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Ste. Madeleine was a Métis homestead of about 250 people located in Manitoba, near the Saskatchewan border. Red River Métis citizens and families established the settlement in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The community existed until shortly after the government implemented the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act of 1935 (see Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration). The Act was designed to assist farmers during drought conditions. However, it dispossessed the community of their land. In 1939, the community was destroyed, and the land was converted to pastureland. The Métis were removed with little or no compensation.
Community Life
The scrip system was implemented by the Canadian government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Under this system, Métis individuals were issued scrip certificates, either for land or money, in exchange for their Aboriginal title. The process was riddled with fraud and exploitation; many Métis were coerced into selling their scrip to speculators for a fraction of its value or were misled about its worth. Sometimes the land was far away from the scrip office, and they didn’t have the resources to travel there. These policies resulted in widespread loss of land and resources.
Ste. Madeleine was established in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a Métis homestead community. In 1902, a Roman Catholic mission was established by Father Jules Decorby.
Former resident Louis Pelletier told the Winnipeg Sun in 1987 that having the land helped the community flourish. “You could get a good crop there in the sand if you get the right kind of weather,” he said. Still, many people worked as labourers at other farms.
Great Depression and the Dirty Thirties
The community of Ste. Madeleine, like many Prairie communities, faced difficulties because of crippling drought and a worldwide economic shock after the 1929 stock market crash (see The Great Depression in Canada). An Elder from the community, Norman Fleury, recalled that in the 1930s, when times were hard due to the drought, more people moved into the area to act as subsistence farmers. Some owned a few cows and horses, and Fleury says there were a lot of berries and herbs in the area.
Many of the Métis families, like families elsewhere in the province and the country, were unable to pay their taxes. The community members of Ste. Madeleine had their land seized with no restitution unless they had completely paid their property tax. Additionally, the government considered their land to be unsuitable for a community and wanted to convert it to pastureland.
According to the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), their homes were burned by the federal government in 1939, while many of the families were away for the summer. The families were either working for local farmers or out on the land. Often with 10 or more children, the families were evicted or came home to discover they had nowhere to live.
Joe Venne, who partially grew up in Ste. Madeleine, described how some people moved into a place called Selby Town and others went north to Winnepegosis and Crane River. Although some were told they would get $150, not everyone received the money. Venne believes a crime was perpetrated against the Métis for the way they were removed from the land.
Family members passed on the stories of the loss of land to their descendants. The MMF has gathered their stories to raise awareness about the displacement.
Monuments and Celebrations
There was little formal acknowledgement of what the Métis lost across the Prairies for many decades after the destruction Ste. Madeleine.
The Métis Nation began revitalizing in the 1960s–70s, spurred by organizations like the Manitoba Métis Federation, which began to document and organize around such historic injustices as the destruction of Ste. Madeleine.
The Ste. Madeleine cemetery serves as a memorial in the area. It is visited annually by thousands of Red River Métis citizens during Ste. Madeleine Métis Days — a festival dedicated to bringing back Métis culture to the site.
A monument at the Ste. Madeleine cemetery includes a kiosk that holds a church bell and plaque discussing the history of the Ste. Madeleine community. The church bell came from St. Hubert’s Roman Catholic Church, which stood in the nearby Gambler First Nation (see also First Nations in Manitoba). The bell was removed shortly before the church burned down in 2016.
Land back
On 19 July 2024, the Manitoba government and Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) reached a historic understanding to transfer a portion of the former Ste. Madeleine land back to the Métis. Manitoba premier Wab Kinew traveled to Ste. Madeleine during the Métis Days gathering to sign a memorandum of understanding with MMF president David Chartrand. The agreement returns approximately 100 acres (approximately 40 hectares) of crown land to the Métis people. During the signing, Premier Kinew stated, “Today is a step toward righting that historic wrong.” He acknowledged the dispossession of the Métis residents.
