Families were needed to set up a home base

Page 34

In the early 1930s word went out that Metis families were needed around Fishing Lake to establish a home base for Metis people. Victoria Fayant, along with her husband and their families, heard the call and made the journey from Biggar, Sask. to the grazing hills just inside the Alberta border.

"My grandma had a friend, Charlie Delorme, who wrote to her and told her to get hold of 30 families to move here, since they needed 30 families. We met up with the McGillises from Maple Creek. There were also Parenteaus, Fayants and Whitfords," said the 77-year-old Fayant from her home on the Fishing Lake Metis Settlement. Other families were already there when they arrived.

"We wanted a place to stay so we wouldn't have to keep moving all the time," she says. The family had been living in Saskatoon in the winter and working in the south during the summer.

The men, who dug stones for farmers, got paid according to the number of cords of stones they picked.

"They use to dig whole fields of stone," remembers Fayant.

During those summer months, the families lived in "a little caboose" -- a type of covered wagon.

But moving to Fishing Lake meant a chance for a permanent home, however things weren't better for the new families in the beginning.

"I lived in a log shack with no flooring and with flour sacks on the windows. My husband started hauling rails and pickets out to the farmers. It was so cold in those days, (sometimes it fell to) 50-55 degrees below.

" raised our children with no welfare. We both worked pretty hard," said Fayant, a mother of 13 children. "We used to do everything to try and make a living--canning, picking berries and sewing. I used to sew quite a bit for people." Fayant would sell her hand sewn dresses for $1 a piece.

"We always had a cow or two and that's what saved our kids lots of times. I used to sell milk for 10 cents a quart. People were at the door all the time, many of them had nothing to eat. Lots of people used to be so poor, so very poor."

Before too long, a community began to grow from the efforts of those first pioneering families.

"All the men got together and hauled logs for the first school house. At the same time the church was built and the (priests' residence) in about 1936/37. The women used to come and cook for the men while they were working. In later years we had some really good times in that old school house."

The Fayant family spent some years living off the settlement in later years for economic reasons and for their children's education -- the local school only went to Grade 8. Fayant, now a widow, has been living back on the settlement since June of last year.

Walking into her humble home, it's easy to see she has kept busy. The work she did out of necessity has continued to be an important part of her retirement. A baby quilt she's making for a friend lays spread out on the living room rug awaiting the finishing touches. Embroidery thread is in bags on the table, her sewing machine is set up and ready. Handmade leather crafts, pine cone centerpieces and crocheted goods are just a few of the other items she makes to fill her days.

Fishing Lake is about 95 kilometers south of Grand Center.