Sometimes I want to save stuff as a page rather than a blog post. Usually when it relates to my ancestors. So I have pages of ancestor histories. However, I also have pages of family history information when it pertains to more than one ancestor. Mostly this is so that I can find it easily rather than searching through my blog.
The page on Meanskinisht / Cedarvale is one of those pages.
The village of Meanskinisht, as it was first named when settled, and is now so named again, is unique in British Columbia (BC) and perhaps in Canada. During the latter half of the 19th century the BC government was in the process of establishing reserves for all Indigenous people. The purpose of these reserves was to set aside very small tracts of land for Indigenous and leave the majority of the land available for the settlers. Meanwhile, setters had started the process of pre-emption of land. Pre-emption of land is where a settler could gain ownership of the land from the federal/provincial government for agriculture purposes (it usually involved a requirement to improve and cultivate the land). Meanskinisht, established in 1888, is the only place in BC that was established as a combined village of both Indigenous and settlers with Indigenous leasing, then owing their land. It was also not the same as Hudson Bay Company’s establishment of the Red River Settlement where they purposely encouraged their lower-class trappers to inter-marry with the Indigenous for economic gain and diplomatic alliances, which resulted in the Métis.
I completed a review of the genealogical sources that are available for Meanskinisht from the establishment of the village to the latest census available for Canada (1888-1931). I did this as as part of my course work in the Post-Graduate Diploma in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies. I thought the information was informative and decided to create a page with the information.
You can read all about it on this page on my website.
