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The file consists of notes from an oral history interview with Father Pat Mercredi in Edmonton on December 1, 1977. The interviewer was Ray Price.

Interview notes from 1992 Index: Apparently, the name Mercredi as far as he's concerned comes from his father's father's side of the family who was a McCarthy. A Priest who was a French speaking Priest in Chip couldn't handle the th in that and altered the word to Mercredi. His mother was a McDonald and his father a Mercredi and there are Tourangeau in his family tree as well as McDonald and McCarthy. He states that he is a mixture of French and Cree and Irish and Scottish. "The Priests have failed to really live with the native
people, they have lived among them but have not lived with them. He says, this is the basic failure of the Church. He says, he hears constantly from the Church that what are we going to do we're losing the native people, they're leaving us. We would never have lost them if we went there to evangilize [evangelize] and not civilize. We'd never lose them if we lived with them not just among them." (p.6) "One of the things that came out constantly is that he has been discriminated against all his life, discriminated against by fellow priest, discriminated against by the Brothers in the service of the priesthood, discriminated against in College and in semenary [seminary]. And it was explicitly at one time that he was sent to France for 4 years in order to Frenchify him, to make him a cultured man and to turn him into a Frenchman. They haven't been able to succeed and the older he gets the more he goes back to his roots, and he feels it is in Fort Chipewyan and in the North American Indian culture, a culture that was dependent directly upon the land for survival." (p.l) Father Mercredi has translated over 320 hymns into Cree but he can't get them published.

[Please note that the PDF contains discussion of anti-Indigenous racism and reports some racist comments that Father Mercredi had heard.]

The file consists of an oral history interview with Cliff Mabbitt & John Evans in January 1977 in Fort Smith. The interviewer was Joanne Overvold.
Interview notes from 1992 Index: Cliff was born in Manitoba in 1898. His father was· from England and his mother was from Scotland. They settled in Newdale in Saskatchewan in the 1800's. His mother died in 1904. Cliff had 5 brothers. Cliff married Ernestine (Babe) Tourangeau. They have 10 children. Cliff owned a restaurant for about a year in Fort Smith.

Please note that this interview contains an outdated and derogatory term historically used to refer to persons of Chinese ancestry.

The file consists of an oral history interview with Laura Loutitt on February 14, 1977 in Fort Smith. The interviewers were Ray Price and Joanne Overvold.
Interview notes from 1992 Index: Father's name, Fred McLeod. He was born in Fort Franklin and died around 1964. Mother's name, Margaret Firth. She died in 1932. Laura's father was remarried in 1936 to Rose Lafferty. There were 15 children in Laura's family. Laura's maternal grandfather was John Firth from Fort McPherson. Her paternal grandfather, Murdoch McLeod, was born in Scotland but lived in Fort Franklin. Her paternal grandmother was Mary Taylor from Edmonton. Laura was born in Fort Nelson in 1904, but lived most of her life in Fort Liard. She married Colin Henry Loutitt from Fort Chipewyan in 1926. They had 11 children in total. One boy died at age 10 of pneumonia in 1932. Colin's mother's name was Helen Flett. His father's name was Peter Loutitt from Scotland. Colin was born in 1894.
A cousin of Laura Loutitt has been collecting information on the McLeod family. His address in 1977 was: Bud McLeod in Edmonton, Alberta. Laura recounts the story about what she knew about the murder of her father's two brothers, William and Frank McLeod in the Nahanni area, while they were prospecting for gold in 1902 [1906?]. Laura spent 8 years in school in Hay River. From there she went to Fort Providence for 3-4 months. Then she moved to Fort Smith to work as a housekeeper and cook for Billy Lion [Lyle] in 1923. In the fall of 1925, she was a housekeeper and cook for room and board and $25/month. She married in 1926 and moved to Fort Chipewyan for 4 years. She moved back to Fort Smith in 1930 and worked again as a housekeeper and cook until she got a job as cook for the NTCL Company. She worked in the summer and got laid off in the winter. Worked in between having 10 kids and cooking. Also worked on the boats for 10 years: on the Distributor for 2 years as cook, left that, had children and then worked on the Radium King. In the wintertime, when she wasn't working on the boats, she was cooking at the hotel, at the DOT and She had her own cafe called "DO DROP IN .. 11 Laura also worked for the police for 17 years as a cook in Inuvik (10 years) and Fort Smith (7 years). There was a book written about Mickey Ryan called the "Link to the North. 11 Collin Henry Loutitt' s · regimental number was 3214784.

Please note that this interview contains an outdated and derogatory term historically used to refer to persons of Chinese ancestry.

The file consists of an oral history interview with John Evans in Fort Smith on January 12, 1977. John's wife, Saraphine Mercredi, also makes a couple of comments. The interviewers are Ray Price and Joanne Overvold. The file also includes additional notes made by Ray and a family history summary.
Interview notes from 1992 Index: John was born in Fort Chipewyan. John's father, David Evans, was from Winnipeg. (Originally Welsh?). He died when John was 16. John's mother, Helen Gibot, was a Cree woman from Fort Chipewyan. She died when he was 11. John had 4 brothers (eg. Morris and Philip) and 1 sister. John lived with an old widow, Adelle Flett, for about 2 years after he left the convent (1924-25) at the age of 14. She was somewhat crippled and didn't have anyone to do chores for her. "But she used to do her own living, you know. No welfare them days, no nothing. So she used to do all the laundry from town, lace snowshoes, and do any kind of work. She couldn't read or write. And yet, people asked her to make a tent so big, a tent 12' by 14' or something like that, she'll tell them how much canvas it needed and she made it." Plane crash in winter of 1930 in Fort Chipewyan·killed·4·children. Plane was piloted by Monkey Sherlock [Captain W.N. Sherlock]. Salt River in the 1920's & 1930's (?). " ... there was still quite a few people there. At one time they had two stores there Hudson Bay and private outfit. Cause all the trappers used to pull in there, especially in the fall and again in the spring after they quit hunting because it was a good place to fish and feed their dogs. That's what they used to be there for. And then celebrate too, I guess."

Please note that this interview contains an outdated and offensive term historically used to refer to persons of Chinese ancestry.

The file consists of stories by Mod Mandeville and the transcript of oral history interview conducted by Ray Price and Joanne Overvold, likely in early 1977.
Interview notes from 1992 Index: His mother's name was Mary Rose Boucher. His father's name was Francois Mandeville. Mod was born in Fort Smith in May of 1908. He has 3 sisters and a brother Archie who is actually a cousin (his father's sister's son), but they call each other brothers.
Page 4 in the interview transcript is missing. "When my father died, all his traps and guns and his belongings went to this uncle of mine, Michel, and I used to trap with the old man. Whatever, I caught was all his though, I never got nothing out of it." p.10 Mod was 15 years old when he shot his first moose. [Hanging of murderer Albert Lebeau](*****REALLY GRUESOME DETAILS ABOUT MRS. NORN'S DEATH ~ AND THAT OF HER TWO CHILDREN BY VICTOR BEAULIEU.)

The file consists of transcripts of oral history interviews. The first set of interviews were conducted by Andrea Zubko, Dave Miller, and Dolly Macleod while on the Metis Elders Mackenzie River Voyage on the M.S. Norweta July 1-12, 1996. Interviewees include Ernie Camsell, Art Furlong, Alex Lafferty, Frank Laviolette, Bill Laferte, Pat Tourangeau, Rosie Norwegian, and Greta Baetz. The second set of interviewes were conducted during the Elder's Conference held March 28-31, 1996. Interviewees include Ernestine Lennie and Agnes (Cardinal) Blake. Family trees and a list of boats are also included.

Tourangeau family. Georgina Blondin Boland with baby Archie Boland.
In the interests of making resources at the Archives available to the public, NWTA has chosen to describe and in some cases provide scans of the contents of photograph and textual files gathered by the Metis Association ca. 1972-1979. Please note that there are very few original documents or photographs in accession N-1992-084 and the copies available may be poor quality. The original sources are frequently unclear but can include both other Archives and individual families. If you are looking for the originals or copyright permissions, we suggest you try Library and Archives Canada, the Provincial Archives of Alberta, the Glenbow Western Research Centre, or the family of the person whose name is associated with the file.

In the interests of making resources at the Archives available to the public, NWTA has chosen to describe and in some cases provide scans of the contents of photograph and textual files gathered by the Metis Association ca. 1972-1979. Please note that there are very few original documents or photographs in accession N-1992-084 and the copies available may be poor quality. The original sources are frequently unclear but can include both other Archives and individual families. If you are looking for the originals or copyright permissions, we suggest you try Library and Archives Canada, the Provincial Archives of Alberta, the Glenbow Western Research Centre, or the family of the person whose name is associated with the file.

The file consists of a transcript of an oral history interview with William and Elizabeth Schaefer in Fort Smith. A person identified as "Joe" also makes some comments. The interviewers were Ray Price, Joanne Overvold, and John Evans.

Interview notes from 1992 Index: William was born in Oregon in about· 1894. He was married to Elizabeth Laviolette on September 13, 1930. Elizabeth was married previously to Pierre Tourangeau. Elizabeth was born about 1906. Elizabeth's father was Pierre Laviolette. Her step father was Sousi King. Her mother's name was Sophie [doesn't know her maiden name.]

Please note that the transcript contains an anti-Black racist comment on page 15 of the PDF.

The file consists of the transcript of an oral history interview with Napolean and Ed Lafferty on January 17, 1977 in Fort Resolution. The interviewers are Joanne Overvold and Ray Price.
Interview notes from 1992 Index:Ed was born on October 27, 1922. His mother's name was Catherine Beaulieu. His father, Napolean, was born in Fort Norman on July 18, 1889. His brothers include, Jonas, Jim, Henry and Philip. Ed's grandfather, Alexi Lafferty, traded for Hislop and Nagle. He was born in Fort Rae and died at 65 years old in Fort Simpson.
Mrs. Annie McQuain [Anna McQueen] (a white woman) had her own trading post in Rat River in the 1940's. She married Star Beck and then Dan McQuain [Dan McQueen]. Napolean recounts a story told to him by his father about a Hudson's Bay Company clerk who wanted to strike
it rich. He found gold but died in the process. He was too busy getting gold and didn't look after himself. The HBC manager in Simpson sent a search party and they found him and the gold, and that was the start of the gold rush west of the Mackenzie River.

[3 pages. Listing names (mentioned in book?) Actual book ISBN: 0888332106]

The file consists of the transcript of an oral history interview with Celine Lafferty on February 18, 1977. The interviewers are Joanne Overvold and Ray Price.
Interview notes from 1992 Index: Father, Andrew Laviolette (adopted by Laviolettes in Fort Wrigley). Died in 1911[?). Mother, Madelaine,
was from Fort Providence. Died when Celine was 1 1/2 years old. Three girls in the family - Celine, Isabette and(?). Celine was born in Fort Providence and married in 1924 at the age of 23 (Celine born in 1901?) to Joe Lafferty. Celine's mother-in-law,. Madelaine Bouvier. Celine's daughter-in-law, Maggie Villeneuve. Celine had 9 children including Keri, Gabe, Ernestine, Guy, Albertine, and Beatrice. She is related to Philip Bonnetrouge (his mother and Celine's were sisters) .
In 1942, the Army was in Providence. "Every woman was working for them, I used to take them bread if they (wanted home made bread, I used to wash their clothes, I used to make soap for them too, and made hoods on their parkas. They sure kept us busy." Celine's husband, Joe, worked on the boats for about 60 years. Also mentions murderer Albert Lebeau.

The file consists of transcripts of oral history interviews with William Firth and Sarah Simon in Fort McPherson on April 20, 1977. The interviewers are Ray Price and Sue Look.
Interview notes from 1992 Index: Father's name, Charlie Stewart. Charlie was born April 2, 1874 and died November 9, 1959. Mother's name, Martha Kay. Martha came from Old Crow. She died when Sarah was 1 1/2 years old. Her father remarried Margaret Fonaclue (Bonnetplume] and they had 5 children. Sarah's paternal grandparents were Alexander (Sandy) Stewart and Catherine Stewart. Alexander was born in 1834 in in the old country. Catherine was a Loucheux Indian. They were married in 1859. They had nine children: John was born August 15, 1860, Margaret (married John Firth) was born September 18, 1862, Malcolm was born November 29, 1864, Annie was born June 1, 1867, Kenneth was born July 2, 1871, and John was born Nov. 28, 1881. Sarah married James Stewart on July 12, 1920 in St. Matthews church at Fort McPherson. Their daughter Susan (Susie) was born April 14, 1921. She died in 1935. In 1924, they adopted a 4 month old baby girl (Doris). In 1929, they adopted another girl, an Inuit girl (Mona) who was about 6 years old. Her parents had died during the flu epidemic. In 1930, they adopted a baby boy, and named him John Henry Simon. He was the son of James' sister, Nellie Mitchell, who already had 6 (or 9?) children. [I'm not sure if the following children that she mentions were adopted or not - In 1939, May 28th, we got a baby girl God is really close to us we thank him for his love to us. That's my baby Suzi [Sue], to have a baby, in 1941 and 1943
we got a baby boy born to us August 15th, What a joy. In 1948, our dear little son died with the Flu April 18th, this time no clergy man, again James had to bury his own son. A lot of children died and I had play organ for my baby. Sarah and James adopted 8 children in total. Sarah's husband, James Simon, was ordained into the priesthood on October 18, 1959.

The file consists of the transcript from an oral history interview of William Firth and Sarah Simon in Fort McPherson on April 20, 1977. The interviewers are Ray Price and Sue Look [Sarah's daughter].
Interview notes from 1992 Index: Father - died May 1939 at 86 years old. He left Scotland when he was 19 years old and arrived in the Mackenzie River area in 1872. Also worked in the Yukon. He was a Hudson's Bay Company manager. Mother, Margaret Stewart or Stuart - died about 1943. Mother's father was from Iowas, Scotland. Mother's mother, Ivy Liluaen [?] was Loucheux. William's siblings - Joselyn, Margaret, James, Catherine, Joanne, Annie, Henry, Fred, Ellen
Ray's summary of one of William's stories. In the spring, the Indians [Mountain Indians? - mentions moose skin boats] and the Eskimo who came in from the coast, would meet at Fort McPherson. The Eskimo would stay under the bank and the Indians were higher up the hill
and farther away. Both the Anglican Mission and the Hudson's Bay Company would keep watch at night. "One method used to prevent any hostility of exploding in to something bad between the Eskimos and Indians in those days was a free for all football game, that was played, Eskimos on one side and the Indians on the other side. The Hudson Bay Company would put up as a prize maybe a pound of tobacco or something like that. Apparently, according to William, there weren't any rules attached to this game, it was just every man for himself. There
must have been some pretty good games. (laugh) There were shirts torn up and parkas torn up but nothing terribly serious." "William says one of the things that is interesting, he says, is that when they (the Indians) moved out they always cleaned out the place up completely. The brush they used for sleeping on was cleaned up and burned, the whole camp was left in a neat and orderly fashion. When they moved away this is what happened.

The file consists of notes on an oral history interview with Mrs. Leland on April 24, 1977 in Inuvik. The interviewers were Ray Price and Sue Look.
Interview notes from 1992 Index: Father, Enuch Moses, was from Old Crow. Her mother's name was Anne Stewart. "Mrs. Leland was born October 21, 1900. She is a first cousin of Sarah Simon. In 1916, Archdeacon Witticker [Whitaker?] married Jane to a fellow called Phillips, an Irishman working at Kittigazuit in the Hudson's Bay Company.