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By Las Cuatro Fletchas A.C./Four Arrows
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In 1851, an event was taking place in the Red River Settlement which would indirectly have an indelible effect on the future of the Okanase people. The Rev. John Black arrived to establish the Presbyterian Church at Kildonan, the first Presbyterian Church in Canada west of the Great Lakes.(1)
George Flett was born in the Northwest and was of native descent. George Flett was a founding member of the Kildonan Church -- after all, he was married to a daughter of the most prominent Presbyterian in the Red River Settlement, Alexander Ross. Alexander Ross was the "Scottish chief" who kept petitioning the Hudson's Bay Company and the Kirk of Scotland for a Presbyterian minister. The early petitions were denied, but eventually the Presbyterian Church of Canada agreed to send John Black after he was ordained at Know College in Toronto. The day after his ordination, 31 July 1851, he set out for the Red River, arriving on September 19 when he was received as a guest in the extended household of Alexander Ross, a household which included George Flett and his wife, Mary Ross. Black was George Flett's sister-in-law's husband. (2)
Rev George Flett established his Presbyterian mission approximately, 1873-74, amongst his relatives at Riding Mountain. With Flett was James William Cunningham, another son-in-law of Alexander Ross having married Ross' daughter Sarah. Cunningham started the school in conjunction with the mission in a log building on the flat to the east of the Elphinstone Sports Grounds. [Cunningham was succeeded about 1875 by John A. Lauder, the husband of George Flett's adopted daughter, Annie, a niece of Flett's wife Mary.]
The Rev. Mr. Flett wrote the Rev. Mr. Black on 23 November 1874 from "Riding Mountain".
"I received your first letter a few days ago and was very glad to hear from you and the rest of the family. We are very well thank God and well supplied for the winter. The Winter set in on Nov. 13th. We had a very fine fall.
"From the 12th of September to the 25th of October, myself and family have been out with the Indians 31 days. We had a very good time. The Indians are very good to us, but not very good to themselves although they all come to the prayer meetings. Often we have had about 40 sometimes. All the men we were out with them it was to the West of this place along the Riding Mountain, Shoal Lake, and Fort Ellice. You will see the resorting places marked on the map "X" thus. It is not hard to get to the Indians in Summer and not far off.
"From the 26th of July up to this date we have had two meetings every Sunday. The Indians have attended regularly, but now we shall not have so many for the most of them are going to hunt in the Mountain. There are two families who have got houses one mile from us. They are comfortable but one of the women is sick and that woman's child died on the 3rd October. We had at that time a great number of Indians and they told me to select a burying place. I said to them that they ought to have their choice as well as myself. So they sent a man with me and we selected the burial ground about 400 yards from the Mission House. There was a large number at the funeral and I read to them "Suffer Little Children to come unto me.
"We have four men and two women that sing very well already. When we were out with them they came to prayers every night and we sang the same psalm or paraphrase over and over again for a week or so, and now they are a great help to us.
Footnotes
1. Although there had been Scotch Presbyterians in the Red River since the first Selkirk Settlement -- in 1817 calling their part of the settlement "Kildonan", the churches had always been Church of England. The Rev. Donald Sag e was to have joined his Selkirk flock in 1817, having stayed behind to perfect his Gaelic. However, he never arrived. Lord Selkirk authorized James Sutherland to perform marriages and baptisms to fill the gap. For forty years, the Red River Presbyterians had to attend the quite different Anglican churches -- the compromise was that the Presbyterian psalm book was used, and the services were simplified to be more "Scot". As the Rev. David Jones noted in 1823, the Scotch "brought their religion to this country along with them, and are conscientiously wedded to the rights and discipline of the Presbyterian form of worship, and nothing will make them forsake the Church of their forefathers." Unfortunately, Black was a Lowlander, and did not speak Gaelic, the language spoken still by many members of the Red River Settlement. Black hold his first service on September 28, 1851, attended by 300 persons. Alexander Ross became the leading Elder.(back)
2. 1-- John Black (b. 8 Jan 1818 @ Eskdalemuir, Dumfries, Scotland - d. 11/12 Feb 1882, bu. Kildonan) of Quebec, eldest son of William Black and his wife Margaret Halliday (who resided in New York State), on 21 Dec 1853 @ Colony Gardens married Henrietta Ross (b. 17 May 1830 - d. 21 Mar 1873) RG15-19/1733, the daughter of Alexander Ross (Scotch) and Sarah (Indian). Their children:
2-- Alexander Ross Black 3 DD (b. 1858 Kildonan - d. 26 Dec 1865)
2-- Robert Burns Black 5 DD (b. 10 Nov 1863 @ Kildonan, bap Dec 1863 Kildonan - d. 19 Mar 1865, bu. Kildonan)
2-- Donald Matthew Black 6 DD (b. 11 Aug 1864 @ Kildonan - d. 7 Jan 1866 @ Kildonan)
2-- John Henry Black 7 (b. 15 Jul 1866 Kildonan - d. 1935)
2-- Anne Isabelle Black (b. 3 Dec 1858)
2-- William Ross Black (b. 11 Jan 1855) married Catherine Sutherland.
2-- Sarah Margaret Black m. Frederick Hanhurst Francis
2-- James Black married Frances Hagarty.
2-- Henrietta Rose Black 9 (b. 1871) married Thomas Laidlaw, son of Thomas Laidlaw and Mary Glendinning.(back)
