Duck Lake is a town in the

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...

of central

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, Canada. Its location is north of

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

and south of Prince Albert on highway 11, in the

rural municipality A rural municipality is a classification of municipality, a type of local government, found in several countries. These include: * Rural municipalities in Canada, a type of municipal status in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, ...

of Duck Lake. Immediately to the north of Duck Lake is the south block of the

Nisbet Provincial Forest The Nisbet Provincial Forest is a provincially protected mixed-wood forest surrounded by Aspen parkland in Central Saskatchewan, Canada. It consists of a north block north of the city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and a south block between Duc ...

. The

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

people are

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...

and the

band government In Canada, an Indian band or band (french: bande indienne, link=no), sometimes referred to as a First Nation band (french: bande de la Première Nation, link=no) or simply a First Nation, is the basic unit of government for those peoples subjec ...

of the Beardy's and Okemasis' Cree Nation is located here. Duck Lake was home to one of the last operating schools in the

Canadian Indian residential school system In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The school s ...

, the St. Michael's Indian Residential School (Duck Lake Indian Residential School), which closed in 1996. The disruption in the transmission of

Cree language Cree (also known as Cree– Montagnais– Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is th ...

, culture, family systems and policy caused by the St. Michael’s Residential school created immense trauma and suffering through the generations of children and youth today who continue to seek justice by reclaiming their identity, culture, and language while supporting the survivors.

History

Duck Lake was one of the five Southbranch Settlements settled by French speaking

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United State ...

from Manitoba in the 1860s and 1870s. A

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Mission was established in Duck Lake in 1874 by Father André

O.M.I. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest born in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on August 1, ...

and by 1888 the village had a school, a post office (called Stobart), a flour mill (

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

) and a

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

. From 1882 to 1905 Duck Lake was within the

District of Saskatchewan The District of Saskatchewan was a regional administrative district of Canada's North-West Territories. It was formed in 1882 was later enlarged then abolished with the creation of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta in 1905. Much of the a ...

one of several

districts of the Northwest Territories The vastness of Canada's Northwest Territories (spelled 'North-West Territories' from 1870 to 1906) meant that for much of its history it was divided into several districts for ease of administration. The number and size of these territorial distr ...

. In 1885, Duck Lake was the site of the

Battle of Duck Lake The Battle of Duck Lake (26 March 1885) was an infantry skirmish outside Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, between North-West Mounted Police forces of the Government of Canada, and the Métis militia of Louis Riel's newly established Provisional Gover ...

, a conflict between

warriors and the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-i ...

, at the start of the

North-West Rebellion The North-West Rebellion (french: Rébellion du Nord-Ouest), also known as the North-West Resistance, was a Resistance movement, resistance by the Métis people (Canada), Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Natio ...

. At Duck Lake, the Prince Albert Trail, which ran from Regina to Prince Albert, crossed the

Carlton Trail The Carlton Trail was the primary land transportation route in the Canadian Northwest for most of the 19th century, connecting Fort Carlton to Edmonton along a line of intermediate places. It was part of a trail network that stretched from the Red ...

and it marked the halfway point between the Métis headquarters at

Batoche Batoche may refer to: *Batoche, Saskatchewan, a historic site in Saskatchewan *Batoche (electoral district), an electoral district in Saskatchewan * Batoche (former electoral district), a former electoral district in Saskatchewan *Batoche (N.W.T. el ...

and the

North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territo ...

Fort Carlton Fort Carlton was a Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post from 1795 until 1885. It was located along the North Saskatchewan River not far from Duck Lake. It is in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and was rebuilt by the government of Sas ...

. Historic

Carpenter Gothic Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic or Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures ...

style All Saints Anglican Church built in 1896 is a municipal

heritage site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

. Its historic cemetery contains the graves of some of those who fought in the Battle of Duck Lake as well as those of other pioneers of the community.Canada's Historic Places: All Saints Anglican Church
/ref> The 1973 western ''

Alien Thunder ''Alien Thunder'' (also known as ''Dan Candy's Law'') is a 1974 Canadian Northern film directed by Claude Fournier and starring Donald Sutherland. Its original screenplay was written by W.O. Mitchell but Mitchell removed his name from the fi ...

'' was partially filmed here. Duck Lake Interpretive Centre

Demographics

In the

2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sl ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultu ...

, Duck Lake had a population of 579 living in 202 of its 232 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 569. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Notable people

* Gabriel Dumont - Leader of Métis forces in the North-West Rebellion 1885.

References

External links

* {{Subdivisions of Saskatchewan, towns=yes Duck Lake No. 463, Saskatchewan Towns in Saskatchewan Hudson's Bay Company trading posts Division No. 15, Saskatchewan

History

Demographics

Notable people

See also

References

Further reading

External links