Family Names Continued

Agnes:

Washy Joe Agnes was a Stoney (i.e. Assiniboine) Aboriginal from the Alexis band near Lac Ste. Anne, who lived at Grande Cache Lake, just outside of the current townsite. According to Mike Moberly, Washy Joe was living in the area before Ewan Moberly led the trek north from Jasper in 1910. He was a trapper, who also had horses and cattle. His father was named Little Bear. There is a record of a Little Bear in residence in the Grande Cache area in 1917. Washy Joe married Bella Desjarlais. They had a number of children including Adam, Dolphus, Clarisse, Nancy and Maggie. Three of his children died in the flu epidemic of 1919 and are buried near Sheep Creek Lodge where Nickerson Creek flows into Sheep Creek. Adam was a trapper at Muskeg who was born on September 15, 1910. He married Margaret Gauthier, but they had no children. He died on March 12, 1993 and is buried at Grande Cache Lake. Adams Creek is named in his honour. Clarisse married Dolphus Moberly. Dolphus Agnes was born on November 1, 1898 and died on July 9, 1989.

Washy Joe’s Stoney name was Sagaputura, which means "Long Hair". At one time, the government was distributing scrip (i.e. paper that allowed the owner to claim land) to the Metis people, so Donald McDonald of Isle Lake cooked up a scheme to get rich. His plan was to get people to sign up for scrip, pay them five dollars for the scrip and sell it on the open market. McDonald went to Sagaputura and asked him if he wanted to make five dollars. Needless to say, Sagaputura was interested, as all that he had to do was apply for scrip and say that his father was a "white man". This of course was not true, but it seemed like easy money. McDonald went with Sagaputura when he went to apply for the scrip, just in case there was a problem. When asked his father's name, Sagaputura replied that his father’s name was Little Bear, at which point McDonald chimed in that Little Bear was what the Assiniboine people called him, but that his real name was Tom Atkins. This of course made Sagaputura - Joe Atkins. Joe got the scrip, which he exchanged for the five dollars. The local Aboriginal people had a hard time pronouncing Atkins, so it gradually evolved into Agnes (which is what the family was called when it lived in Grande Cache). According to one source, Agnes eventually became Washa and then Washa became Washy Joe. An interesting and perhaps more plausible variation on the story was related by Bob Hallam of Hinton, who indicated that the Stoney word for “white man” is “Was-say-jo”. This story goes that some of the Aboriginal people decided that they would call Sagaputura “Was-say-jo” since he wanted to be a the son of a “white man” and get scrip. One can see how “Was-say-jo” could easily become Washy Joe.

The Agnes name is no longer in evidence in the area, but Washy Joe’s descendants are intermarried into most of the local families. In addition, Washy Joe’s name lives on because there is a creek on the way out of Grande Cache on the highway to Hinton named Washy Creek. The creek flows into Peavine Lake, which is named after a local mountain flower, which grows there.

Berland:

According to one source, Berland is a French name, going back to Mans France, where a man named Pierre Breland married Catherine Meseray. They had a son named Pierre Joseph, who married Marie Louise Raymond on January 29, 1758 at Fort St. Frederick in Beauharnois, Quebec. Their son, Pierre, who was born on September 29, 1758 in the city of Quebec married Louise Belly “according to the custom of the country”, which means that they were not officially married by the Church. Louise died sometime before 1836. Pierre died on October 31, 1829 in St. Boniface, Manitoba at the age of seventy-one. Apparently, he also went by the name of Pierre Dubois dit Berland and by Breland dit Duboishue. He was a freeman in the fur trade in the 1800’s and served as a soldier in Canada. Governor Simpson of the Hudson Bay Company sometimes referred to him as Burleigh. He was a very good hunter and trader, who became quite wealthy. Apparently he had as many as six Aboriginal wives and a number of children. One of these children was named Jean Baptiste Berland. The records indicate that he was born c. 1777.

It was Jean Baptiste Breland who the Berland River was named after. In fact, it was called Baptiste’s River at first. In 1825, a botanist named Thomas Drummond explored the Jasper-Smoky River area with J. B. as his hunter and guide. J. B. had his brother-in-law along for the trip. His brother-in-law’s wife was pregnant and according to the custom went off by herself to have the baby. The temperature was –38 degree F, so she died as a result. This led to a fifteen-day period of mourning. The group ended up spending three to four months along the river named in honour of their guide. It was a very severe winter with deep snow, so many of their horses ended up dying.

Jean Baptiste Berland married Suzanne Nipissing in 1818. They had a son named Francois, who married Therese Karakonti, who was a daughter of the legendary Louis Kwarakwante and Marie Katis, who lived near modern day Grande Cache at Sheep Creek where it enters the Smoky. Therese and Francois had eight children; William (b. 1833), Rosalie (b. 1835), Josette (b. 1838), Francois (b. 1841), Marie Anne (b. 1843), Betsy (b. 1845), Alexander (b. 1848), Marie (b. 1854), Mariette (b. 1857) and Rosalie (b. 1857).

The genealogy gets a little complicated at this point, but we know that William Berland was descended from both Francois and Jean Baptiste. William had a daughter named Marie (b. 1856), a daughter named Marguerite/Marie (b. 1847), and a son named Francois (b. 1859) who married Therese Cardinal. Marie married Alexis Joachim and was the grandmother of local legend Adam Joachim. His descendants still live in the Grande Cache area.

Although there are no Berlands residing in the area at present, the Berland name lives on in the region as there is a Berland River, a Little Berland River and a Berland Lake named in honour of this intrepid family of guides, hunters, trappers and explorers. In addition, the Berland family intermarried with many of the local Aboriginal families, such as the Joachims, Karakunties, Belcourts, Wanyandies and the Desjarlais family.

Cardinal:

Although there are no Cardinals in Grande Cache today, the genealogies tell us that most of the local families are related to the Cardinals, who were associated with Jasper in the early 1800’s. The name is originally French and the move from Quebec to the west was linked to the fur trade.

The records of the Musee Heritage in St. Albert indicate that there was a Joseph Cardinal born in Montreal who married a lady named Aimable Imbault/Hinbeau (b. 1737). The couple had a son named Joseph/Matchicapoos Cardinal, who was born in Montreal in 1756 and died in Lac la Biche in 1854 or 1856. In 1844, he married Louise Frobisher (b. 1772). In 1787, Joseph worked for Sir Alexander MacKenzie of the NWC. In 1799, he was with David Thompson on the Beaver River. In 1802 and 1803, he wintered at the Peace River Forks. Joseph was listed as an interpreter for the NWC at Fort des Prairies in 1804. In 1809, he was with the NWC at Fort Vermillion. In 1810, he was with the same company at Fort Terre Blanche. He married Isabelle Capot-Vert in 1848.The records indicate that Joseph was married three times and worked for the NWC as well as the HBC as an interpreter in the Edmonton – Peace River – Rocky Mountain area. Joseph and Louise had a son named Jacques, who was born in 1798 near Fort Pitt. Note that Jacques was born long before the couple was married. This was not an unusual custom in those days. Jacques was married twice. His first wife, who was born in 1805, was Josette Crise (the French way of saying that she was Cree). They had eight children including a son named Jacques.

When Ermatinger met Jacques Cardinal at Jasper, he indicated that the family might have been in the valley since 1809. In 1824, Sir George Simpson of the Hudson Bay Company met Jacques at Lac la Biche. Simpson made a deal with Cardinal to cut a horse trail from fort Assiniboine to Edmonton House. At some point, Cardinal moved from Lac la Biche to Jasper. In 1825, a botanist named Thomas Drummond was in Jasper with Jacques, who was described as being an “old Canadian”, who looked after the Company’s horses. Camp de Cardinelle in Jasper is named for Jacques Cardinal. We know that he kept horses at this site as far back as 1827. The horses were used by the fur trade brigades, which went over Athabasca Pass. In 1827, the botanist, David Douglas met Jacques in Jasper at Camp d’Original. In 1828, Jacques met Ermatinger again. He supplied Ermatinger with horses and eventually accompanied him to Fort Assiniboine. In 1835, when Colin Fraser was put in charge of Jasper House, Jacques was considered to be one of the leaders of the local Metis community. Some people think that Jacques is buried at Grave Flats, but it seems more likely that he buried about fifteen miles downstream on the Cardinal River where it enters the Brazeau.

Andre Cardinal, who was born in the Jasper Valley in 1829, was Jacques’ son with Marguerite Desjarlais, who was his second wife. In 1856, Andre married Rosalie Breland (b. 1835 in Jasper), whose mother was an Iroquois from Jasper named Therese Kwarakwante. The couple had seven children; Marie Julie, Justine, Christine, Marie Rose, Clemence, Louise and Angelique. We know that Henry John Moberly met Andre in Jasper in 1855. When Jasper House was not occupied from 1857 to 1858, it was Andre who kept an eye on it for the HBC. He also rounded up some of the 350 horses that were roaming the Jasper Valley and took them to Edmonton for the Company. In 1858, it was Andre who accompanied H. J. Moberly to Jasper House. In 1862, the Overlanders hired Andre as a guide to get them through the Athabasca Pass to Tete Jaune Cache. On the trip, they passed Mount Robson. Andre indicated that he had only seen the top of the famous mountain once in twenty-nine previous trips. In 1859, Andre guided for the Earl of Southesk on his famous journey through the area. Later, Andre settled near St. Albert.

According to the Macpherson database, Suzanne Karakonti/Cardinal was born about 1835. She was the daughter of a Louis Karakonti dit Dekara, (the son of the original Louis Kwarakwante) and Marguerite Cardinal (who was a sister of Jacques and descended from the original Joseph Cardinal). They were married in 1853, but probably lived together as husband and wife until at priest happened to be available to perform the ceremony. Since Jacques and Marguerite were brother and sister, she and Andre were cousins. The fact that she used the surname Cardinal has fueled speculation that Dekara was not her biological father, but rather her adopted father. At some point, she married Joseph Gaucher (Gauthier b. 1828), with whom she had a child named Isabelle. Suzanne has a Grande Cache connection because she married Henry John Moberly, the patriarch of the Grande Cache Moberlys. We know that Suzanne was part Assiniboine or Stoney and that her Aboriginal name was “Pigeon Hawk”. They were married on October 9, 1861, the day before Henry John left Jasper. The marriage was a formality, as they had been living as husband and wife for some time. Apparently, Suzanne did not want to leave Jasper when her husband’s time at the HBC post was up, so the formal marriage was probably intended to get her some benefits from the Company. There is no record of such benefits being awarded. This could be because the post was abandoned shortly after H. J. Moberly left. Henry John and Suzanne had two sons; Ewan (pronounced Ay-von) and John. Suzan fell ill in 1905 while camped on the Miette River with Dolphus Moberly, her grandson. Dolphus made a travois to transport her to a house that had once been owned by Donald McDonald near the modern day overpass between Mile 7 and 8. This is where she died. She was buried at Ewan’s place on May 5, 1905 with Adam Joachim presiding over the funeral. Lewis Swift made the coffin.

Mary Cardinal was the daughter of Madeleine Cardinal, who was of Iroquois descent and a sister of Michael Cardinal. Madeleine, who died at the age of eighty, in 1909, is buried in the Moberly Cemetery near Hinton. At some point, Mary married Jack Gregg, who was an American who moved to the Hinton area. Apparently she had two daughters; Lucy and Alice from a previous marriage. Mary is credited with helping R. W. Bob Jones with finding a significant coal deposit up the McLeod River. Jones wanted the coal for fuel for the railway. This can be said to be the start of the famous “Coal Branch”. Mary died in 1915 at the age of sixty-five and is buried in the Moberly Graveyard near Hinton. The Mary Gregg River is named in her honour.

Delorme:

The Delorme family has had a long and interesting history in the Grande Cache area. They were living in Grande Cache before the Jasper Exodus when the Moberly and Joachim families left Jasper National Park in 1910 to move to Grande Cache. There is some evidence to suggest that the Delorme family may be descended from the Iroquois who came west in the early 1800's to trap for the fur trade companies, probably after the War of 1812. Gordon Delorme states that many years ago, three Delorme brothers left North Dakota and came to the Pincher Creek area of Alberta where they gathered horses. One brother, settled in Eastern Alberta, one went to the Cochin area near North Battleford in Saskatchewan and one came to the Rocky Mountains. In her book The Sun Traveller, Elizabeth Macpherson makes reference to an old Delorme being in the area in 1828. She goes on to say that there was an Augustin Delorme in Jasper in 1846. He married Isabelle Kwarakwante who was born in 1820 and died at Jasper house in 1889. They had two sons; Pierre Riche Delorme, who was born in 1839 and Narcisse who was born in 1841. In 1866, Pierre married Suzanne Joachim, who was born in 1850. They had two sons; Pierre (born in 1881), who went by Peter and Phillip.

Pierre Riche Delorme was six feet eight inches tall and blind. One day he was riding through Rocky Pass, when he fell off his horse and hit his head on a rock. Rocky Pass was named because of the huge rocks that came down off a mountain, much like what happened with the Frank Slide in the town of Frank in Southern Alberta. He was able to ride on a little further, but died at what is now called Big Graves in Willmore Wilderness Park. This took place about 1907. Big Graves is at the base of Sheep Mountain in the middle of a meadow along the Sulphur River. There is a large “spirit house” there, which serves as a grave. A forest ranger named Neil W. W. Gilliat indicated that the Aboriginal people would often place trinkets and tobacco inside the structure at Big Graves in tribute to the man buried there.

Peter and his wife, Filamon Desjarlais, had two children; Louis and a daughter buried at Kvass Flats. Louis was born in 1904 at Grande Cache. His parents died at age sixty when Louis was fourteen years old, during the great flu epidemic of 1918. Peter died at Victor Lake, while Filamon died while visiting McDonald Flats or Susa Creek on the same day as Peter. At that point, Louis was adopted by the famous fur trader, Pierre Grey of Isle Lake, who had lost a daughter to the flu. The Greys adopted Louis because the families were related. We know that Louis lived with the Greys for less than a year, when they perished in the same flu epidemic in 1919. Filamon’s family was originally from the Batoche area in Saskatchewan, where the final battle of the 1885 Riel Rebellion took place.

In 1929, Louis married Flora Joachim (daughter of Adam Joachim) with whom he had fourteen children (Walter, Charlie, Ernie, Gordon, Roland, Ron, Helen, Eileen, Florestien, Bertha, Colin, Gardner, Morris and Delphine). The family lived at Victor Lake. Flora was born on April 17, 1914 at Grande Cache and died on September 23, 1996 at Grande Cache.

Louis is significant for a number of things. In 1935, Louis and Adolphus Moberly had a whipsaw pit to cut lumber. They cut the lumber for the first Roman Catholic Church, which was built at Victor Lake in 1935. In 1947-8, Louis and Mike Moberly transported finished lumber, by horse and sleigh from Muskeg to Victor Lake, to construct a house for the priest to live in when he was at Victor Lake.

In his younger days, Louis liked to participate in rodeos. For example, he won the bare back event at the Hinton Rodeo in 1936. He came second in the Indian Horse Race at the same event, where he was beaten by Frank Joachim, while Henry Joachim came third. At the age of twenty-eight, he won the bare back event at the Rio Grande Rodeo near Grande Prairie. In his later years, he liked to judge rodeo.

Louis was a trapper, who sold his furs at Entrance, Edmonton and Edson. In addition, he was a well-known and respected guide for sixty years. Louis also worked for Inland Cement at Marlboro in 1950. You can still see the smokestack from the ill-fated plant that was supposed to produce bricks from the clay in the lake. In 1955, he worked for Trans-Canada Pipeline in Edson. Later, he worked for Rex Logan of Sundry doing seismic exploration for oil and gas. In addition, Louis raised cattle. Louis even appeared in a Hollywood movie, River of no Return starring Robert Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe and Rory Calhoun, which was filmed in Jasper.

Louis Delorme died on May 22, 1992 at the age of eighty-eight, at Victor Lake, where he is buried. Mount Louis near Grande Cache is named in his honour. Gordon was not sure who named the mountain after Louis, but he thought that it might have been one of the forest rangers; perhaps Shand Harvey, Rex Wynn or a ranger named Chapman, who built the ranger cabin at Big Graves. In any case, the mountain was named to honour the man who spent his life living at its foot and trapping its bounty.

Desjarlais:

The Desjarlais name has also had a long and interesting history in the Yellowhead region. Some sources suggest that the name could be Ojibwa, as some Ojibwa people from northern Ontario did migrate to the Red River area in Manitoba and then out to the plains, eventually reaching the Rockies. When Abe Desjarlais was asked about this, he suggested that it was possible, but that his family always spoke Cree, which is an Algonkian language as is Ojibwa.

Abe Desjarlais was born on March 3, 1911 in Gunn, Alberta. His parents were William Desjarlais and Madeleine Laderoute. William was born at Slave Lake on December 9, 1888. He died on Easter Weekend in 1919 and is buried at Lac Ste. Anne. Madeleine was born in St. Albert in 1885 and died in Edmonton on April 13, 1919, where she is buried. They were married in 1908.

Abe’s grandfather on his father’s side was Olivier/Wapumun Desjarlais of Slave Lake, who was a voyageur for the Hudson Bay Company. He was born in 1885 in Lac Ste. Anne. Olivier married Isabelle Gladue of Slave Lake (b. August 31, 1859 in Lac Ste. Anne) on May 2, 1876. Abe’s great grandfather was Antoine/Wapumun Desjarlais, who was born in 1820 at Lesser Slave Lake. He died on December 8, 1886. In 1850, he married Julie/Lucie/Marie Kaketta who was born in 1834 at Pigeon Lake. The marriage took place in Lac Ste. Anne. Julie died in 1877. The patriarch of the family was Antoine Desjarlais, who was born in 1791 and married a Cree woman named Napitch. This is probably the Old Antoine Desjarlais, who was said to be in Jasper in the first half of the nineteenth century. Sir George Simpson described him as a trapper who had been in the employ of the North West Company and was a resident of Lac La Biche when they met.

In 1947, Abe and Mary Plante were married. Mary was the daughter of Felix Plante and Caroline Moberly. Caroline was the daughter of John Henry Moberly and Mary Joachim who homesteaded southwest of Hinton. John Henry was the son of Henry John Moberly, the patriarch of the Moberly clan in Alberta. Mary and Abe had six children; Caroline (1950), Josephine (1952), James (1953), William (1955), Dale (1959) and Leon (1964). Leon was born in their log home at Muskeg.

Abe started working in logging camps when he was about twelve years of age. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, he was a cook in the bush camps. In 1942, he was working for CN Rail at Miette, near Jasper. In September of 1942, he volunteered to join the army. He trained in Grande Prairie before going on to Calgary, Val Cartier, Chicoutimi and Muir Lake, near Petawawa (Petawawa means "bring the eggs" in Cree). Abe was in a part of the forces that specialized in forestry. They trained to fight fires, build sawmills… At Muir Lake, in 1943-4, he remembered cutting green birch logs into six-foot lengths to be shipped out for firewood. His final posting was in the foothills, south west of Edson. He remembered stuffing turkeys during this posting. He was discharged on August 25, 1944. His outfit was to have been posted overseas, but something happened and the posting never took place. From 1944 to 1946, Abe went back to working for the railroad, but he also ran a small store at Obed, where he sold food and tobacco. The store also included a post office, for which he got $23 a month from the Federal Government. He recollected that stamps were three cents and that you could get three cans of sardines for two bits. At that point, the family moved to Marlboro, where Abe built a lean-to as their first residence. Abe worked in the bush around Marlboro cutting trees, skidding logs, driving a team and serving as a mechanic. From 1956 to 1962, he worked at Kennedy’s Camp at Polecat Creek, where they were cutting timbers for railway ties. In 1962, the family moved to Muskeg, as Abe got a job working for Forestry. He trained fire fighters, worked on fire prevention and at fire fighting. For fire prevention, Abe and his crew would follow seismic lines; piling and burning brush. They did the same job along the newly constructed road to Rock Lake. In 1970, Abe joined the Highways Department because Forestry was centralizing things in Hinton and he wanted to stay in Muskeg. He maintained the road in the summer and sanded it in the winter.

Abe retired in 1974 or 1976, but continued to live at Muskeg. In 1980-1 he started a trapline at Moberly Creek, which he worked until 1983. He trapped fox, coyote, squirrels, beaver, marten as well as the odd lynx or wolf. He walked the line with his dog, which sometimes carried a pack. The rest of the gear was pulled on a toboggan. One day, Abe had a near death experience as some hunters shot his dog and had him lined up in their sights. They backed off when Abe's son, Jim, came out of the cabin. Later, he moved to a senior citizens’ home in Gunn, before settling in Hinton, where he resided until his death in 2003.

Abe Desjarlais was really proud of two accomplishments. The first one involved the school at Muskeg, as Abe was instrumental in getting Northlands to construct a school at the site. Abe’s other major accomplishment involved working on the land claims for the local Aboriginal people. Abe got Lloyd Bossert to write letters to get the ball rolling. As a result, Phillip Ketchum was appointed to represent the local people. He was a lawyer and eventually negotiated a land settlement for the local co-ops, which gave the local Aboriginal people a modest land base, so that they could try to carry on with their traditional lifestyle if they wished.

Sam Desjarlais/Tozale/Dozale/Dojarlais lived at Sheep Creek, where it flows into the Smoky River. Some of the local people called him Desjarlais, while others pronounced his name Tozale or Dozale or Dojalais. The genealogical records indicate that Desjarlais and Tozale were different pronunciations of the same name. In addition, Abe Desjarlais said that he called Sam his uncle, although he had no proof that they were related. Unfortunately, the Macpherson database at the Musee Heritage in St. Albert has no record of Sam under any spelling of his last name. We do know that Sam’s mother was married to Gustave “Kusta” Wanyandie. She was his second wife. Sam had a brother and at least one sister. One sister is buried at Pipestone Creek, while his brother is buried under the highway on Joachim Flats, which was called Gustave’s Flats at the time. Apparently, he had an accident on the ice on the Smoky while trapping with Gustave Wanyandie. Sam, who was probably from the Peace River area originally, married Peggy Karakuntie, the sister of Solomon Karakuntie, who lived at Sheep Creek. They had a son named Felix Joachim, who is the father of Adelaide Joachim, the wife of Emil Moberly. We know that Sam was living at Sheep Creek in 1914 because the Prescott Fay Expedition, which went through Grande Cache, took a number of pictures of him and his family. We do not know what happened to Sam after that, but there are members of the family buried in one of the graveyards at Sheep Creek.

Findlay:

Deome Findlay is descended from a large and famous family in Western Canada According to Bob Hallam of Hinton, who has conducted extensive research on the family, the Findlays can trace their ancestry back to a Scottish fur trader named James Findlay, who came to Canada shortly after 1763. He was an independent fur trader, who married a French woman named Christianna Youle in 1765. They had two sons; John and James. In 1766, James went on a trip up the Saskatchewan River. One of the people on the trip was a Salteaux (Ojibwa) lady. They had a son, named Jocko, who was born in 1768 at Findlay House near modern day Nipawin. Jocko worked for the North West Company. In 1794, he was involved in a major battle with the Gros Ventre Aboriginal people at South Branch House on the Saskatchewan River. He was a clerk, who was in charge of Fort des Prairies. Later, he went to Rocky Mountain House with David Thompson. It was Jocko who blazed the trail over Howse Pass, which Thompson used to get to the Columbia region. Jocko settled in the American part of the Columbia region, so Washington State is home to a large group of Findlay descendants.

Deome Findlay was born at Rat Lake on the Entrance Ranch in 1910. His parents were Isadore Findlay and Philomene Karakonte (Callihoo). The Findlays had been living in the Jasper Valley, but were bought out and left Jasper National Park about the same time as the Moberlys and Joachims moved to Grande Cache (1908-10). Isadore’s father was Paulet Findlay (b. 1836) while his mother was Therese Gauthier (b. 1839). They were married in 1861. Deome lived at Long Lake, Shining Bank and Edson when he was young. In 1928, when he was eighteen years old, he moved back to the Grande Cache area. Deome served his country during W.W.II. Prior to 1951, he worked as surveyor for both the road and rail routes to Grande Cache. He had a class A guiding licence and owned his own outfitting business.

Deome's wife, Rose, still resides in Grande Cache. Rose moved to Grande Cache from Grande Prairie in 1931, with her family; the Charlie Joachims. They lived at Joachim Flats, just past the Blue Bridge. Deome and Rose were married in 1951. After their marriage, they moved to Long Lake, north of Edson. In the 1960’s, the family moved to Muskeg, where they built a cabin. Finally, in 1976, the family moved to the town of Grande Cache.

Deome Findlay was a legend among the local guides in the Grande Cache area. The family name lives on in a creek named in their honour. The creek is located on Highway 40, south of Grande Cache.

Gauthier:

James G. MacGregor, a noted Alberta historian, stated that the Gauthier family was one of the Iroquois families, which came west with the fur trade from Quebec in the late 1700’s or early 1800’s. According to the Macpherson database at the Musee Heritage in St. Albert, the patriarch of the family was Baptiste Michel Gauthier, who married Paulette Collette Kasinote Sekani. They had five children; Joseph (b. 1828 Jasper), Jacques (b. 1831), Charles (b. 1836), Therese (b. 1839) and Michel (b. 1829). It was Michel who pruned the famous lobstick tree in Jasper for Sir Sandford Fleming in 1872. Fleming was working on the CPR survey. A lobstick tree is meant to serve as a marker. MacGregor in his classic Pack Saddles to Tete Jaune Cache, which detailed the life of James Shand Harvey, states that there were Gauthiers living in the Jasper Valley by 1855. We are not sure when they left, but we know that by 1908, they were not living there when the Canadian government bought out the Moberlys, Joachims and Findlays.

The Macpherson database indicates that Michel Gauthier married Marie Karakonti dit Dekara in 1858. Marie was a granddaughter of the original Kwarakwante/Callihoo. They had at least ten children; St. Pierre (b. 1859), Marie (b. 1861), Bernard (b. 1863), Clarisse (b. 1872), Louison (b. 1874), Baptiste (b. 1877), Moise (b. 1865), Martin (b. 1865), Paul (b. 1879) and Albert (b. 1882). Most of the births were registered in Jasper, although that is no guarantee that the family was living right in Jasper.

The local Gauthier family probably came from Kelly Lake in Northern British Columbia although they probably came to the Grande Cache area via McBride in BC. About 1929-30, the local family was living at Red Rock Creek near the Kakwa north of Grande Cache. Sometime in the 1930’s, the family moved to Chase’s Flats, which was then called Gauthier’s Flats on the Berland River. This was before Chase moved there and was probably in the late 1930’s or the early 1940’s. When the Gauthiers lived there, they had two cabins. They raised horses for sale and trapped

From Chase’s Flats, Albert moved to Wanyandie Flats West and had a house located beside what is now the graveyard. In the late 1940’s, Albert had a place near the little graveyard on the hill where the Muskeg crosses Highway 40. According to Joe Karakuntie, Albert married one of Johnny Moyese’s daughters. The government records indicate that Albert was twenty-two years of age, when he married Colette Moise on July 4, 1904 at Lac Ste. Anne. Colette, who went by Victoria locally, was seventeen years of age. They had a number of children including Flora, Clarisse and Alice. Two of the children; Pierre and Sara are buried at Victor Lake, while a boy named Sybyl is buried at the little graveyard on the hill where the Muskeg crosses Highway 40. A daughter named Margaret married Adam Agnes of Grande Cache and is buried at Muskeg. Another daughter married Isaac Plante and lived at Muskeg. After Sybyl died on April 7, 1948, Albert lived at Muskeg permanently. He was a hunter and a trapper. Bob Hallam of Hinton once stated that in the 1950’s when his wife, Donna, was the public health nurse for Muskeg, he met Albert, who was quite old. Whenever Donna would show up to do inoculations of the children at the school, Albert would wander down to the school to observe. Apparently he never said a word; he just kept an eye on the proceedings. He died before the town of Grande Cache was built in 1969 and is buried in Edmonton. His wife is buried at Muskeg.

The government records indicate that Paul Gauthier (b. 1879 at Jasper House) married Adelaide Moberly (1866-1987), who was one of Ewan Moberly’s daughters on May 27, 1903 at Lac Ste. Anne. Paul died at age thirty-two in 1918 during the Spanish Flu Epidemic and is buried at the Fish Lake Cemetery near Jarvis Lake. They had three children; Maggie, Celina and Josephine. Adelaide was married three times and is buried at Victor Lake.

Julian was single and died in jail, while serving time for a crime that local legend says that he did not commit.

Joachim:

The Joachim family has its roots in the Montreal area. In 1818, The North West Company hired Joachim/Tonatanhan, an Iroquois from the Montreal area to go to Alberta to trap. The Macpherson database lists his full name as Pierre Yehonnatahe Tawanatahan/Joachim. In 1822-3, the Hudson Bay Company tried to convince some Iroquois stationed in the Lesser Slave Lake region, to go to the Smoky River area to trap, but only Pierre went. On October 5, 1853, he married Marie Kalahash. The service was performed by Father Lacombe in Jasper. Pierre and Marie had eight children; Elisa, Anice/Nancy, Catherine, Marie/Marguerite, Suzanne, Lizette, Joseph and Alexis. Joachim ranged from Jasper to Grande Cache to the Peace River area.

Alexis married Madeline Fraser on October 7, 1861. They had six children; Louise, Marie, Martin, Charles, Adam, and Angele. Adam Joachim was born at Berland Lake in 1875. He was of Iroquois heritage, but was also a descendent of Colin Fraser of the Hudson Bay Company, as his mother was Madeleine Fraser. Colin Fraser ran Jasper House between 1835 and 1850.

Adam was a quiet, modest man who spoke Cree, French, Latin and English. He was educated at St. Albert by Father Lacombe, who was so impressed with this young man that he sent him to Montreal for religious training, but Adam returned to Jasper in 1896 due to a family crisis.

In 1910, the Adam Joachim family was living in Jasper, so Adam moved his family to the Grande Cache area as part of the Jasper Exodus. According to a government document, Adam was paid $1200 for his homestead, which consisted of two houses, three cultivated acres, a warehouse, two stables and fencing. The government recorded his age on August 21, 1909 as being thirty-two. Note that this does not quite match the birth date stated earlier. The family, which consisted of Adam, his wife and four children (ranging in age from two to eight) had been in residence on the site since 1900. The records indicate that Adam owned twelve horses and three head of cattle.

Adam Joachim was married twice. His first wife was Fresnine Moberly (daughter of Ewan Moberly). They had eight children (Adolphus, Angela, Clara, George, Sam, Flora, Henry, and James). Fresnine died in 1918. Adam's second wife was Caroline McDonald. They had nine children (Louisa, Joe, Lena, Milton, Alice, Emcie, Madeleine, Allan and Frieda).

Adam had a permanent residence at Victor Lake after leaving Jasper, but spent the summers at Muskeg. He maintained his devotion to the Roman Catholic Church while living there. At that time, a Roman Catholic Priest would visit Muskeg once a month for a week. Before the church was built at Muskeg, the services were held at Isaac Plante’s place. After the church was constructed in 1958, Adam looked after both the church and the priest’s cabin. After Adam’s death, his wife, Caroline performed these duties.

Adam Joachim was a trapper, prospector, guide and spiritual leader, who was respected for his honesty and integrity. As a guide, he once worked for Curly Phillips; one of the more famous Jasper outfitters. He guided in both the Jasper National Park area and in what was to become Willmore Wilderness Park. Adam was said to have tremendous endurance and to be very adaptive. He was respected both for his knowledge of the country and his knowledge of the local wildlife. It was fitting that Adam died at Muskeg in 1959, shortly after having been to Mass. He is buried in the Muskeg graveyard.

Adam’s brother, Martin Joachim, married Victoire Gauthier in 1893. They had five children; Henry, Paul, Virginie, Pierre and Marie.

Henry was born in 1897 in Jasper. He was one of many who left Jasper in 1910 when his parents settled in the Grande Cache area. He and two brothers spent some time in the Entrance area as packers as well as on the railroad. After about a year, they joined their parents in Grande Cache. They lived at the #1 Flats and also had a cabin at the Kakwa, where they trapped in the winter. Henry also outfitted. Glen Kilgor, a local outfitter, referred some of Henry’s clientele to him.

Alice (Granny) Joachim was born on the Horse Lake Reserve near Hythe about 1907. Her father, Pierre Shetler, was a chief on the Horse Lake Reserve. Apparently, Henry paid a handsome dowry for Alice. It is reported that Henry may have provided as many as fifteen horses and/or twelve to fifteen moose hides to obtain her hand in marriage. Although Henry and Alice did not have any children of their own, they raised over thirty children; some of whom still live in the Grande Cache area (e.g. Victoria Moberly, Audrey (Moberly) Printup and Leola Moberly).

Henry and Granny moved to Joachim Enterprises, in the mid 1960’s. Henry continued to outfit, while trapping in the winter. Alice passed away in 1996, a number of years after Henry. They are interred in the graveyard at Muskeg, which is just south of Grande Cache.

Karakuntie:

The Caraconte name is a significant one in the Grande Cache area. Over the years, the spelling and pronunciation have changed from Karquienthe to Karyinter to Kwarakwante to Karakonti to Caraconte to Karakuntie. Even the famous Calahoo clan from near Edmonton was originally named Kwarakwante.

The history of the Caraconte family is somewhat convoluted. We know that the Caraconte name is linked to the Caugnawaga Reserve near Montreal. The Caraconte ancestry is definitely Iroquois. Louis Karquienthe (sometimes called Kwarakwante or Karihoo, which became Calihoo) is credited as being one of the patriarchs of the Caraconte family in Alberta. He came west to work for the North West Company about 1800. There was an Ignace Karakwante, who was either his brother or his cousin, who came to Alberta to trap about the same time. He married Anna La Sekannaise, who was born in 1876. There was also a Dominick Karyinter (Caraconte) who worked for the NWC and arrived at Jasper in 1814. He was the only Iroquois from his group that set out from Montreal to survive the difficult trip to the west. Apparently, he had fought for the British against the Americans in the War of 1812. According to H. J. Moberly, he was still active in the Jasper area in 1855.

The Karakuntie family of Grande Cache is descended from Louis Karihoo, although Louis is sometimes referred to as Kwarakwante, Karaquienthe or Caraquanti. The name Karihoo translates as “tall forest”. The various spellings probably result from the fact that few people could read and write in those days, so when it was necessary to write a name for fur trade records or for church records, the writer would spell the name phonetically. This problem would be compounded by regional accents.

Louis Callihoo was called “le voyageur de soleil” in French, which translates to the “Sun Traveller” in English. He was born at Ganawake near Montreal on October 13, 1782. Louis was a Mohawk, so he was Iroquois. He spoke both French and Mohawk. On November 23, 1800, he was hired by the NWC (the North West Company) to be a voyageur (i.e. a canoeman). This was the beginning of his journey to the west. There is some evidence that he came west with Ignace Wayande and Ignace Kwarakwante. The latter was his brother or his cousin.

From 1805 to 1811, Louis was associated with Jasper House in what is now Jasper National Park. While there, he met Marie Katis, a Sekani woman. They became husband and wife, but were not officially married until October 16, 1853, when Marie was sixty years old. They were married by Father Lacombe in Jasper. This marriage took place in 1853 because Father Lacombe happened to be in Jasper at that time, so he performed a number of marriages and baptisms. Louis and Marie may have had older children, but the first that we know of was named Thomas, who was born about 1815. Another son was named Louis Dekara, who went by Karakonti as well as Tekarra and Carpontier. He married Marguerite Cardinal in Jasper in 1853 on the same day as his parents were officially wed.

By 1814, Louis was a freeman, as he had completed his contract with the fur trade company. Louis decided to stay in the west instead of returning to Montreal as many of the other Iroquois did. As a freeman, he was not associated with a fur trade company, so he could trade his furs where he wanted to get the best price. By 1825, Louis had a camp at the forks of the Smoky River (this may be the spot near Grande Cache where Sheep Creek enters the Smoky, as there is no real fork in the Smoky). He settled there because of the good pasture, the abundance of wild fruit, the fertile soil for growing potatoes, turnips and barley and because of the abundance of game, in particular elk and bison.

Louis spent part of the year on the Smoky with Marie Katis, but he also spent part of the year at Lesser Slave Lake with his other wives. We know that he had at least two children with Josephte Patenaude and seven children with her sister, Marie Patenaude. Apparently, Louis and the two sisters all lived in one large house. At this time, Louis made a living from hunting, trapping and freighting.

By 1854, the Sun Traveller was dead at the age of seventy-two. There is some evidence to indicate that he died in what is now Willmore Wilderness Park. In her book, Elizabeth MacPherson stated that he is buried at “Little Graves”, but this is very unlikely, as most people agree that “Little Graves” contains the body of a small child. Joe Karakuntie of Grande Cache indicated that he had heard that the grave of Louis Karakonti was in the next meadow over from “Big Graves”. This site is not far from “Little Graves”.

In 1910, some of the Caraconte family was living at Rock Lake. Other members of the Caraconte family lived on the Smoky where Sheep Creek flows into it. This branch of the family moved to the Kakwa-Nose Creek area about 1947. The Kakwa Valley, is located about 100 kilometers north of Grande Cache.

There was a Solomon Caraconte living at Solomon Creek near Brule by 1929. This creek, as well as the nearby mountain are named in his honour. We are not sure when the Solomon Caraconte who is buried near Brule was born, but we know that his parents were Catherine Joachim, who was born in 1847 and Simon Caraconte, who was born in 1842. Simon and Catherine were married in 1864. Solomon had two brothers; David born in 1873 and Louis born in 1879. He also had three sisters; Pegg born in 1882, Marie who was born in 1876 and died in 1890 and Isabelle. The Brule Solomon Caraconte is legendary for the manner of his death, which may have been in the mid 1930’s. Apparently, he was riding his horse down Solomon Creek in a storm, when a branch broke off a tree and hit him in the head, killing him. This is the Solomon who is buried at the base of Mount Solomon near the Black Cat Ranch near Brule.

There was another Solomon, who is buried at Sheep Creek. He is buried in a graveyard between the road and the Smoky River, near the railroad tracks that was washed out in a flood. This Solomon lived at Sheep Creek and had a brother named David, who lived at Wanyandie Flats. David had four sons; Solomon, Louis, Joe and Isadore. David’s grandson, Joe, currently lives at Grande Cache Lake. The Sheep Creek Solomon and his wife had three sons; Albert, Pete and Dan who eventually moved on to Nose Creek. They also had a daughter. This Solomon was a trapper, who had lots of horses and some cattle. When he was in residence at Sheep Creek, there were about five families living there. His wife, who died in 1947, is buried in the Kakwa Valley. It was one of his cabins at Sheep Creek that became a trading post/store run by Sam and Betty Unruh for Fletcher Smith of Hinton Trail from 1934 to 1941.

The Karakonte name lives on in the Grande Cache area, as there is a Caraconte Creek near Grande Cache as well as a Solomon Creek and Mount Solomon near Brule.

Kenny:

In his book Pack Saddles to Tete Jaune Cache, The noted Alberta historian, James G. MacGregor, related a story told to him by James Shand Harvey. Shand stated that Henry Kenny was a Sekani from Fort St. John who wanted to obtain Metis scrip, so he called himself Henry Kenny, when his real name was Eneesja.

The Grande Cache Henry Kenny was a Beaver or Sekani person from north of Grande Cache who migrated to the area with Thappe (1880’s or 1890’s). He was living in a teepee on Wanyandie Flats East in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, at the same time as Vincent Wanyandie was living there. According to the Macpherson database in St. Albert, there is no record of a Kenny family, but they do have a record of a Kaney family. This is probably another case of spelling a name phonetically. Henry, whose full name was Etienne Henry Kaney/Tozale married Marguerite Winimanisis in 1897. They had five children, all of whom had their births registered in Jasper. Adam was born in 1898, Betsy in 1902, Olive in 1905, Baptiste in 1908 and Maria in 1911.

Henry’s parents were Henry/Alitatian Kaney/Tozale and Nancy Wanyandie (1847-1896). For some reason, Henry used the Kenny name instead of Tozale. This could be the Henry Kenny mentioned by MacGregor, who changed his name to obtain scrip. Nancy was this Henry’s second wife, as he had been married to Marie Ann Beaver (they also had a son named Henry). Henry and Nancy had three children as well as Henry; Mary born in 1868, Michael born in 1869 and Peggy born in 1870 at Jasper House. Henry’s grandfather was a man named Tozale, while his grandmother was a lady named Chacochee. Of interest is the fact that only Henry used the Kenny name. His brother and sisters all went by Tozale, which is a variation of Desjarlais. It is a bit of a mystery as to why Henry went by a different name than his siblings.

The Kenny name has disappeared from Grande Cache, but the family has intermarried with the local people, so Henry has descendants living in the area.

McDonald:

The McDonald family is a prominent family in the region, but it was a tragedy that resulted in the death of the patriarch of the family, which led to the use of the name McDonald.

The patriarch was a Beaver or Sekani Aboriginal person named Thappe. The Beaver people lived north and west of Grande Cache at the time of the story, but had probably occupied the Grande Cache region years before. They had been pushed west by the Cree who had obtained guns from the fur trade companies and thus were able to expand their territory. Thappe and another man named Henry Kenny travelled down to the Grande Cache area in the 1870’s or 1880’s where Thappe married a local woman named Louise Findlay. They had two children; Joe and Louisa.

One winter day, Thappe and a couple of friends went hunting in what is now Willmore Wilderness Park. Local legend has it that he was hunting for sheep or goats in the winter and was caught in an avalanche. When his hunting partners found him, he still had his dog tied to his wrist. Thappe died, but the dog survived. One local legend has it that since it was winter and the ground was frozen, he was buried in a log spirit house, which was disrupted by animals, so some of his bones were strewn about. Another legend has it that his body was placed in a tree and that it somehow fell out of the tree, so his bones were strewn about until his partners came back in the spring to construct the now famous log burial house. In Neil Gilliat's time, the logs of the spirit house had deteriorated noticeably. Neil Gilliat believed that this grave was Little Graves, but we know that a child is buried at Little Graves. Thappe’s grave is a few miles further up the trail in heavy poplar brush.

After Thappe’s death, Louise married Donald McDonald. They had no children, but Joe Thappe, who had been born in 1884 and was baptized with Thappe as his last name, decided to change his last name to McDonald, thus we have the McDonald name immortalized in the Grande Cache area. We are not sure when Donald was born, but we know that he and Louise were married in 1891. Donald McDonald had a place at Isle Lake at one time. He was a trapper after whom Donald’s Flats on the Berland are named. We also know that he held the rights to a coal claim at Grande Cache for awhile, before losing it while overseas with Canadian military in WWI. As a result of this marriage, Joe took his stepfather’s last name and as a result, we have the McDonald name embedded in the history of Grande Cache and the Yellowhead Region.

Joe McDonald was one of the leaders of the Aboriginal community in Grande Cache. Joe was born on Christmas day in 1883. The birth was registered in Jasper. According to the Macpherson database, his biological father was named Isaac Jacques Leduc/Tappe/Sekani, who was born in 1853 in Jasper and died in 1886. It is interesting that the database lists him as being Sekani as he is considered to be Beaver or Dene Saa by the local people. The Beaver and the Sekani are from the same Athapascan language group.

Joe’s mother was named Louise Finlay/Campbell. She was born in 1860. Her parents were Paulet/Felix Finlay/Campbell and Therese Gauthier. The database is sketchy on Joe’s paternal grandparents, but we know that his grandfather was Jacques Taffy/Tappe, while his mother is recorded as being a lady named Therese. The records indicate that Joe had a brother named Samuel Leduc, who was born about 1881 at Jasper House. He also had two sisters. One was named Louise Taffy/Tappe, who was born on April 21, 1886. She married Daniel Wanyandie Sr. The other sister was named Emilien Taffy/Tappe born in 1889.

Joe was married twice. His first marriage was to Olive Karakonti, who was born on November 15, 1884 at Wolf Creek. They were married in 1905 at Lac Ste. Anne and had two children; David and Caroline. Joe’s second wife was named Sophie Wanyandie, who was born in 1896. They had eleven children; John, Victoria, Mary, Veronique, Julienne, Paul, Pacheese, Lactop, Betsy, Maber and Louisa.

Joe died in 1975 and is buried at Susa Creek.

Moberly:

The Moberly family has played a significant role in the history of the area. In the 1800's, the Moberly brothers, Henry John and Walter came west to work. Walter Moberly was probably the greatest of the Canadian Pacific Railway surveyors, as he blazed a trail through the Yellowhead Pass from 1872 to 1875.

The Grande Cache Moberly family is descended from Henry John Moberly, who was born in Penetanguishene, Ontario on August 8, 1835. His father was Post Captain John Moberly. Henry John was educated at the Barrie Grammar School and at Upper Canada College. When he was eighteen years old, his father got him a job with Lloyds of London. He was posted to St. Petersburg in Russia for two years before returning to Canada. When he returned to Canada, he went to Fort La Cloche on Lake Huron. From there he went to Fort William, where he joined up with Governor Simpson of the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) for a trip to Norway House for a meeting of the Northern Department. At the age of nineteen, he was sent to Rocky Mountain House on the Saskatchewan River. He arrived on October 28, 1854. In 1856, he took supplies to Dunvegan, including leather for New Caledonia via the Peace River. In 1858, he took a pack train to Jasper House, thus "opening" the Jasper Trail from Edmonton to Jasper. The group started at Lac Ste. Anne and consisted of Henry John, Andre Cardinal, six Iroquois and forty horses. Henry John Moberly said that he was the first non-aboriginal to accomplish this task. He ran Jasper House for the HBC for four years from 1858 to 1861.

When Henry John arrived at Jasper, the old post was pretty much run down, so he decided to construct a new post. A visitor to Moberly’s post commented that it consisted of several buildings in the “Swiss style with overhanging roofs and trellised porticos”. During his sojourn in the Jasper Valley, Henry married Suzan Cardinal. Henry John and Suzanne had two children; Ewan (pronounced Ay-von) and John.

Henry John enjoyed hunting, so he spent lots of time hunting in the mountains with his Iroquois friends. They sometimes made hunting trips as far north as Grande Cache. On one trip, he recorded that four hunters, four meat haulers, a horsekeeper, a cook, an interpreter and their families made a trip into the north country and took seventy moose as well as a number of caribou, bighorn and goats. In the winter, when food was sometimes scarce, the local people resorted to eating lynx. Apparently Henry John had a dog that was trained to tree a lynx, so that it could be killed. Part way through one winter, the people of the Jasper Valley had killed eighty-three lynx. Henry John reported that he would stuff the lynx with minced sheep and roast it whole.

Over the years, Henry John had a number of interesting visitors to his Jasper post including James Hector of the Palliser Expedition. Hector was searching for a wagon road through the mountains. After leaving Jasper, Hector named a mountain for Henry John, but the Moberly name did not stick.

When Henry left the Jasper post, he left his wife and family behind. Suzanne died in 1905, but her sons went on to become legends in the Yellowhead Region. At some point in time, Henry re-married. In 1894, he retired from the HBC and was offered a land grant in Banff, but his new wife did not care for the mountains. As a result, he took a grant at MacDowall, Saskatchewan where he homesteaded. Later, the family moved to Duck Lake where Henry spent his last years. He wrote a book about his adventures in Jasper entitled When Fur Was King. He died in 1932 and is buried in the Anglican cemetery in Duck Lake. Henry John’s son, George from his Saskatchewan family, continued on with the family tradition, as he too was employed by the HBC for many years.

Ewan (pronounced Ay-von by the local Moberly family) was baptized on August 28, 1860. He married Madeleine Finley. They had ten children (Adolphous, Fresnine, Joe, Adelaide, Edward, William, Electa, Daniel, and Clarise). While living in the Jasper Valley, he discovered Miette Hot Springs, which is located in Jasper National Park. In 1910, he and his family left Jasper when the government bought him out because Jasper was about to become a National Park. Ewan was paid for the improvements and started on his “trek” to Grande Cache. On his trek, he cut the Moberly Trail from Entrance to Grande Cache along the “Old Indian Trail”, which became part of the Hinton Trail. One report states that he took a fair bit of farm equipment with him on his trek to Grande Cache, so the trekkers had to make bridges as they went. They also took over 200 head of livestock.

Ewan Moberly settled at Victor Lake near Grande Cache. He ran a small store/trading post at Victor Lake from 1910 until his death. It was located at what is now George Moberly’s place overlooking the Sulphur River. The actual building has long since disappeared. Of interest is the fact that he used Roman Numerals to keep his records. Ewan bought and sold furs and was famous for raising his high quality stock. In particular, he was known to have the very best packhorses, which he obtained in Kamloops via the Yellowhead Pass. He was also a farmer and a rancher. In addition, Ewan had a thirty-five foot canoe on the Smoky River with a sign on it, which indicated that using the canoe would cost ten dollars and losing the canoe would cost fifty dollars. The canoe was reported to have been dug out from a single “cottonwood” or poplar tree.
Ewan Moberly died during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1919 and is buried in a scenic little cemetery, on a bench part way up a hill overlooking a hay field at Victor Lake.

Adolphus Moberly was a self reliant mountain man, who was in great demand as a guide and packer in the Rockies in the early 1900's. He was a son of Ewan Moberly who was a legend in his own right. He was also the grandson of Henry John Moberly who ran Jasper House for awhile. Adolphus, who was called Dolphus by his friends, was born in Jasper in 1881. He was married twice. His first wife was named Isabelle. Dolphus and Isabelle had two children; Lucy and Aleck. His second wife was Clarise Agnes, the daughter of Washy Joe Agnes. They had seven children; Joe, Annie, George, Emil, Mike, Blennie (Bellamy), Walter and Colin. In 1910, Adolphus had his own place in Jasper, when the Canadian government bought him out. He joined his father on the “trek” to Grande Cache and settled at Victor Lake, where Emil Moberly lives at present. Adolphus Moberly died on March 12, 1946 and is buried in the graveyard at Victor Lake, behind the house where he lived.

Moyese:

The Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains were once the home of the Shuswaps, but over time, they were gradually pushed westward. Most of Shuswap or Snake people who lived in the Jasper Valley left when the Cree, who had guns, forced them out. Some of the local Snake people were killed off by the Assiniboine in the Jasper Valley about 1840. Most of the rest of the Shuswaps vacated the area in 1858 when the Hudson Bay Company left, due to a food shortage. They went to Fort St. George.

Johnny Moyese was a Shuswap Aboriginal person from the Okanagan, who came over the mountains and settled at Jarvis Lake near Hinton. This area was sometimes called Fish Lake, Red Willow or Joachim Flats. He was a neighbour of “One-eyed” Jimmy Wanyandie. After “One-eyed” Jimmy died, Johnny took over the family sometime in the 1920’s. In the summers, Johnny would visit the Grande Cache area.

John Glenn, who was a forest ranger in the area from 1920 to 1942 told an interesting story about Johnny. It was about 1927, when John Glenn and his crew were in the Grande Cache area. They were on the far side of the Smoky River, when it started to rain. It rained so long and hard that the river flooded. This made it very difficult to get across the river to the ranger cabin at Grande Cache. Glenn’s crew built a raft and Harold Lake volunteered to go across the river to get an old dugout canoe that the local Aboriginal people had cached there. Harold had little trouble getting the canoe across the river, as he was very skilled, but it would take two experienced paddlers to get the canoe loaded with supplies to the other side of the river. At that point in time, “Smiling” Johnny Moyese came along looking for his horses. John Glenn referred to him as Johnny Mayoe. It happened that Glenn and Johnny were old friends, so after a hearty meal, Johnny agreed to help. Johnny and Harold made several trips across the river without incident. When they were done, John Glenn rewarded Johnny Moyese with some food and watched in amazement as Johnny paddled the canoe back across the river singing, “Oh it ain’t gonna rain no mo’ no mo’…”. The Moyese name is no longer in evidence in the region, but most of the local families are related to the family through marriage.

Plante:

Felix Plante was born in Lac Ste. Anne on November 6, 1893. His parents (Abraham Plante b. 1868 and Euphrasnine Wanyandie who were married in 1889) had a homestead in the area. Abraham was the son of Basil Plante (b. 1790), while his wife’s parents were Isabelle Kwarakwante (1820-1889) and Baptiste Wanyandie (1820-74). They were married in 1846. Jean Baptiste was descended from Ignace Wanyandie, the patriarch of the Rocky Mountain Wanyandies. The original family name was LePlante, but it was shortened to Plante.

Felix married Caroline Moberly (1899-1979), the daughter of John Henry Moberly and granddaughter of Henry John Moberly on January 8, 1924. They had seven children; Mary (Desjarlais), Thomas (who died at birth), Joseph, Ida (Pelletier), James, Freddie and Lena (Oulette).

Felix worked at many jobs during his lifetime, but he really loved working with horses. He was a trapper on the Berland for eight years, a carpenter for Forestry for awhile, and a guide for Fred Brewster for fifteen years. Later, he had his own outfit.

Felix Plante had a lot of respect for nature. He was very knowledgeable about medicinal roots, leaves, berries, sap and plants. He was a deeply religious man who always had a Bible and a Cree hymnbook close at hand. The pilgrimage to Lac Ste Anne was an important part of his life. Felix made his last pilgrimage in 1989. Access TV made a film about Felix entitled "Felix Plante, Mountain Man". Felix died at age 100 on August 28, 1994. His wife Caroline predeceased him in November of 1979. His daughter, Mary Desjarlais and family continue to live in the Grande Cache area.

John Glenn, who was a forest ranger in the area from 1920 to 1942, told an interesting story about Felix. Early in his tenure as a ranger, Glenn ran across the tracks of a very large grizzly. He foolishly went hunting for the beast on the Grave Flats by himself. Although Glenn did not see the grizzly while hunting, he did see some monstrous tracks in the light snow that fell as evening approached. Shortly thereafter, Felix Plante and Fred Brewster went hunting for the beast and found him. Fred fired at the bear and wounded him. At this point, the two split up. Fred tracked the wounded bear, while Felix found a spot to watch. It was a good thing that he did because the bear had started hunting Fred. Fortunately for Fred, Felix dispatched the bear with one shot, just in time.

Felix Plante was a typical “mountain man” who loved the mountains, the outdoors and guiding. It was legendary people like Felix who made the Grande Cache area accessible at a time when there were no roads, railways or airports in the area. Indeed, when he worked for Forestry, he helped to construct the telephone line from Entrance to Muskeg. The fact that a film was made about his life, adds testament to his legendary status. Felix died in 1994.

Wanyandie:

The Wanyandie family can trace its roots to Ignace Nawanionthe (sometimes called Wanyante or Wayande or Ouanianthe), an Iroquois from the Montreal area. There is some evidence to suggest that Ignace came west with Ignace and Louis Kwarakwante about 1800, although they may have come separately about the same time. We know that Ignace Wanyandie worked for the NWC as early as 1813 and that he was one of the few Iroquois who decided to stay in the west when his contract expired. We also know that he was trapping in the Smoky River area by 1818-1819. Ignace married Marie Sekanaise (her last name indicates that she was from the Sekani group of Aboriginal people). Ignace and Marie had a number of children; Jean Baptiste (b. 1820), Collette (b. 1816), Rosalie, Ignace (b. 1832) and Pierre (b. 1824). Ignace Wanyandie Sr. died in 1836.

Jean Baptiste, who went by “Baptiste”, married an Isabelle Kwarakwante in 1846. Baptiste was born in 1820 and died in 1874. Isabelle, who was also born in 1820, died in 1889. Baptiste was her second husband. They had a large family consisting of Jean Baptiste (b. 1845), Jimmy (1855-1880), Nancy (b. 1843), Betsy (b. 1844), Abraham (1849-1874), Joachim, Paul, Virginie, Euphresnine and Vincent.

Vincent Wanyandie was born near Jasper House in 1850 or 1858 (depending on which source you accept). He also married an Isabelle Kwarakwante, but she was born in 1848. They were married in 1890 and had five children; Daniel Sr. (b. 1890), Sam (b. 1892), Sophie (b. 1892), Julia (b. 1894) and Betsy (b. 1896). At first, Vincent and his young family lived in a teepee at Mile 119, which we call Wanyandie Flats East. Vincent and Isabelle were very well to do and had a big place at Graveyard Lake north of Hinton. After his wife died in 1910, Vincent fell on hard times, so he ended up moving to McDonald Flats, where he died and is buried. The other Aboriginal people called him “Vasa” or “Basa” (pronounced “Bay- saa”). This was probably their version of the French pronunciation of Vincent.

Vincent was a good hunter who supplied the HBC Jasper House and H. J. Moberly with food. He could not speak English, but was a leader among the Aboriginal people of the area. Shand Harvey described him as being a tall, open man, who was honest and had integrity. We know that he was generous because he once traded a moose for half a bag of flour to a hungry crew near Pinto Creek working on the 6th meridian. He ran a trapline about thirty miles north of present day Hinton at the junction of the Wildhay River and Jarvis Creek. The Aboriginal people called the Wildhay "Manito-cu-pim-bi-it" because the hay meadows along the river resembled large footprints, which they thought were made by Manitou. Other people believe that the meadows were made by tornadoes. It is interesting to note that Vincent remembered his people driving buffalo and moose over cliffs near Eagle's Nest Pass in the 1860's to obtain meat for the HBC. This would be similar to the buffalo jumps used by the Aboriginal people on the Great Plains.

Vincent was tough, as is evidenced by the story which follows. He was over sixty years old when he shot a sheep in the fall. He went back to find his knife, which he had left behind, when his horse slipped on a rock in a creek. Vincent’s horse showed up at camp minus the rider, so his daughter went looking for him. She soon found him and got her friend, Washy Joe, to set Vincent’s leg in a splint. The family eventually moved Vincent home where he recovered quite nicely.

A rather sad part of the Wanyandie legend concerns Vincent’s son, Sam, who did not return from the family trapline after an expedition in 1911. They never did find the body, but hypothesized that he could have broken through the ice and drowned, although some people always harboured the suspicion that he might have been murdered by the Sturgeon Lake Cree, who did not care for the Wanyandies.

Daniel was born at Brule in 1890. He married Louisa McDonald, the sister of Joe McDonald. The marriage took place in Entrance. They had nine children; a daughter, who died when she was young and is buried near Jackfish Lake near the Wildhay River, Daniel Jr. (b. 1918), Dora who married Jimmy Joachim, Harry who married Maggie Karakuntie, Billy who died in 1945 when he was eighteen years of age, Margaret who died in 1944, Fred (b. Nov. 2, 1927) who married Evelyn Moberly and Tommy (b. June 15, 1932). When Daniel’s father, Vincent, moved to McDonald Flats, Daniel moved there as well, but only for a short time. By 1927, when Fred was born, Daniel was living at Wanyandie Flats West, which was originally called Daniel’s Flats in honour of Daniel Wanyandie. Daniel constructed a log house and two sheds from burnt trees located on the west side of what was to be Number 9 Mine. Daniel floated the trees down the river and used horses to skid them to the site on his flats. He had a big garden, cattle and horses.

Daniel was a guide, outfitter, hunter, trapper and packer. He hauled in groceries for the Unruh store at Sheep Creek before WWII. He worked on a surveying crew for a logging company at the Simmonette River and for Imperial Oil when it was doing exploration work on the Muskeg River. At first, he could trap anywhere he wanted for a $2.50 fee, but in starting in 1941, he paid $10 and had a set trapline near the Flats. He trapped various animals including wolves, coyotes, fox, lynx, marten, squirrels, weasels, and marten. He walked his trapline, using snowshoes in winter. Dogs with packs were also used.

Daniel died in 1974 and is buried at the Wanyandie West graveyard.

Place Names

The Big Berland used to be known as “Pachees Seepee”, which means Baptiste for Baptiste Berland after whom the river is named.

The Little Berland was known as “Pachees Seepee-ih”. There was a place on the Little Berland called “Pehtowkamkoh” which means “Pipesmoke Lodge” in Cree.

The Wild Hay River was known as “Manitou Seepee”. It was said that God walked through the area and his footsteps created large hay meadows.

Washy Creek was known as “Kah-gos-chi-kwa-sis Seepee-sis”, which in English means “Little Porcupine Head”.

The Kakwa River was sometimes known as the Porcupine River or “Kakwa Seepee”.

A la Peche is French for “well fishing river”. The Cree name is “Ka-kwas-kweh-peh-che-kay”, which means “the place where you fish”.

The Muskeg River is called “Musko-Seepee”.

Our People used to hunt at Sulphur River (La Soupe Seepee) at the junction of the Muddywater and Smoky Rivers, as well as at Kamistikok Seepeesis and Matowsiskana (Pinto Creek).

Gregg Lake was known as “Kah-mins-tik-owik”. This was Basa Wanyandie’s land.

Jarvis Lake was known as “Kinosew Sakehigan” or “Mitow-sis-cana”.

A horse trail is called “teh-ta-pee-scan-ow”. Some trails had Aboriginal origins. One of the better known trails, is the one that heads north from Rock Lake where a battle between two groups of aboriginal people took place. The trail is called “Young Man’s Fleeing Trail”. This trail is the result of two young men’s flight through the area, fleeing the battle.

Sulphur Gates was known as (Ka-we-popis-kak) .

Crossroads (i.e. the places where the various trails crossed) were very important and had special names. Our Elders remember a place called “A-pi-tow” (middle). Another special gathering place called “Mah-tao-sis-ka-nah”, which means “crossroads” – where people from Grande Cache and even Grande Prairie would spend the summer, this area was considered sacred, as it was a special meeting and celebration area. Caw Ridge was also an important gathering place. It was called “Aseniwuche sih”.

Agnes Flats, which is called “Kamisak” was named for Washy Joe Agnes.

Mason Creek was named after a “Muddywater River Trapper”. This happened when Colin Moberly’s father met the trapper and told him the creek would have his name. In turn, the trapper named Moberly Creek after him. Roddy Creek is named after Roddy Moberly and Malcom Creek is named after Malcom Moberly.

A place along the Smoky River is remembered where Daniel Wanyandie, lived and died. This place is now called Daniel’s Flats or Wanyandie Flats West. Two of his grandfather’s sons still live there with their families.

The Pierre Grey Lakes site is named for Pierre Gris, who was a Metis fur trader in the area.

There is a place called “Deadman Creek”. This is the gravesite of Jacques Thappe, who was killed in an avalanche.