Mînî Thnî (formerly Morley) is a

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

settlement within the Stoney 142/143/144 Indian reserve in

southern Alberta Southern Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. In 2016, the region's population was approximately 291,112. The primary cities are Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. The region is known mostly for agricultural production, but o ...

, Canada. It is located along the

Canadian Pacific Kansas City Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, Trade name, doing business as CPKC (known as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited until 2023), is a Canadian railway holding company. Through its primary operating railroad subsidiaries, Canadian Pacific Railw ...

railway between the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

and the

Bow River The headwaters of the Bow River in Alberta, Canada, start at the Bow Glacier and Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, Canadian Rocky Mountains. The glacial stream that feeds Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake ...

, upstream from Ghost Lake. It has an elevation of . The settlement is located in

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-level census geographic uni ...

No. 15 and in the federal riding of Yellowhead. The settlement and the Indian reserve are part of the Stoney Nation. The historic McDougall Memorial United Church is located a few miles from Mînî Thnî. Built in 1875, it was southern Alberta's oldest surviving

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

church and the oldest remaining structure in the

Bow Valley Bow Valley is a valley along the upper Bow River in Alberta, Canada. The name "Bow" refers to the reeds that grew along its banks and which were used by the local First Nations in Canada, First Nations people to make bows; the Blackfoot langu ...

, it was damaged by fire on May 22, 2017 . Restoration is almost complete as of 2021. It was once a part of Morleyville, the oldest pioneer settlement in southern Alberta and home to its first herd of breeding cattle. Founded by the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

missionary

George McDougall George Millward McDougall (September 9, 1821 – January 25, 1876) was a Methodist missionary in Canada who assisted in negotiations leading to Treaty 6 and Treaty 7 between the Canadian government and Indigenous nations of the prairies and what ...

and his sons as a missionary outpost, Morleyville existed until 1921 when a new church was built in the present settlement of Mînî Thnî, which had developed around the Morley Indian Agency building. The old church is now a provincial historic site. Other milestones in the settlement's history include the construction in 1920 of the first airport established by Canada's Air Board and the 1969 establishment of Canada's first

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

's court to be held in a First Nations–owned building on First Nations land.

History

Settlement in the Mînî Thnî area began with First Nations. The arrival of the Methodist missionary John McDougall and his wife in 1873 to establish a missionary outpost in the Bow Valley for outreach to the Nakoda (Stoney) and

Siksika The Siksika Nation (; syllabics , ) is a First Nation in southern Alberta, Canada. The name ''Siksiká'' comes from the Blackfoot words ''sik'' (black) and ''iká'' (foot), with a connector ''s'' between the two words. The plural form of ''S ...

(Blackfoot) First Nations. They founded the mission at the request of John's father, George McDougall, the superintendent of Methodist missionary work in

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

. The site John chose was originally called Ghost River, but he renamed it Morleyville in honour of his friend Morley Punshon, an

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

doctor. John McDougall and his wife began their work by constructing a two-room log shack with a

sod roof A sod roof, or turf roof, is a traditional Scandinavian type of green roof covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards. Until the late 19th century, it was the most common roof on rural log h ...

for themselves and a small church. Shortly thereafter, the McDougalls moved their fledgling outpost to a new site to the south, closer to the river. In 1875, they built a larger church with the help of George McDougall and Andrew Sibbald, a carpenter and teacher. Logs and boards laboriously fashioned from local timber with a whipsaw were used to build the one-room church. Aside from the framed gable ends, the exterior surface of the log walls remained unfinished, but the interior surfaces were daubed with mud and painted white, except for the panelled end walls. Around 1900, the log walls were covered with board-and-batten siding, and a

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a relig ...

was built. It is southern Alberta's oldest remaining Protestant church, the oldest remaining structure in the Bow Valley, and is the province's earliest example of a building constructed in the

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 architecture, Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massin ...

style still standing at the place of its original construction. David McDougall later joined his brother John at Morleyville and helped to found the Indian Trading Post. In its early days, some seven hundred First Nations people visited the post to

barter In trade, barter (derived from ''bareter'') is a system of exchange (economics), exchange in which participants in a financial transaction, transaction directly exchange good (economics), goods or service (economics), services for other goods ...

animal skins for food, blankets, stockings, and prints. The homes and the trading post were enclosed by a stockade of heavy logs erected to provide defence in case a party of First Nations warriors attempted a raid. The outpost became a hub for settlers coming into the Bow Valley and reached a population of over two hundred at its peak; Morleyville was southern Alberta's first pioneer settlement. A school and orphanage were built, along with missionary residences, barns and

corral A pen is a fenced/walled open-air enclosure for holding land animals in captivity, typically for livestock but may also be used for holding other domesticated animals such as pets that are unwanted inside buildings. The term describes types ...

s. Southern Alberta's first herd of breeding cattle supplied Morleyville's residents with meat and milk. Sibbald, one of Alberta's first trained teachers, taught at the school. An

Indian residential school The Canadian 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 various Christian churches. The scho ...

was operated by Methodists in Mînî Thnî from 1886 until 1949. School records indicate that student Evelyn Pocette died there on December 31, 1934, then Susan Two Young Men on June 7, 1935, Annie Hunter on June 16, 1935, Mary Dixon (Morley) on July 6, 1935, and White Bright Star on February 13, 1938. Amos Lefthand died October 17, 1942, Leta Powderface ca. May 14, 1943, then Charlie Amos ca. August 1, 1943, and Isaiah Powerface December 26, 1947. A school textbook was published for teaching English to the students residing there. This textbook makes reference to Morley and McDougall. Morleyville's early prominence declined in the 1880s after the Canadian Pacific

transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous rail transport, railroad trackage that crosses a continent, continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the Ra ...

bypassed the settlement as it was routed through the valley on the opposite side of the Bow River. John McDougall and his wife remained there until their retirement to

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

in 1898. The church remained in use until 1921, when it was replaced by a new church located a few miles away at a First Nations settlement that developed around an Indian Agency building. This newer settlement is the present-day Mînî Thnî. The old settlement and its church stood abandoned until volunteers affiliated with the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (UCC; ) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholic Church in Canada. The United Chu ...

formed the Morley Church Restoration Society. Work was completed in 1952, and the restored church continues to be used for weddings and special occasions. The building has been declared a provincial historic site and is listed in the

Canadian Register of Historic Places The Canadian Register of Historic Places (CRHP; , ), also known as Canada's Historic Places, is an online directory of historic places in Canada which have been formally recognized for their heritage value by a federal, provincial, territorial ...

; a historical marker at the site describes its significance. The McDougall Stoney Mission Society maintains the church and the surrounding of ecologically significant native prairie that has never been disturbed by agriculture. The first airport and test station to be established by Canada's Air Board began operation at Mînî Thnî in 1920. Known as the Morley Air Station, it was equipped with six

Airco DH.9A The Airco DH.9A is a British single-engined light bomber that was designed and first used shortly before the end of the First World War. It was a development of the unsuccessful Airco DH.9 bomber, featuring a strengthened structure and, cruciall ...

aircraft used for

aerial reconnaissance Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or Strategy, strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. The role of reconnaissance can fulfil a variety of requirements including Artillery observer, artillery spott ...

Banff National Park Banff National Park is Canada, Canada's first National Parks of Canada, national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rockies, Alberta's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary, Banff encompasses of mountainous ter ...

, forestry ranging in the

Rocky Mountain Foothills The Rocky Mountain Foothills are an upland area flanking the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, extending from the Liard River in British Columbia southward into Alberta. Bordering the Interior Plains system, they are part of the Rocky Mountai ...

, and

aerial firefighting Aerial firefighting, also known as waterbombing, is the use of aircraft and other aerial resources to Wildfire suppression, combat wildfires. The types of aircraft used include fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Smokejumpers and rappellers ar ...

. In 1969, Mînî Thnî hosted the first magistrate's court in Canada to be held in a First Nations-owned building located on First Nations land. In August 2024, Morley was renamed Mînî Thnî by the Stoney Nakoda First Nations.

Notable people

* John W. Niddrie, early pioneer and religious leaderJohn Niddrie - Alberta Online Encyclopedia, University of Alberta
/ref>

References

External links

McDougall Stoney Mission Society
{{Subdivisions of Alberta Localities on Indian reserves in Alberta

History

Notable people

See also

References

External links