Fort Battleford

I should get to Edmonton today. But before I get back on the road, I want to visit the Fort Battleford Historic site. Members the the Northwest Mounted Police from this detachment were involved in quelling the Metis rebellion of the 1880s and also for subduing the Indian tribes in north western Saskatchewan. These actions were the precursor to the establishment of the residential schools for which Stephen Harper recently apologized. I had read some details about this when researching my trip and wanted to learn more.

The guided tour of the fort took about 1 1/2 hours and I won't bore you with the details. I'll just say that the latter half of the 1800s is not a period of which we can be proud as far as our treatment of our first nations and Metis is concerned. It's very sad. I'm just not sure what we as individuals can do about these past sins- perhaps support government actions to address the wrongs in the future.

Getting to Edmonton from Battleford was uneventful, other than my arrival 2 hours earlier than I thought I would. It turns out my GPS is not able to use local time and was giving me the arrival time as Eastern Standard Time. Oh well, Ange and Aidan seemed to cope with my precipitous arrival.