How did our ancestors handle Alberta winters?
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- Опубліковано 10 січ 2024
- Both Indigenous people and the first European settlers in Alberta faced a common challenge: bitterly cold winters. How did they get through them? (Photo credit: Glenbow Archives/University of Calgary)
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Grandpa was a doctor in Saskatchewan and he delivered babies at peoples homes in winter. The car would get stuck in the snow drifts so he used a sleigh with two horses and a big fur coat! He also helped start free medical with Tommy Douglas. Thanks grandpa and grandma for working so hard .
Grandpa was a boss
Thank you ,, your Grandpa helped Canada in a way most don't understand with Tommy Douglas.. Remember we can help each other on small scale..as well
Thank you for sharing!
I miss that generation dearly...
That’s prolly the coolest doctor story I’ve ever heard in my life. Pulled up on a slay to deliver a baby that man was something else!
My mom’s mother’s parents came to Saskatchewan in the early 1900s, at the direction of the Federal government. They were told that if they wanted to live in Canada, that’s was where they had to live (to farm). They had no idea how cold it could get - they almost died their first Canadian winter were it not for a nearby indigenous group that showed them how to survive. She always recalled how lovingly she spoke of Canadian indigenous peoples because of that.
Where were they originally from?
And now look at the indigenous 😂
@@Winnas They emigrated from what is now Poland near the Polish/Ukraine border
That's how you do history in Canada. Don't forget either cultures, don't belittle either cultures. History is complex, challenge your viewers.
This is why historically the culture in the prairies is one of self-sufficiency and hard work, BUT also one of community and social responsibility! People were hardy and tough, but they looked after each other and relied on each other. Because you could not survive as an individual, you had to be part of a community, and everyone had a role to play. Division and infighting comes with disastrous consequences.
Much of this culture still remains, especially in the rural communities, but modern conveniences combined with technology has made it so that it’s no longer a survival issue… which is a good thing. But this culture is evolving and sadly I don’t recognize some aspects of the province I grew up in.
i'm not so sure that it's a good thing look how ungrateful everyone is today.
I see lots of similarities with the Tower of Babel and the Noah's Ark from the Bible.
I think God will purge in the not to distant future.
@@ericcartmannwhat an insight!
Yup. That's the difference between Alberta then and now. They didn't spend their time whining to the federal government.They went ahead and got the job done.
@@ericcartmanndefinitely the star people are showing up more and more. The ufos.
My grandparents homesteaded in Saskatchewan in 1906.
My grandmother told us kids that she really liked living in a sod house. It was warm and comfortable.
My family on my mothers side came over from Hungary in the early 1900s and ended up in Saskatchewan. Eventually moving towards BC/Shushwap area and settling there eventually.
I heard a joke in a stand up comedy show once.
Family of settlers on the prairies see a familiar first nation tribe making their way toward the valley and asks the nearest where they've been all winter.
He looked back, a bit bewildered and answered, "South".
My grandmother was a midwife in early Saskatchewan. She told accounts of newborns, particularly "preemies", kept in the (coal) cookstove warming ovens.
doesn't surprise me at all that people on the Prairies were born-and-raised inhaling coal fumes, explains their neurotype
This was literally my grandfather and his siblings.
Born triplets and preemie babies they were put in a shoebox and put in the wood oven as an incubator.
My grandfather lived to the age of 99, amazing.
20,000 Years in Northern Turtle Island aka: Canada, my cousins the Navajos got smart and moved to modern day Arizona!
Bunch of colonizers. 😂😂
@@DS-lk3tx LOL
That was really nice! Thank you. I have a dear friend in Alberta who welcomed me into their life when I was going to UofC. Their Grandparents, the Grandfather (homesteaded) would go courting the Grandmother in horse and buggy in the winter across that Alberta plain. At quite a distance. I was so privileged to know them and hear the stories. Calgary was bitter cold enough midwinter, but on the prairie....? brrrrrrr.
Finally! CBC is doing a cool story for once
With the state media allowing comments
Hallelujah @@bowbender1
Our ancestor’s were amazing!
The plural of ´ancestor´ is ´ancestors’, no apostrophe required. Basic English grammar.
@@SM-fe1dh calm down, grammar police!
Let's accept it. Our ancestors were both physically and mentally stronger than the current generations.
Well, at least they had a much lower expectation of quality of life and life expectancy.
They would have had a lot more first hand knowledge of how to survive. One or two generations of too much comfort loses that knowledge. I think that is the great threat to human survival, if that cosy little bubble in history we live in collapses - anywhere in the world. Hot climates have their own survival problems. Those people look at places like Canada and say, well at least they've got plenty of water. I'm in Australia, and am amazed at the generation of pansies that have emerged since home airconditioning has emerged. I think that's the root of 'climate change'.
The lives we lead are incomparably different.
Yes each new generation is getting weaker and weaker, that's why we are turning to robots to do our dirty work.
Not really. If Canada offered free agricultural land like it offered to the settlers, you'd still find a lot of takers.
Lots of stories from my relatives... many kids sleeping in one bed (happily - until someone peed!), long johns and wool clothes, small houses, chamber pots (yep, tough to use the outhouse on days like these), straw and sawdust helping insulate. Lots of card games and singing before TV :)
My great grandparents arrived in Grayson Sask, one of the Bukavinian (now part of Ukraine) families who were recruited from Eastern Europe in 1900. They had 9 children. One died at 2 years old, but my great grandparents and their children all lived into their late 80's and 90's, most in the prairie cold. My grandmother told me about playing with the Indigenous girls on the nearby reserve after they moved near Fort Qu'Appelle, and doing beadwork together. I still have three of her finished pieces, a beaded loom belt, a purse, and a net necklace. Yes, beadwork was very popular with Eastern Europeans and my grandmother made and sold beadwork most of her life. I inherited her supplies.
My father's father and his two brothers came to Regina in 1918 from Bristol, after fighting in the First War. All three of their wives died from the flu, not the cold, months after arriving, leaving the 3 men with about 9 kids. They did laundry and delivered groceries to live.
All of them would have agreed that the only way they survived was sharing knowledge and resources, food and outgrown clothes and shoes. They were proud, determined people, but they wouldn't turn their back on others in need. There was always an 'extra potato to throw in the pot' to extend a meal if company arrived.
I feel sorry for those cynical, disparaging people who can only complain about the gifts they have inherited from our past. The common goal used to be to build our country, not spend a lifetime tearing it down.
What are you contributing to the future?
The sod hut at Heritage Park always made me feel claustrophobic as I imagined living in that tiny dark hut for months during the bitter prairie winter. As as to the warming oven on the wood stove in the farm house, I heat with a wood cook stove and I use my warming oven to keep my socks nice and toasty ;-)
Not like Canadians now, drive their kids 500m to school 2 minutes away and start the car 20 minutes beforehand
You forgot to turn the comments off on this one CBC!
Indigenous people seem so peaceful
They did not deserve to be harmed
grandma grew up on the farm in saskatchewan and has great stories to tell..she is 96now :) still goin
I would love to hear those stories. You should record as many as you can, it's important history and things that should not be forgotten. ☺
I'm really enjoying the recent short content CBC has been uploading lately. Keep it up, peeps!
God bless our country
When my great great grandparents came over from Romania with the entire village, they were told by agents that bread was so plentiful dogs used it to play with and the acorns fell so large they had to be hoisted with pitchforks. Needless to say when they arrived at Strathcona station to make the ox and cart trip to what is now Two Hills, many settlers died during the first winter
Its so inspiring to hear these stories; makes me think we have it so easy these days.
What is lacking often is a true sense of family and community. I had that being raised mainly by my grandmother in an Ontario town. Social media has helped increase a sense of narcissism and some employees feel it is acceptable to post Tik Tok videos at their place of employment thereby slacking at their job .
The incredible cold here always makes wonder about the toughness of the pioneers. How they made this their home and country. I imagine what it took for the Canadian people to make a nation of this land. You all got my respect.
Finally a great story . did they say Furs ? yes they did. they are some of the warmest items you can wear.
It's noon and -30C out. I often wonder how humans managed on cold days like this. Of course back then they managed with what they had because they knew no other way. I know me if I had to I likely wouldn't.
Its the reason people in temperate zones are good farmers and savers. We know winter is coming. I have starved with no shelter. Now I have scrimped and saved so I have food to last many many months and savings for years. I dont drive a new vehicle, I dont buy any cloths new, I barely buy anything new as winter is always just around the corner. However with Justin, its a Blizzard and many simply wont make it.
There are still people that work outside all day my friend.
I used to own a farm, cut wood all day or freeze at night.
Now @60 I work 7 till dark all summer no matter the temp. Been a lot hotter summer in the past than its been in the last few years. @@SonoftheWest316
Worked outside and heavy wool ,keep you warm even when wet!
Minus 30 was the average winter day in sunny Manitoba in the early 70’s
Our ancestors migrated to warmer wintering grounds lol 😆
The hunter gathers migrated with food sources
My ancestors are Indigenous Brazilians who would have passed down through Western Canada on their way from Siberia to South America.
It’s wild to think that whether they came on foot or by boat, they had to pass through some of the harshest terrain in the world.
Whom told you that they your ancestors went through Canada
@@krazyinthekootenay712 the first human inhabitants to the Americas arrived through the Bering Strait (between Russia and Alaska) during the last age ice. Indigenous Brazilians likely travelled their way down from modern-day Canada and US to South America
@@mohammedgharbiyah6566 nope you need to look a little deeper. Go down the rabbit hole hole but Brazilian and southern American society was established long before any inkling of the northern passage
@@krazyinthekootenay712 How did they get there from Africa?
They actually would have passed down on the west side of the Rocky Mountains, not the east.
Ancient humans were actually tough. They could endure hardship. Unlike people today who are weak lazy whiners.
I love winter and the snowstorm it’s part of our 4 seasons
23 years living in southern Alberta the coldest winter day -45 with a wind chill of -55 that’s cold
They were tougher and more prepared
Respect for the people who lived without furnace and boilers and hot water tanks !
And UGG boots and Netflix and Door Dash!
@@amazingandrea9983 Absolutely!
My great, great, great grandparents were one of the founding pioneer families that lived in the Winterburn area, just outside of Edmonton in the 1800s. Their homestead stood between what is considered Winterburn and Parkland County now. A lot of them wore sheepskin coats, and boiled wool garments to keep warm. They always kept a small but healthy amount of sheep along with the dairy cows & beef cattle. Just so that my great, great grandmother and my great aunts to make more winter clothing for the kids as they grew up. I either wear layers or I wear some vintage sheepskin coats that I have found over the years at thrift stores. Nothjng beats a good sheepskin coat in my opinion.
They weren’t whinny little kids. They were men and women who just handled what was given to them pushed through.
They are built different😎
Many people died in the winter
Wow didn't know winter existed that old
comments allowed,thank you . very interesting subject
comments should always be allowed Canadians provide most of their funding.
Did you notice she hesitated when she said -35 was not to be spoken but was actually -45 so she could not go there.
These two gals are way cool and their knowledge and presence is warm and educational.
This was nice and cakming to watch. Also learned alot from it.
People just died, and only the strongest survived making a tough society. No wokeness in the old days.
Thank you for sharing.
loved this !
Folks were a tougher breed back then. They knew how to work and do for themselves. This lot nowadays doesn't hold a candle to the work ethic that those who had to really give their all to survive.
Inspiring stuff!!
Great story! I thought this was a documentary! I wanted more :) very awesome!
A great many early settlers on the prairies were Ukrainian/Eastern European and were used to these types of weather conditions.
They also only had a 45-50 year life expectancy so they didn't have alot of time to endure the hard life!
Exactly! Can we please stop portraying European settlers as feeble babies who came over unprepared and ignorant of what they would be facing?
Don’t forget the Germans and Norwegians too…
the 40-50 year life expectancy includes infant mortality stats.
The thing is, this type of cold is only seen in Siberia
Ukraine does NOT see cold like the prairies.
Neither does Germany, Poland etc
Maybe they had 45-50 year life expectancy because of the bitter cold? Not to mention moving into another country leaving your home , communuity and tools behind to this harsh climate, its still impressive because we humans are not capable to survive this weather without our communuity and tools i.e. stoves, houses, drinking water, means of transportation and knowledge of your surroundings which early settlers didnt had.
They travelled south to warmer climates. There were no borders Pretty simple concept.
a little too simple. That way of life kept those who lived it in the stone age for millennia.
My Mom was born in Winnipeg Beach in 1938. She was a competitive figure skater, practicing outdoors in minus-crazy temperatures. I have pictures of her performing outdoors in sequinned skating dresses, wearing only leotards on her legs to stay warm. I stand (indoors, in my Ugg boots, on heated floors) in awe.
I've seen a house with like 5 feet deep walls of insulation and the minimum temperature inside was like 18C. Its a lot of work to construct such a building but worth for the life time
Come to Inuvik, NT and we can discuss your appreciation for cold weather.
20 years ago, zero degree was extremely cold to me… now even minus 20 won’t bother me too much… but minus 40, minus 50 still unimaginable 😅
People were simply tougher and more resilient. Nowadays, people have a garage so they don't have to feel the cold when they go to work. We, as a species are avoiding any kind of inconvenience and it's making us softer. People were just tough back in the day, simple as that.
Even with "the door left open", the idea of placing a newborn infant into the pie warmer on top of the wood/coal. ired oven makes me go "What?!!😱"
omg I was thinking about this today morning!
great video. glad its pure information and not a lecture to anyone on politics once in a while.
Humans were different back then
Wow great video. I was just thinking about the same thing 😅
Mom lived on a modest piece of property that no Canadian kid would dare. They would call child services to be taken anywhere but. There was another demographic that had something like that happen, but the whites didnt have a choice back then. You stuck it out no matter how tough it was.
More historic stuff like these pls
They didn’t pay weather tax.
They didn’t produce any fossil fuel emissions either
Lmao awesome
@@NarutoUzumaki-jw4kw well they did but it was a very tiny amount compared to the emissions created by individuals today. Burning wood and coal produces emissions but it’s nothing like what’s produced by internal combustion engines.
Didn’t realize Alberta covered the entire prairie……
You guys saved me
I grew up in Calgary.
I miss the winter there.
This might be the one worthwhile story the cbc has ever done .compared to the trash they normally put out there
Go north they work outside 12 hrs a day at 45 50 below I know I worked with them I saw a guy get off the plane he was Jamaican he walked into his room changed his clothes walked outside in 40 below zero and worked 12 hours unloading fuel at a tanker base.
Who are you trying to BS?
Yup been there done that.. it's not fun but it was good $$$
@@gerardpully762Used to work in the Arctic in the trades can confirm we did 12 hour shifts at well below -30 coldest I recall was -48 before wind chill one year. We still went out to site.
Lot's of men do 12s in the cold, you obviously go to your heat source/truck/doghouse/trailer to warm up at regular intervals and if the job is physical that will keep you warm. It's actually the best way to keep warm is to just work harder.@@gerardpully762
Very cool❤🎉
"Imagine living in your garage" is such an apt comparison here...*shudders* But what where these small, 100% insulated houses made of? Didn't quite catch that.
Sod
The stories of Manitoba winters and my father waiting on the street for the King and Queen back in the 1930s only to see their car pass by because of the extreme cold
Wow, very interesting..
This same northern manitoba.i work at ruttan lake,leaf rapids 1976 they told stop working due cold snap,so they refuse.well he drop-60 below zero with wind.they broke most mining equipment.so sit idle 2 days yup.cost sherritt gordon lots repair after due ego right.the native south indian knew best.loram was doing work they close 4 days.fred mannix knew they was right.today lots don't understand what happen pass sad.thanks cbc video.😊
Why don’t people wear fur coats on the prairies anymore? Or do they. Seems perfect for the winter.
The tough ones moved to Manitoba where it’s way worse
They were tough as nails that’s for sure. Frozen moccasins and all.
You build a wall towards the worst winds and build a wall high enough to protect horses and tipis.
It’s winter in Canada! So what’s the big surprise that it’s cold. To one degree or another, it happens every year. Some people might be surprised but I’m not. Not even a little bit.
Most people these days spend 95% of their time indoors so it is surprising when they've been working from home for a week and step outside without proper winter clothing which they likely dont even own.
I thought she said they were "undauntable...yet pathetic for staying" lol I feel exactly the same as that living here
By not incessantly whining about, or being afraid of the weather. They just got on with it.
Hey CBC, you cant lump sum Alberta winters to just tge Calgary area. Northern and Southern Alberta weather is VERY different.
My question exactly
Same way we stay warm. Fire and layers.
Back then, the people were tough. They took care of themselves and others. What a difference from Alberta today! Richest province in the country and they never stop whining to the federal government.
I bet people enjoyed it more then, then now. They had more freedom with wild landscape and fires as camping and fishing and hunting gathering was for everyone that wanted it in seasonal moments and no fences with ownership and property papers. TRUE FREEDOM 500 years ago.
LOL.
Fishing and hunting wasn’t a recreate, it was a survival skill. Also, it wasn’t called camping, it was living.
I dare you to return to that lifestyle. Eschew your cell phone, internet service, indoor plumbing, electricity, automobile, modern medicine, and all the other modern appliances and conveniences we enjoy today.
Have fun.
I love the -35... We are a bunch of babies now with zero skills or sense of environment, it's sad. Respect to the people who know how to live off the land and create products from nature that actually work and are truly environmental sound.
I spend a lot of time working outside in the winter. Most who say they love minus 35 temperatures don't work in it. In 35 years of working in Northern Alberta winters I haven't talked to any coworkers who said they loved negative 30 temperatures. I've heard people say they do who don't have to be outside in it but none who actually have to endure it for hours each day. Good on you if you do but I have to call bullshit.
@@Al-lv7vg I only worked in Saskatchewan for a couple of years, but I completely agree! I’m in the aerospace industry and I can tell you there is not a single ground crew who likes working in the -35 on the airfield. Not a single one.
The funny part is you don't know who I amend the other part is who said anything about working ? @@Al-lv7vg
They were a whole lot tougher , then us .
Yet we have schools telling people to be ashamed of their heritage and ancestors. Those people were tough as nails.
i was replying to someone saying modernity is not a good thing because of our lack gratitude, but my response was disrespectfully long... however I stand by it so im gonna just leave it here:
i think modernity is a good thing, the old times are nothing to be romaniticized. people were hardy but that because it was really damn hard.
i think technology and modernity is a good thing, but pluralism is also a reality of our future in this interconnected world. we as a planet need desperately to strike a balance within our own local communities as well as the world at large.
we have heard a lot of talk about hardiness recently, and theres something to be said for resilience, but its not the only answer - by and large those were not good times...
despite the selectively sampled studies of scholars like Stephen Pinker, prior to agriculture/civilization violence and toughness was actually incredibly rare, only 5% of such hunter-gatherer remains show signs of violent deaths compared to the 15% of remains of Pinkers samples from after the dawn of agriculture... war and toughness is the hallmark of civilization, not our nature (many point to chimpanzees, but bonobos tell a different story)
what is truly lost on modernity/society is resilience, yes, but also community, social care and common ownership of necessities.
technology is not going anywhere, so the conversation must look at how we can reject the commodification of essentials and the division/stratification of society, and instead preserve our social and communal nature, not only in our local communities but in our inevitable future as an interconnected planetary organism.
They didn't have social media to sit around and whine on 7/24. They just went and did what they had to do. Kids went to school, the mailmen walked their route, everything went on normally.
And they didn't have to drive to work and all kind of stuff what we have to do. All our luxury and snow plows etc were not even necessary. I love how they were able to live a simple live, while we live in a hamster wheel
I am so wirry the animals ,pls give them warm place
It's wonderful to know of both Indigenous and pioneer perspectives, kudos for that.
they are our ancestors now? i bet they beg to differ
Our people our tough and respect the Earth,Live in Harmony with mother Earth .Our ancestors taught the New comers as brothers ,to live in this harsh Land.However their greed and arrogance almost destroyed us as a people.
Well, you still cant find many Italians in the prairies.
Check familly names in the coldest areas, and you ll still find most Russian, Ukranian or
Scandinavian names in the harshest climates of Canada.
Hey, a CBC video I don’t absolutely hate. What world is this?
Nice video but the title reminds me of the sad fact that soon that vast majority of Canadians won't have an historic connection to this land. The idea of "our ancestors" will refer to people from India or China not Canada.
How did they survive in the past, through sheer determination, hard work, and self-sacrifice. Today Gen Z generation is far removed from the attitudes these settlers had to endure the hardships they faced. Can't whine your way out of life's struggles and succeed.
Well they have fire wood at home, now u have condos with fire alarm
By avoiding the area altogether? As we still do nowadays.