Rolling Out Niverville's Métis Red River Cart to a Special Place under a Timber Frame on Canada Day, July 1, 2022

As a follow-up to the unveiling of a cairn at the site of the Shantz Immigration Sheds on Manitoba Day, May 12, 2022, Niverville was able to take a further step in strengthening the M & M (Mennonite and Métis) Connection on Canada Day, July 1, 2022.  By oral tradition, Louis Riel has been quoted as having said, "My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back!"

In rolling out the Cart on to a pad and under a Timber Frame, this time the Canada Day Celebration had more than speeches, but it was the artists who were giving the Metis their spirit back.  This gathering was a Celebration of Métis Culture, complete with the Métis Fiddle and Dance to the Métis Red River Jig, and complete with buffalo burgers, bannock and fry bread at the end of the ceremony in which much cross-cultural connecting and relationship-building took place.

Spirituality is upstream from culture, and culture is upstream from politics, because culture is the heart language of a people, a language which transcends the mind, and which influences people on a far deeper level than simply arguing about intransigent political ideologies.

So on Canada Day in Niverville on July 1, 2022, we were blessed not only with speeches, but the heart language of the Métis  Culture with Métis  Fiddle Music and Dance.  One can watch a video of the entire 52-minute program of speeches and music that was emceed by Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck by clicking on this site.  

You can also read the article that is entitled, Niverville's Canada Day Celebration Honours Our Métis and Mennonite Ancestors published by Steinbachonline.com on July 2, 2022 here.  

Speeches Made at Canada Day Event in Niverville, Fri., July 1, 2022, 2 p.m.

Those participating in the Canada Day Program in Niverville on Friday, July 1, 2022 were, standing left to right, 

1) Brenda Neufeld Lapointe, descendant a brother of Métis trader Peter Garrioch who pioneered the building of the Crow Wing Trail on her mother's side.  Brenda also has great grand-parents on her father's side that that arrived at the Mennonite Landing with the first Mennonites in 1874, and whom Peter Garrioch took on his Red River Cart from the Mennonite Landing to the Shantz Immigration Sheds eight kilometres to the East.  

2) Myron Dyck, Mayor of Niverville and Emcee for this Canada Day Celebration.

3) Métis Elder Lucy Guiboche, a member of the Mayor of Winnipeg's Indigenous Advisory Circle, and speaker at Niverville 50th Anniversary Celebration on September 8, 2019.

4) and 5) Jackie and Jason Heistad (Guitar Player and Métis Fiddle Player) from Niverville. 

6) Murielle Bugera, president of the Crow Wing Trail Association. 

7) and 8)  Armand and Kelly Jerome, builders of the Métis Red River Cart that is now on display in Niverville.

Seated in front from left to right...

9)  Janessa Leanne Roy, Métis Dancer from Ile des Chenes who has taught school in Niverville, and presently teaches in Blumenort.

10) and 11) Sienna English and Edlynne Paez, Students from the Niverville High School who are a part of the Student Action Group on Indigenous Issues that is facilitated by NHS Teacher Tony Clark.

The following comments are taken ver batim as they were shared during the course of the program.

Opening Comments by Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck

My name is Myron Dyck, and I am the mayor here in the Town of Niverville.  Today is a day we celebrate the land we call Canada, a land of lakes, forests, mountains and prairies, a land that extends from sea to sea to sea. 

It is also a day when we remember the people who traversed the land.  We celebrate and honour those people who have made our land better from the very First Peoples of this land to those who followed through the generations, and also to those who are not with us in this present day. 

Today is also a day that we embrace forgiveness and reconciliation for wrongs that have been committed.  Our Creator made this land, and has asked us all to be His caretakers.  Our Creator also made each one of us, gave us equal standing and now asks us to not only care for the land, but also to care for one another.

Speaking of the land, we do acknowledge that we are standing on Treaty No. 1 Territory, the traditional land of the Anishinaabe, Cree and Dakota people, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.  We are grateful for their stewardship of this land, and their hospitality, which allows us to live, work and serve God the Creator here on this land, an understanding which was inherent in the treaties that were made. 

Canada has been known to be a nation of people that welcomes the foreigner.  Beside me is a replica of a Red River Cart.  It was used to meet people, and to welcome them to this area from 1874 to 1876 when people from foreign lands got off the boat at the Mennonite Landing that had brought them up the Red River to their new home here in Manitoba. 

We have this cart placed here in a place of prominence to remind us that just as the residents of the land in 1874 to 1876 welcomed newcomers to this land and region, the people of Niverville should continue to welcome all those who come to our community, whether for a visit, or a more permanent stay.

Greetings from Murielle Bugera, President of the Crow Wing Trail Association

Greetings from the Crow Wing Trail Association.  We are very honoured and proud to be with you today to celebrate this historic moment.  We really have been working on the Crow Wing Trail for a long time, and it is really nice to see communities participating as well.  The Crow Wing Trail is a part of our common history, and it is not just about the Métis with their carts on rugged paths and creaking wheels.  The Métis had a trade in the 19^th century that was just as important as the international trade that takes place today on Manitoba Highway 75 and Interstate Highways 29 and 94 south of the border.

There have been many steps that have been taken to commemorate this Crow Wing Trail.  For example, one hundred years later, there were horse rides that were organized from Winnipeg to Emerson, and meeting people at the American border.  Later, carts started cropping up on the Crow Wing Trail.  A few communities have displayed them, and now Niverville is the fourth community to do so.  So the Crow Wing Trail is a part of the history of the communities in this area.  That is why Niverville joins the other municipalities of the RM of Richot, RM of de Salaberry, village of St. Pierre, RM of Franklin and Emerson, and also the Roseau First Nation.

In 1999, they created the Crow Wing Trail Association in order to recreate the Crow Wing Trail to be a part of the Great Canadian Trail.  The Crow Wing Trail is 200 kilometres long, and is the longest section of the Trans Canada Trail in Manitoba.  It is really unique, and is giving people the opportunity to talk about the Métis and also about the Crow Wing Trail and its importance to the Province and to Canada.  We can now talk to people, to the trail users that come from near and far.

And that is what Niverville is doing with the Heritage Wall, with the new Historical Museum, and now the Red River Cart that is being unrolled here today.  So we thank Niverville, and we are inspired by their helping us to really walk with the indigenous people, to tell stories, to connect with land and nature and to celebrate relationships and cultures.  The Crow Wing Trail is really still a very young trail, and it is a work in progress, but it can really add to the economy of the region, just as the Métis did when they created a thriving economy with the bison trail and the carts.  So thank you very much, Niverville, and let’s celebrate.  Thank you on behalf of the Crow Wing trail Association.  Thank you.

Remarks by Kelly and Armand Jerome, Builders of the Cart 

Kelly Jerome:  Thank you to everybody who is so involved in the community.  We just love being here, and participating.  It is so welcoming and so warming.  Our gratitude, deep, deep gratitude. 

Armand Jerome:  I really thank the group that planned all of this for this dedication.  The cart that we made we covered with a certain type of coating that we were hoping was going to last awhile.  However, the sun and the rain kills it, so we really are impressed with this timber frame, and we know that it is going to be excellent, and it will preserve that coat for years to come.

At first, we were not sure how to design these carts.  We had the opportunity over the past number of years to actually try these carts out, and have them break down, and then improve on them.  I went back to the books, back to the research, and finally came up with a cart that probably was the same as the carts that they made back in the 1800s.  If you were to see pictures from the 1800s, you will see that they are identical to this cart.

That is basically how I learned (through trial and error).  So thank you very much for all of this.  I am glad to see this turnout.  This is just a great event.  Thank you so much.  Thank you for inviting us here.

Comments from Edlynne Paez and Sienna English from the Student Action Group, Niverville High School

Sienna English (on left):  I thank you all for coming.  This is an amazing event.  We are very grateful to have been invited to say a few words.  We are from the Student Action Group at the Niverville High School.  We are dedicated to Truth and Reconciliation within our school.  We are very excited to be here, and to celebrate Métis culture.

Edlynne Paez (on right):  It is because of the Métis culture that Niverville and many other communities exist, and the people that made them, that we are here today.  Niverville would not be Niverville without Métis people, and now is the time to acknowledge their contribution as we work towards a Canada Day for everyone.  It gives us time to think, remember, learn and listen. 

Sienna English:  We want this to be a celebration that continues for many years, and we hope that today’s celebration can continue, and also encourage other communities to do the same.

Note:  This is Niverville High School teacher Tony Clark who facilitates the Student Action Group at the Niverville High School.  His comment via email was: “That’s wonderful news.  Thank you for the opportunity. I watched a video of their (Sienna’s and Edlynne’s) contribution and felt so very proud of them. Here’s to more opportunities and connections in the near future.” 

Blessings from Métis Elder Lucy Guiboche, who is with the Mayor of Winnipeg’s Indigenous Advisory Circle and who is quoted in the Niverville Museum

It is a great honour to be here today, due to the invitation that was given, and I have also been honoured to have met the people of Niverville which blesses me a lot.  I want to send greetings from the Métis people.  You have already heard mentioned about Treaty No. 1, the Anishinaabe, the Métis, the Cree, the Dakota, and we thank them for what they have given to the people all around.

I am so blessed to hear the young people, and what they shared about the Métis people.  Coming from somebody else, and giving such a positive note and a loving affirmation from someone who recognizes the role of the Métis people, and today, I am honoured to have heard the words spoken by the young people. 

I am going to leave here today blessed.  I came here, and was asked to bless, but amazingly, when we are invited by the Creator also and when we are obedient unto Him, when we give and when we share, because we can never outgive the Creator, He will give you back more than what you will give.

I see a great thing happening from the last time that I was here in 2019, and now, I see the emerging of ethnic people and cultures coming together, and forgiving one another.  We ask that you would continue, because I believe that with the emerging that is happening here, that we will be one, not in colour, or even in what we wear, but the Creator looks at each heart.  He looks at you!

Right now, even today, as we sit here, and we gather in His Name, He sits on His Throne above, and He is watching you and me doing a great thing.  I heard before that He is coming soon, and that He is coming to do a new thing!  And I am beginning to see things that are happening that have never happened before.  I want to give you thanks as a Métis person for your obedience, and for your being here.  You matter.  You have value.  You are important. 

So as we come together as one, under the sovereignty of the Creator, as I am asked to do, I bless all of the farmers in the Niverville area.  I also bless this land, for the indigenous people, when they first came on this land, they called it ‘Kanata.’  It started with a ‘K.’  What that means is that it was a sacred land.  That means that it is holy.  I would like you to know that.  It is not just an ordinary land.  It’s precious to you and to me.  It will feed us.  It will give us food to eat.  It gives us water to drink.  It all comes from the land, and the trees that we see will bear fruit.

So I bless also the grain elevators that were put here.  We welcome again the Mennonite people, and other ethnic people.  I bless them.  I bless all of the children, and all of the ethnic people who are living here.  We welcome them, and we bless them, and we speak life and protection over them.  

We also bless the sowing of the seed into the ground.  We bless their gardens.  May there be another bumper crop.  I pray that your eyes and ears and hearts will be open, and that you will see and recognize that something has happened to the land, and that it is different, that the food will be so plentiful that even one grain that is put into the ground will multiply and feed a whole family.  Because of that, I believe that the Creator is going to be opening doors all the way around, and that your obedience, and because of what is happening around us, that even in a time of famine around us, that God always calls a peculiar and a certain people when that happens. 

I believe that you are those people that He is calling, because I hear that the people of Niverville, and the Mennonites share, and when you share, it will be given back to you 100-fold.  Our Creator is a Multiplier.  He brings great increase, and I bless that over the people of Niverville, and in your families and in your homes and in your children.

I bless the next generation.  That next generation will not be the same.  It will be like no other.  They will turn the world upside down, because they have been called by the Creator to do certain things, and they will be obedient because of their love for Him.  

So it gives me great honour, and great blessing to be here today.  I bless all of the dignitaries.  I bless Mayor Myron Dyck…

I talk a lot about Niverville.  I love this place, and I love the people.  And I thank you for your heart for all that the Creator is asking of each one of us.  I believe that you are going to see things that you never dreamed of before.  I believe that we are going to see things so great and so vast, just like our gardens.  We bless them.  We bless the ground.  We bless the sacred ground.  And I want to thank you from my heart.

As I said earlier, He sits on the Throne, and He is watching you.  I speak hope even to those who live outside of Niverville—to the North, South, East and West.  And because of your thankfulness, and because of your heart to share and to love and to forgive, I receive that forgiveness, and I thank you for that.  God makes us one when something is broken.  Only good things can come out of that.  So thank you!

I bless your homes, bless your businesses.  I bless what the others have spoken of.  So from my heart, I give thanks, first and foremost to the Creator again, because He is the One who sustains life, and gives all that is needed. 

(Quotation from Métis Elder Lucy Guiboche at the Niverville Museum)

Right now, because of the things that are going on around us, we don’t know what is going to happen, and what is next, but when we do our part, we will not be a part of that, but we will be a part of a good thing that the Creator wants to do, and I believe that it will start here in Niverville.

(This was followed by a powerful prayer of blessing in Lucy Guiboche’s Native Ojibwe language).

I ask the Creator that God will bless your home and your children, and that there will be no sickness in your homes, and that He will protect your children, and protect you.  Thank you!  God richly bless you all!

Mayor Myron Dyck:  Thank you so very much, Lucy.  Those were very, very kind words, very heartfelt words, and we wish to bless you as well in all that you do, and all that you are doing, and may God grant you health and happiness!

I do wish to acknowledge one other individual who is with us here on the stage today, and that is Brenda Neufeld Lapointe.  Brenda's 5th generation grandfather was a brother to Peter Garrioch. Peter was a Métis trader who pioneered the construction of the Crow Wing Trail back in 1844.  

And it was this same Métis trader who also took Brenda's great grandparents on her Mennonite side from the Mennonite Landing to the Immigration Sheds in his  Métis Red River Cart back in 1874. 

I will ask Brenda if she would like to say a few words.

Comment by Brenda Neufeld Lapointe

"As Mayor Myron Dyck has said, I have 100% Russian Mennonite ancestry on one side of my family, and 100% Métis ancestry on the other side of the family.  When I was a young girl at home, our dinner conversation went like this.  

"My dad would say, 'My grandparents walked all the way from the Red River to the Immigration Sheds!'  My mom would say, 'That's not true!  My uncle gave them a ride!'  

"Thank you!"

The Program continued with a time Métis Fiddle Music and Dance that included the Métis Red River Jig and Orange Blossom!

The Program ended with the singing of the Canadian National Anthem, first in English, and then in the Cree language.  One can watch a video tape of this stirring rendition at this site.

"The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations (ethnos)."

The Métis flag speaks of "infinity" and "eternity."

Recognizing Louis Riel as "the founding father of Manitoba," and recognizing and honouring both our Métis and our Mennonite and our other Ethnic forefathers and foremothers who have gone on before us, and prepared us for where we are at today we press forward into pursuing a Journey of Reconciliation in Niverville with all ethnicities and cultures.  We honour our roots, our ancestors, our predecessors, and we build upon all that is precious and honourable in our roots and in the legacy that we have received, and will endeavour to also learn from the past in not repeating their mistakes.

"God who gave our fathers and mothers freedom,

God who made our fathers and mothers brave,

What they built with love and with labour

Let their children watch and save!"

The Métis Red River Cart that was rolled out on to its Cement Pad underneath a Timber Frame in Niverville on Canada Day, July 1, 2022, now has a Roof over it to preserve this symbolic icon of the M & M (Métis & Mennonite) Connection against the elements for future generations to pursue deeper connection, relationship and reconciliation!