Forgot your password?
by Nelle Oosterom
Two hundred years ago, Western Canada was still a largely unsettled prairie dominated by great herds of bison.
Aboriginal peoples living there were familiar with male European fur traders but white women were virtually unknown to them. This changed when Marie-Anne Lagimodière arrived in the West in 1806, accompanied by her new husband Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière, a trapper and fur trader.
Tensions soon arose when it became clear that Jean-Baptiste already had three children with an Aboriginal woman. Despite the many hardships of frontier life, Marie-Anne adjusted to her situation.
The Lagimodières eventually homesteaded in the Red River Colony and raised a large family.
One of their children became the mother of Metis leader Louis Riel. Lagimodière’s story inspired Ottawa teacher Ruth Stewart-Verger to create a CD with songs and stories of her life.
Listen to excerpts: Track 1: Carry Me Away I Track 2: Introducing Marie Anne Track 3: Carry Me Away II Track 4: I Will Not Be Left Behind
This CD and another one about suffragist Emily Murphy are available at Rasputins.ca/ruth.htm.
1 = poor, 5 = excellent
You must be a Canada's History member and be logged in to leave a comment.
No comments.
In "Worth the fight" we learned about William Bennett Best, an engineer and Canadian hero. His champion, Jim Belknap, advocates for better recognition of Best's deeds in this podcast interview.
For the past decade, Parks Canada has been working to restore Prince of Wales Fort in Churchill, Manitoba. Along the way, archaeologists discovered some new and surprising things about the fort. Find out more by listening to this Canada's History podcast.
Who was the man who became Canada’s seventh prime minister?
This is the fourth podcast in a series dealing with environmental history.
This is the fifth in a series of podcasts from NICHE dealing with environmental history.