By Derek Cornet

‘It’s history we’re unearthing’: Old cemetery connects locals with departed relatives

Jun 13, 2018 | 5:00 PM

A family mystery was solved in La Ronge this week after youth support workers with the Lac La Ronge Indian Band uncovered gravestones more than a century old.

Located behind the urban reserve located along La Ronge Ave., the site is the resting place of many children who attended the All Saints Indian Residential School and the mission which came before it. Others buried at the cemetery were newcomers to Canada, as was the case with Charley McAuley, the father of the late NDP MLA Norman MacAuley.

“I didn’t know my great-grandfather was buried here, so it was exciting to hear,” Air Ronge resident Neil MacAuley said after receiving a call Monday from Elder Tom Roberts. “It’s good Tom and the rest of the people are cleaning this place up. Roots in La Ronge run deep in Saskatchewan.”

Charley McAuley immigrated to the region from Scotland’s Ilse of Skye with his five brothers in 1911 looking to make a new life in Canada. MacAuley said his great-grandfather was already 34 years old when he arrived in La Ronge by canoe and he initially found work as a fur trader with the Hudson Bay Company. He later earned a living transporting fish to Prince Albert and returning with freight such as groceries, building materials, and other goods.

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It was on one of those trips back in 1934 when Charley suddenly passed away and MacAuley said his grandfather Norman had to manage the trip back to La Ronge on his own. Norman later served in the Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War and served as an NDP MLA for Cumberland before died in 2016. MacAuley said now that the family knows where his great-grandfather is buried, they’ll make a special effort to keep the knowledge in their family so it’s never again forgotten.

“It’s important these kind of things keep getting passed on,” he said.

The youth support workers will continue searching the area for more headstones this week, and Roberts said it’s likely more local residents will learn the resting place of relatives. He also said there are plans to determine how many graves are at the site and to place crosses at the unmarked graves. Roberts said there’s another cemetery at the original settlement of Stanley Mission that he’d like to see work at as well.

“We’re going to clean this up so people can come here and take a look,” Roberts said. “It’s history we’re unearthing and finding. This is the just the first one.”

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno