Land where the Métis village of Ste. Madeleine once stood is being returned, more than 80 years after it was burned to the ground to make way for grazing cattle.
Villagers were forced to scatter throughout southwestern Manitoba with only the clothes and belongings they had with them. The Spy Hill Ellice community pastures were operated by Canada until 2013 when they were dissolved over a three-year period and transferred to Manitoba.
Premier Wab Kinew was on-hand at Ste. Madeleine Days held this weekend every July to kick off the gathering signing a memorandum of understanding with Manitoba Métis Federation President David Chartrand to transfer 100 acres of pasture back to the Métis.
“Today is a step toward righting that historic wrong,” Kinew said.
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“This eases a heartache that has existed at the core of our nation for generations,” Chartrand said. “Manitobans should be proud to have a premier who truly understands what reconciliation looks like.”
Descendants say Métis families returned from seasonal work to find their village of 250 had been burned and their dogs shot.
Elder and descendant Verna DeMontigny says she has long dreamed of a day that they’d get that land back.
“If it happens in my lifetime I want a house over there,” DeMontigny told Global News in July 2023, pointing across to an open field. “I’ve got my spot picked out. I wouldn’t mind coming back.”
Kim Smith of the Ste. Madeleine Métis local is an organizer and descendant. She cried when talking about the bitter-sweetness of attending annual gatherings as they drive past the cattle that graze where their village once stood.
She hopes the land deal will mean her grandchildren will one day live here.
“Oh God, I think about that all the time, actually,” Smith said.
Chartrand says having the land back is the first step in making dreams like that an eventual reality.
“Families that lost and had their houses burnt to ashes are talking about building a smaller house or smaller cabin just for keeping the memory alive,” he said.
Ste. Madeleine sat near the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, 340 kilometres west of Winnipeg in Treaty 4 territory.