Gabriel's
Country
A canoe trip on the South Saskatchewan passes by
the picture-perfect backdrop of early Metis times.
But it also poses the question: What if?
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALLAN CASEY
E
very time I pass the bronze statue of Gabriel
Dumont at the foot of Saskatoon's Broadway
Bridge, I think about what might have been.
Dumont is astride a lively pony, the reins in one hand,
a lever-action rifle in his other. He is coming upstream,
with a message it seems. If only Dumont and the Louis
Riel revolution had had Twitter . . .
I pass old Gabriel now, on my way to join a company
of paddlers for a weekend on the South Saskatchewan
River. We'll be travelling downriver and back in time,
into the heart of the Metis society that could have
been the blueprint for young Canada.
WESTWORLD
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