unmarked graves - some being students, and some likely community members whose tombstones were removed due to a dispute fifty years ago. There is debate between oral histories and different people in the community but the simple fact is that the numbers don’t add up and they know some of the bodies are children. And why should children die at a school and not be returned to their parents? No schoolyard should ever have been a graveyard, and here is the truth we must accept to move forward. My new friend just sank to her knees and felt the heaviness of this place.

We were also accompanied by a person whose own grandmother was buried there and in her perspective, she just wants her grandmother recognized and remembered. This place should be a memorial in my view, similar to those we see for other tragedies such as wars and conflicts. I used to work at the Canadian Parliament and my favourite place was the Memorial Chamber in the Peace Tower where the names of all Canadian soldiers who died in combat are listed. The same feeling I used to have in that room is the feeling I had when I looked over that field in Cowessess.

I skipped ahead to day two so now let me tell you about the first day I joined the group. The group had walked from Ellice through Rocanville and I met up with them in my car at Ochapowace First Nation near Round Lake. Driving to Round Lake is one of the best experiences in Saskatchewan. I took the Number 1 Highway or ‘TransCanada’ over flat dry prairie to start. One might call this the boring part of Saskatchewan and travellers from the west and east probably speed through thinking our province is a blur of flat beige. But if only they’d take a slight detour and head a little north they’d encounter a valley of rolling hills with creeping shadows and shining waters. This valley is the first place I ever visited in Saskatchewan at age 12 and was a large part of my formative years from 2002-2007. I made some of my dearest friends and best memories on or by these waters. All these memories flooded back as I approached Camp McKay at Ochapowace.

I had certainly picked the right evening to join the trail walk. Camp McKay is named after the Presbytarian minister who ran Round Lake Residential School on this site. There are also likely unmarked graves here and an area has been flagged for ground penetrating radar to happen shortly.

Round lake school memorial stuffies and shoes placed outside reminded me of temples in Asia.

One key reason this was a meaningful visit was because Hugh had arranged for a head woman, Shelley Bear, to come and share a bit of her connection to the school. The original buildings have been torn down but you can still see the foundation of the dormitories and there is even an outdoor chapel in a cathedral of trees named after her grandmother.

The key difference with how I felt here, compared to Marieval, was a sense of peace. It seemed like Shelley was reconciled with the truth she knew (such as her grandmother’s story of holding hands with family through a chain link fence) and the desire to “take the good” forward. She certainly doesn’t speak for every person in her community but her words did seem to acknowledge that injustices would not stop them from thriving today. She organized a hamburger soup and bannock dinner for us and gifted us orange t-shirts - I tied mine onto my pack for the duration of my walk and it reminded me each time I lifted my pack of what this trail represents.

Backpack with orange shirt - I was gifted the shirt and am not responsible for the imagery 😬.

The ‘trail’ itself is a bit of a misnomer. A lack of walking infrastructure in Saskatchewan inspires some creativity. Hugh researches and then pieces together bits of pasture trail, the occasional footpaths, and grid roads for us to walk. The days I was available were all grid roads, the less enviable parts of the walk. But, I didn’t mind - flat, easy walking, nice weather overall with a bit of breeze and not too dusty. My last day was smokey from forest fires to the west and that was a harsh reminder of the heating planet. It is one thing to smell smoke outside one’s air conditioned home and car for a few minutes, but quite another to hike through it for five hours. Between the dust and smoke that day, I needed to have my face covered almost entirely with my tube scarf (buff).

Walking connects us to nature in an inevitable and undeniable way. I want all politicians to walk and understand this. In 2014, my husband and I saw Angela Merkel, former Chancellor of Germany, arrive in Santiago to walk part of the Camino with the Spanish president and it struck me as a great form of diplomacy. You can talk about hard things while walking. On this walk, I had the awkward challenge of explaining micro-aggressions and modern racism to two older retirees. I think we landed in a good place and they could understand these ideas in a way that would not have been as direct if we were seated in the campground or chatting over social media. Maybe more political debates need to happen on the common trails instead of in a chamber intentionally designed to put people facing each other in opposition. We are all moving together towards the future and should start acting like it.

I feel like there are so many other stories, conversations, and experiences I could share with you but if you’ve made it this far then perhaps we should just go for a walk instead and talk it through together! I’ve shared this for two reasons, because I think sharing stories of truth and reconciliation help move us all forward towards a more just and decolonized way of being and also simply because I wanted to write it down to remember. I wrote this only a week after walking, but already I could feel details slipping away - like sitting in ditches on tarps for our breaks, sharing chocolate chip cookies and lime tortilla chips. Listening to philosophical ideas about being a grandparent. Discussing interfaith marriage with a Presbytarian minister married to a devout Catholic. So many other stories to share! It’s all in my mind and I’m sure it will come out someday, on the way.

An ongoing walk tradition is writing limericks about the experience. Here's my limerick:

We’ve had some lovely walks,
and now my shoes are full of rocks.
You've shared your joy and sacrifice,
so simply no words will suffice,
to say thank you for all the nice talks.

ADITI GARG is a former French immersion high school math teacher and outdoor education leader. She has volunteered with Climate Reality Canada, the City of Saskatoon's Environmental Advisory Committee, Girl Guides Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Federation. Aditi believes that technology can enhance citizens’ experiences with nature and that this engagement will lend a powerful voice in new policies for the environment. She is a first-generation settler with stories and memories in Treaty 1 and Treaty 6 territories.

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