The tiny community of Fort Fitzgerald in northern Alberta went from boom to bust. But members of the Smith’s Landing First Nation are keeping alive the place where their ancestors are buried.
A bumpy gravel road leads from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories to the tiny hamlet of Fort Fitzgerald, Alberta. The two communities are bookends of a 27-kilometre portage around four sets of impassable rapids on the Slave River. A picnic table and a fire pit sit by the launch where boats, barges and steamboats from northern Alberta once unloaded their cargo at a time when this waterway was a highway into the North.
On a hill overlooking the Slave River, Dene Elder Francois Paulette, a member of the Smith’s Landing First Nation, sits by the fire. His family and that of his brother Wilfred are enjoying a Saturday brunch that his sister-in-law has prepared. Conversation wanders between the tiny community’s history, the Stanley Cup playoffs and a Mother’s Day pancake breakfast that Francois hosts every year. “I’m the best pancake maker in Fort Fitzgerald,” he boasts.
Only six households live here now. It’s a far cry from the early 1940s, when there were nearly 2,000 people – including U.S. troops stationed as part of the project to build the Canol Pipeline. Barges transporting goods from northern Alberta were taken from the water here and portaged past four sets of impassable rapids to Fort Smith. The Hudson Bay Company and the Northern Transportation Company were the community’s largest employers. Then in the fall, men would head out to trap. “We would all go out in the fall before freeze-up and come back before Christmas,” Paulette says.
There’s little left of this once-bustling community. The Hudson’s Bay Company store and warehouse, RCMP buildings, a school, hotel, café and St. Mary’s Church are long gone. All that remains is a graveyard, band building, boat launch and a deep connection to the place where people’s ancestors are buried.
In 1959, the Canadian government began moving residents to Fort Smith, dangling promises of a better life. “It was a total sham,” Paulette says. “They told us we would have electricity, we would have plumbing, running water. When we arrived in Fort Smith (in 1961), the house wasn’t even painted. It was just a shell of a house. There was no plumbing and no running water.” Homes in Fort Fitzgerald burned down, Paulette says, after residents left. This made it difficult to return.
In 1983, only two families lived in the deserted outpost when Paulette and his wife Lesley decided to reclaim the place where his ancestors are buried. Their presence didn’t go unnoticed by Alberta government officials, who came by three times. “Do you have a building permit?” they asked during their first visit. “I’m sorry, but I’m not under your jurisdiction,” Paulette replied. “I don’t need a building permit.”
During their second visit, they threatened to charge taxes. “I’m on an Indian reserve,” he told them. “I’m immune from taxation.” They returned a third time, wanting to know how many trees he cut down to build his house so that they could charge him a stumpage fee. “I cut down exactly 112 trees,” he told them. “You can go in the bush and count the stumps.” He refused to pay a stumpage fee. “I would pay if you made the trees,” he told the government officials, “but you know you didn’t make the trees. I thanked the man upstairs for it already.” It was the last time Paulette saw them.
With no services, the Paulettes relied on solar energy, propane lamps and a generator. Lesley was pregnant with their oldest child. That winter, the temperature hovered at -40 Celsius for six weeks. “Lesley would have to take the battery out of the truck and cover the truck with tarps every night. In the morning she would go put the battery back in and light the Tiger torch to heat up the truck,” Paulette recalls.
Slowly, other families began to move back and build homes. Phone service didn’t arrive in Fort Fitzgerald until 2003 when the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission ordered NorthwesTel to extend phone lines from Fort Smith. The band contributed $250,000 towards installation. “We had to pay for it ourselves,” Paulette says. “The Alberta government didn’t care.”
Cross-border shopping takes on new meaning for residents. They must drive to Fort Smith to shop, attend school and work. Residents have Alberta healthcare cards even though they access services in the Northwest Territories. Getting a driver’s license renewed defies logic and convenience. “If your car is more than two years old, you have to go to High Level (Alberta) to get it inspected,” Paulette’s brother Wilfred says. That’s a six-hour drive. “It costs money in gas and hotel.”
But people are developing closer connections with one another. Neighbour Bev Tupper swaps some of the vegetables from her garden for Paulette’s moose, caribou and bison meat. “It’s a good way of life,” he says. The peace and serenity that Fort Fitzgerald offers isn’t the only reason it endures. “This is another reason why I live here,” Paulette says, leaning on a monument to Treaty No. 8, which the Caribou Chipweyan signed at Smith’s Landing on July 17, 1899. It’s home.
Photo Credit
“Slave River/Wood Buffalo National Park” Courtesy of Tourism Alberta
Charles, So good to hear from you. Thunder Bay – there’s stamp guy there – Josef Quast. I was born in Edmonton in 1941 and am still here. Our summers were spent in Smith and Fitz and when I was older, it was on the rivers and at Tuk. When I was a kid, everything was huge. Went to Hay River and saw the all the boats pulled outt: they looked so small. I never got to the Eastern Arctic. In was special tolive each summer inthe camp at Halfway. Maybe my mother wasn’t so keeen! Do yzou remember Joe Lacombe and Pat Mercredi? Bill Chitty? I have been involved in collecting stamps and postal markings: am just loohing at a cover with a Banksland handstamp on it, posted at Cambridge Bay in 1965 and signed by Capt. Shaw. Am a Past pres. of the Royal Phil. Society of Can. It semed. such a long drive from Smith to Ftz. Rode in those red trucks 1,000 times. Smith was R12 and Fitz 13, I think – see what one remembers! I couldn’t believe that virtually EVERYTHING was gone from Fitz: it was such a busy place. And all those buildingas at Halway – gone!!! I loved my time at Tuk: really enjoyed the InuiT people: remember the Carpeter and Elias families and others. Would love to go back: it’s possible to drive now. I though that working for the Company of Adventurers was as good as it could get. Of curse, they paid noThing and alll their equipment was held together with baling wire. I went to school in Smith art of one year when polio was a big thing down south. Did the banksland go down in ice? Why don’t you cpme out there and we could drive up to Smith and down to Fitz and the hay Camp!
Wonderful article to discover, similar to author Katz’s experience traveling into the Ft Smith & Fitzgerald area a few times to work and the land and people there affected me deeply and spiritually. Fond pictures of all remain in my minds eye. Sitting here in Calgary at 1:00 AM pouring over maps and recalling memories of the significance the NWT, Ft Smith and Fitzgerald has made in my life. Each of the few times traveled North into Territories to work from age of 17 into my 60’s there was a part of the culture and land which consumed my soul. Ms Katz, you are a marvelous wordsmith with an amazing talent for placing a person right there with you. Thank you
Great Article and I enjoyed the read! Thanks for chronicling the history of this remote inlet. Would like to visit the next time I am visiting Ft. Mac. Please provide info on the closest hotels/motels/bed and breakfast to Ft. Fitz. Thanks, Donna P.
I was a Transport Agent at Hudson’s Bay Company at Fitz. for a few summers in the 1950’s. Good to discover your article and remind me of days gone by. Charles Snow
Charles, Enjoyed reading your comments. My father, Ken Spencer, was Portage Sup’t for decades. In the summers, my mother, brother Craig and I came to be with him. We lived in the old Ryan Bros camp at Halfway and spent our days riding back and forth over the Portage with the drivers. Cheap babysitting. I have so many fond memories of Fitz and Smith. Fitz was such a busy place. Joe Lacombe’s big house, the Hanson’s hotel/restaurant, Bill Chitty and the HBC store. …. It was al marvellous. Later I worked on the boats as a deck hand and purser, all the way up the Tuk on the Arctic coast.
Good to hear your comments. Long time ago. I am 86 and like you say lots of memories. I was purser on HBC ships ot of Tuk and also Montreal for quite a few years. Also Transport agent at Churchill for 3 years. Then decided to pay more attention to my wife and two daughters and no more arctic tours of duty. Good to hear from you. I know your dad ended up in real estate in Edmonton .
Hello Charles,
Thank you so much for your email. We re both olde farts: I am six years younger than you. But my memories of those “growing up” days burn brightly in my memory. What a unique childhood I had – starting at age four or so, travelling each summer to “Halfway” and riding the trucks back and forth. I still remember the names of many o the drivers and the numbers of the trucks! It was quite an experience hanging around the camp with those men (boys, really). The earliest trip north I can remember was on one of the sternwheelers…. One summer, when I was fourteen, I was assistant purser on the Pelly Lake. We went from Waterways to Chip and around the lake and then to Fitz. Life changed when Halfway shut down and our house was hauled across the Portage to Smith. I was old enough to work in the warehouse and the garage. When the bay shut down, Started working summers for NTCL. One year, I started in the warehouse in Waterways and ended up on there zrasdium King. I remember writing my Grade 12 math 30 exam at Norman Wells. Then I had a summer at Bear River Camp and three at Tuk on the Dewline Sealift. Because of my familiarity with the HBC “”system”, I was always sent to town to work on the unloading of the barges and transfer of freight to the Banksland and Ft. Hearne. Capt. Shaw was on the banks land…. Len Budgell was the Bay agent at Tuk. A typical old Bay man. Did you know him? The NTCL boss at Turk was H.T. (Happy) Hamilton. He had been at Churchill for a number of yers before the program there shut down. He was a part time dealer in postage stamps for collectors and sold me some of my first “good” stamps. When my dad came home in the fall, he ran a badminton club as a bit of a hobby. It was just behind our home. It and a curling, tennis and skating Club amalgamated to form the Royal Glenora Club. Dad became the first manager but he didn’t have the style to deal with 2,000 members so he left there and bought into Sladden Spencer Ltd. Mainly insurance with a lot of northern accounts and he did well there. He worked hard all his life. Dies at 75. I loved my time in the north: am not sure my poor Mother did! You’ve got names and events tumbling in my mind!
Cheers,
K
Know all those people well. I too am a stamp collector. I live in Thunder Bay. Where are you. Have brownie movies of arctic
I too am a stamp collector. Knew all the people you mentioned very well. We hauled M/V fort Hearne into a sheltered bay after she struck ice. Amazing how eskimos canoed over top of ship in canoes fishing out cargo including outboard motors . Have Kodak movies of times on Banksland and Pierre Raddison out of Montreal
Hi Francois and Family
How are you all doing I like your article on Ft. Fitzgerald . Do you still have sweat lodges in
the summer time? If so when do you have them. Looking forward to hearing from you
All the best to you and your family. Denise Blonjeaux