Treaty 7 | Calgary Gay History

{We are taking a break and not staffing the history desk for the next couple of months, but look for new Calgary Gay History Project research in late May. —Kevin}

Thanks to everyone who came out for the presentation Our Past Matters – A History of Calgary’s 2SLGBTQ+ Community at Heritage Park last week. Our goal was to find a queer history connection to Heritage Park, and we did!

*Kevin Allen presenting at Heritage Park. Photo: Patrick J. Monaghan*

The “Sandstone House” on the grounds of Heritage Park is a replica of a house built in 1891 for James Bruce Smith (1849–1906), a lawyer from Lindsay, Ontario, who was a founder of the Calgary Bar Association in 1890 and who became the city solicitor in 1899. In 1901, he was charged with gross indecency due to his affair with Walter Joesph McHugh. History professor, Jarett Henderson, explores this story in detail: here.

*The Sandstone House from Heritage Park’s Website*

The house was located at 1011–4 Avenue West (later changed to SW), where the Avatamsaka Monastery exists today (and if you have a long memory, you might recall Calgary’s original Mountain Equipment Coop store).

Heritage Park published a biography of the storied house for Alberta History Magazine’s Winter 2023 issue explaining the house was famous for being rented to Colonel James Macleod (who named Calgary and facilitated Treaty 7) and his family in 1894. It was where he was living when he died of kidney disease. The famous Calgarian’s body lay in state inside the house for several days; it was there that his funeral procession began.

Special thanks to researcher Jason Brooks, who brought the connection to our attention.

Happy Spring, everyone!

{KA}

Nio’kskatapi in Siksiká (Blackfoot) means “Three-Persons” in English. It was a name of honour given to the explorer, outcast and infamously known homosexual, Jean L’Heureux. Born around 1830 near Montreal, L’Heureux had ambitions of becoming a Catholic priest but was kicked out of seminary “for serious misconduct.”

He fled west ending up in St. Albert where he affiliated himself with the Oblates’ mission there. Caught in the act of sodomy he was cast out of the precinct. He made his way to Montana where he found Jesuits engaged in the building of a mission. Successfully impersonating a priest for a time, he was eventually busted and sent away. L’Heureux found sanctuary with the Blackfoot who, unlike the settlers and missionaries, were comfortable with his sexual preferences.

He became fluent in Blackfoot and a trusted friend and advisor to the First Nations in the region. L’Heureux preferred the company of indigenous peoples to other settlers he encountered. He also had a conflicted relationship with the Catholic clergy who were proselytising in the territory. The missionaries widely condemned his homosexuality as well as his clerical appropriations. Yet, after saving the life of one stricken Father Albert Lacombe and nursing him back to health in 1865, his status improved amongst the Catholic brethren.

Living and travelling in the Siksiká camps, L’Heureux preached that the First Nations spiritual beliefs were similar to his own: the primary difference being that the Christian God was composed of three persons in one. An amusing concept for the Siksiká, L’Heureux was forever renamed “Three-Persons.”

Jean L’Heureux’s hand-drawn 1873 map of the Hudson’s Bay Company Fort at Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. Source: National Archives of Canada via the Glenbow Archives.

In the 1870s, L’Heureux wrote and mapped a geography of Blackfoot lands as well as created a Blackfoot-English dictionary which was used by traders at Fort Calgary. Leading up to the Treaty 7 negotiations, the Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories, David Laird, wished for L’Heureux to act as interpreter for the Crown. However, L’Heureux declined as he already had committed to translate for Isapo-muxika (Crowfoot), the Siksiká head chief who was his personal friend.

The Treaty 7 negotiations took place on September 22, 1877. L’Heureux was the official spokesperson for the Siksiká leaders with the Government representatives. During the negotiations, he explained the terms of the treaty to the Blackfoot delegates and provided them with advice. One observer commented that L’Heureux “stood unswervingly with the Indians as an Indian.” When the negotiations concluded, L’Heureux inscribed the names of the Chiefs on the treaty document, validated each of their marks and signed it himself, as a witness. Through L’Heureux, the Chiefs thanked the representatives of the Government of Canada.

Jean L’Heureux with Blackfoot Confederacy Members: (L to R) One Spot, Blood; Red Crow, Blood; North Axe, Peigan; circa the 1880s. Source: Glenbow Archives.

For the remainder of his life, L’Heureux often interceded on behalf of First Nations people and their struggles with the Government. He was hired by the Department of Indian Affairs in 1881 as an interpreter, a position he held for ten years. L’Heureux gained the enmity of an Anglican missionary, John Tims, who claimed he showed Catholic favouritism in his work for the Department. When nothing happened with that assertion, Tims accused L’Heureux of immorality on the reserve; he was quickly sacked. No investigation was ever conducted into the allegation.

Destitute and in ill health, L’Heureux lived a nomadic existence for many years. He moved to Father Lacombe’s hermitage at Pincher Creek for a time and then retreated to the foothills where he became a known recluse. Meanwhile, Father Lacombe had built a home for the poor and indigent in Midnapore. After repeated attempts, he managed to convince L’Heureux to move there in 1912. Jean L’Heureux died of old age at the Lacombe Home in 1919 and was buried in its grounds. He is listed in the church records as “a lay missionary.”

{KA}

Note: Treaty 7, the original document, is currently being displayed at Fort Calgary until October 2017: on loan from Library and Archives Canada.