Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/375259
14 w e s t w o r l d | f a l l 2 0 1 4 After, I walk across to a grassy headland overlooking the South Saskatchewan River, now deep brown and churning its way north after recent floods in Alberta. I think of the voyageurs paddling for days to reach the trading post here. How had they carried goods and sup- plies up this steep bank? Upstream lies Batoche National Historic Site, centre of a pivotal battle during the Riel Rebellion of 1885, but I imagine few of the tourists visiting that site have even heard of South Branch House. There's little above ground for them to see as they drive by. Back at the site, Tomasin shows me a fl at stone, thought to be the sill of a doorway, and the tumble of rocks from the post fi replace – maybe even two fi replaces. To the south, near the other remains, red streamers mark earlier fi nds, including the corners of the log stock- ade that had surrounded the post. Archaeolo- gists found burnt timbers here and lots of charcoal, evidence of the fi re. I return to my humble position – down on my knees. e pits are getting a bit deeper now. We're aiming to reach the cellar floor where the undisturbed soil layer will be paler in colour. I wonder: if this northern site was the original post, then was this the place where Cornelius Van Driel, lone survivor of the Gros Ventre attack, hid during the post's brutal and fi ery last day? He escaped by run- ning to a cellar "at the old post," covering himself with rubbish and keeping deathly still for hours. When all was quiet, he slipped down to the river, jumped into a canoe and paddled downstream to the nearest trading post near Nipawin. From his account, the attack took place when most of the men were away, taking furs down river. The remainder, pitifully outnumbered, were all killed, including HBC employees Hugh Brough, William Fea and Chief Factor Magnus Annel, his wife and two children. e house was looted and, along with the wooden stockade, burned to the ground. After this nightmare experience, Van Driel never went into the wilderness again – he shipped home to England a year or so later. I'm working in the same part of the dig where Erica Owens, one of the summer work- ers, had found a broken ring, its stones in such a pretty setting I suspect it might have belonged to one of the women at the post. But no, says Tomasin. Men back then had worn such rings. Could this have belonged to Corne- lius, pulled from his finger as he squirmed under the rubbish in the cellar, listening to the massacre and the crackle of fl ames, feeling the encroaching heat? Hope of uncovering something signifi cant keeps me going. Expectation is everything. Candice Koblun, in charge of the summer archaeology crew while working on her doctor- ate, agrees. "Expectations do keep you going," she says. "But luck is important, too." She shows me a small trickle of trade beads she has just unearthed, almost right under my nose. In the afternoon, the wind picks up again and suddenly there are blue dragonfl ies fl itting around us, feasting on the mosquitoes. e air is heavy, the going slow. A couple of crows screech like banshees in the trees above. But we keep at it, patiently digging and sieving our buckets of earth (at least we can stand up for that) and retrieving seemingly insignificant bits of a great puzzle that archaeologists will eventually piece together. at evening, in the nearby village of St. Isa- dore de Bellevue where the archaeology crew is headquartered in a commodious trailer, Can- dice shows me some of the fi nds from previous days, still in their protective plastic wraps – lead shot, clay pipe stems, tinkling cones (small cones of metal used on native dance regalia), brooches (one in the shape of a heart) and a tiny metal thimble, far too small to fi t even on a little finger. There are lots of small trade beads, including "green hearts," typical HBC items, and the prize find: a round, Venetian glass bead spotted with red and blue known as "Kitty Fisher's Eyes," named after a famous courtesan, the talk of London society in the mid-1700s. ere is also part of an elk antler with circles drilled out to make bone buttons and a piece of (top) Once a key fur trade route, the South Saskatchewan River meanders past South Branch House and nearby Batoche; (above) fi eld school director Tomasin Playford logs a fi nd; (below) a fancy heart-shaped brooch and a jewelled ring are the most fascinating artifacts unearthed during the archaeological dig. antler with circles drilled out to make bone buttons and a piece of fancy heart-shaped brooch and a jewelled ring are the most fascinating artifacts unearthed during the archaeological dig.