KAMSACK — Mason Hausermann, a historian and former Kamsack resident, has spent years researching Canadian history, his primary focus being on the 1800s-1900s, which led him to discover an interesting familial and local connection to both the fur trade and First Resistance movement by the Métis.
Cuthbert Grant Jr., the first leader of the Métis, was born in 1793 at Fort de la rivière Tremblante, a trading post of the North West Company, nine miles southeast of present-day Kamsack and west of Togo. Grant would enter service with the North West Company like his father before him, and eventually be seen as the first leader of the Métis.
During the Pemmican Wars (a series of clashes between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company, from 1812-21), Grant would participate in The Battle of Seven Oakes, or, to the Métis, The Victory at Frog Plain. Where, on June 19, 1816, Métis and First Nations had a violent confrontation with HBC governor Semple and HBC officers, as Grant’s men were delivering pemmican to their NWC partners, which was illegal due to the Pemmican Proclamation of 1814 by Red River Colony Governor, Miles Macdonell. The Métis would come out victorious.
Hausermann says this victory is often seen as the first national resistance of the Métis, and Grant was their leader. With the merger of The North West Company into The Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821, the company, wary of the Métis, requested that Grant head a Métis settlement near present-day Winnipeg. Grantown would become St. François Xavier.
The HBC would appoint Grant as “Warden of the Plains” to prevent illegal fur trading. In his later years, Grant would lose favour among the Métis; leaders such as Jean Louis Riel (father of Metis leader and founder of Manitoba, Louis Riel) were becoming more popular with the new generation. Cuthbert Grant passed away on July 15, 1854.
During a research trip to Winnipeg, Hausermann was at the very spot where The Battle of Seven Oakes took place
“It’s all very surreal”, says Hausermann. “Not only for the familial connection, but the history of the fur trade and Canada as a whole.”
There is a small cenotaph marking the battle on Winnipeg’s main street and will be celebrating its 210th anniversary this June.
Hausermann was also able to generally pinpoint where Fort de la rivière Tremblante may have once stood and is planning on a potential expedition to the area.
“There's few, if any, records out there,” he states. “I've had to do a lot of digging and cross-referencing, specifically a 1967-68 excavation by University of Saskatchewan archaeologist Hugh Mackie just to determine this location. There are no real markers.”
Hausermann says he is proud his family and community have ties to such important figures in Canadian history.
“A historical connection with such drastic influence in Canadian history coming from my family, culture and hometown is always fascinating to discover and research. I think we often forget how culturally and historically significant our small part of the world is.”
