14

John McDougall writes of traveling through the land to the Pigeon Lake Mission in 1873:

Three times during the day I met prairie fires, and to the inexperienced there would have been great danger, for many have lost their lives in this way. The old traveler looks for wet ground or short grass and waits until the waves of flames pass and then proceeds. When in the evening I camped by a creek, at midnight the fires where upon me from all quarters. So I adopted the old plan, set fire to the grass and then moved my horses onto the burnt ground. Saturday noon I sighted Woodville Lake, one of the finest sheets of water in the great northwest. And literally full of Whitefish. The lake is about 15 miles long, 6 wide. I was anxious to reach the mission house without being observed, but the Stoney were on the lookout. And long before I reached the house a multitude came running to meet their old friend. My first task was to shake hands with upwards of 300 persons."

15

Mission houses at Pigeon Lake as photographed by J.B. Tyrrell during his survey of the area.
1886
Pigeon Lake, Alberta

16

McDougall's arrival at the Pigeon Lake mission conincided with the a council of Aboriginal peoples. This occasion truly marked the end of one era and the beginning of another in the region. In 1869, the Hudson Bay Company had sold their charter for Rupertsland to the the new Dominion of Canada. The creation of the Northwest Territories means that soon many more travellers and settlers would arrive in the region. John McDougall served as a treaty commissioner and mediator between the First Nations people and the government of the day. The gathering at Pigeon Lake was a solemn occasion. McDougall later wrote about the occasion:

17

Nakoda Chief Bearspaw.
1880
?


Credits:
Glenbow Archives NA-194-1

18

Gerald Hutchinson:
… There was the repeated appeal for a mission at Bow River. The Head Chief, Bearspaw, was the first to speak. McDougall wrote about this occasion, and Bearspaw's words. This is a paragraph in McDougall's writing that just cannot be overlooked. McDougall's quoted Bearspaw as saying:

"We are like men filled with sorrow today and crushed with the dread of tomorrow. We see the natural resources of our country rapidly disappearing. Strange tongues tingle in our ears warning us that a race stronger than we are approaching. We cannot believe ourselves that the good and great spirit will suffer his poor children to parish but we have no resources within ourselves. Our habits are all against us. No implements with which to begin. No center around which to rally. We often sit by the graves of our fathers and talk of the past and tremble of the future. Friends of the lost put us on the right track. Tell our praying fathers when you meet them at Red River that we send the salutations of our nation to them. We are all their people."

19

Observations by George M. McDougall, in a report to the Wesleyan Missionary Conference, 1860
20 December 1860
Alberta, Canada

20

Although John McDougall saw his work as helping build the Dominion of Canada, he also recognized the effect this would have on the First Nations people whom he lived among. The opening of the Canadian West was viewed as a necessary part of building a new state:

Gerald Hutchinson:
… Their goal was damage control. They never questioned the sort of manifest destiny by which the chosen people would come into the promised land. They never questioned the fact that the opening of the west was a good thing,-- think of how many farms and homes it could support, this wonderful land. Just think of all the resources that there are here to supply the whole central Canada machine and so, they never questioned that fundamental principle. But within it they did their best to get a good deal for First Nations people, to lessen the damage, to help in amalgamation...

21

Request from the people at Pigeon Lake for John McDougall to return to the Woodville Mission.
11 November 1869
Pigeon Lake, Alberta

22

The McDougall's lived through turbulent years in the history of Canada's West: the sale of Hudson's Bay Company lands to the Canadian government, the signing of treaties and the near disappearance of buffalo as a food source, as well as epidemics and conflict among Aboriginal communities facing these disruptions. Both George and John served as a link between First Nations people, the government and settlers. They also worked to develop missions that also provided health care and schooling.

In his later years, John McDougall, wrote his memoirs. His popular style fed romantic notions his readers held of the West. Still, his writings describe the environment and people of Western Canada in detail and discuss many of the debates that occurred during that turbulent period. After his retirement in 1906, McDougall served as a commissioner for the Dominion Government and Department of Indian Affairs and later ran as a Liberal representative in Calgary. He died in Calgary in 1917.