It was more in Saskatchewan than Manitoba, but it welled over into Manitoba too.

Father was always interested in other people and their way of life and he used to go over to powwows sometimes and visit the Indian Chief. They got to be good friends. The chief sent some of his men over to my father’s to tell him he wanted to see him.... He said, “You be good friend to me and to my people.” And he said, “You take these gifts and...wear these every time you go out, and while the trouble is on not one of my men will ever hurt you or your family.” He gave my father a beaver cap...and a belt...and a pair of badgerskin mitts or gloves. Father had [the gifts] when we came to the Island.

I can remember the Indians. I used to be scared to death of them. I remember seeing the Indians come in and my mother would give them a chair to sit down on. They’d push the chair to one side and squat on the floor, which was their natural seat. Those were, as far as I can remember, the Assiniboine Indians.

Brandon, Manitoba was...just a small town: a big city now. When I was born, you know, the West was just then commencing to settle. The Canadian Pacific was going through —I don’t think all the way to British Columbia at the time that I was born. When you moved from one place to another in Manitoba you had to go with a wagon and a team of oxen. It was a long time ago.

We lived there for a few years. My father, he bought land sections from the government there. He was no real farmer, he was more of a carpenter than a farmer. Three years in succession his wheat froze and so he turned to his carpentering again and then he moved on to St. Paul, Minnesota. He was a mover because he’d love to travel. But he’d never leave us, except for a little while to go find his job and then a place for us.... Eventually, we moved to Chicago and I went to school there. I was around six years old, I guess.

Then my grandfather had a stroke and he was miserable, and my father came to the Island and took care of him. We’ve been practically on the Island ever since. We were in Belle River. That’s where my grandfather lived you know. That’s where my father was born.

My great— grandfather was a Loyalist. He lived in New Jersey, and at the time of the Revolutionary War they moved to New Brunswick. Somehow or other he came over to the‘Island and was a woodworker. He heard there was this Scottish Minister McDonald‘. He founded the Church of Scotland

1. Reverend Donald McDonald. See Introduction

94 BELFAST PEOPLE