Mill Woods Living Heritage

Between 1876 and 1878 federal commissioners came West to negotiate and settle Treaty 6 an agreement through which the First Nations in central Saskatchewan and Alberta ceded title to their lands to the Dominion of Canada for Her Majesty the Queen and Her successors. In 1877 they negotiated with Papaschase, Chief of the band living in and around Fort Edmonton in the area now known as Rossdale Flats. Settlers moving into the area did not want to live close to a reserve and with the influence of newspaperman and politician Frank Oliver were able to move the band south to an area that encompasses what has become Mill Woods. The 40-square-mile Papaschase Reserve was surveyed between 1880 and 1884. According to current Chief Calvin Bruneau, over the next five years some band members died of starvation because of the depletion of the Buffalo, some took Métis scrip not realizing they were giving up their rights as Indians, and some joined the Enoch band west of the Fort. People were forcibly removed from the reserve and by 1889 the band was disbursed. The government wanted to open up settlement but first had to get the Papaschase to surrender their land. They needed a majority of voting members, men over the age of 21, to vote in favour of surrender. They only got three signatures, did not call the required second meeting to obtain a majority, and did not compensate Papaschase adequately for the land taken. Bruneau tells a story of desperation, deception and dispersal, the details of which remain in dispute. Ironically, many place names in Mill Woods acknowledge the Papaschase legacy – the word Tipaskin is Cree for reserve – and in 1980, Menisa residents (Menisa is Cree meaning berries) offered to plant trees and raise funds for a barbecue and park dedicated to Chief Papaschase – but the project was not approved.