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Dear Editor,
Having done research on the Criddle family, I read with interest the article (Number 51, February 2006) on Norman Criddle. I would like to share information that I gathered when I was asked to speak on the Criddles in 1994 at a joint meeting of the Entomological Societies of Canada and Manitoba. I first learned about the Criddles in 1946 while on a grasshopper survey.
The Criddle children were educated at home by their mother Alice. She taught all of them to observe closely and to pay attention to details. Her influence profoundly affected them, particularly Norman who helped her rear caterpillars to the adult stage when they emerged as butterflies or moths. In this way he learned their names, food plants, and habits. This early training enabled him in later years of research in entomology, botany, ornithology, and meteorology. His watercolours of prairie flowers were so accurate and detailed that Dr. Fletcher, the weed and bug man in Ottawa used them to identify the species. I have a copy of twenty-three of his colour paintings of wild blossoms of Manitoba.
One of Norman’s attributes outside the field of natural science was his modesty. In his diary at age 22 his entry about his already recognized paintings was simply, “I did some painting.” He wrote that the paintings were to be exhibited at the Brandon Fair but did not later add that they had won first prize. Another of his human attributes was a generosity of spirit. For example, one day while he and a companion were examining a wheat field, someone came by and told them that the insects flying overhead were wheat stem sawflies. Norman thanked him but later his companion asked why he hadn’t corrected him. Norman replied, “We know that, but the man was sincere and wanted to help. Why should we spoil his desire to do a good deed?”
When doing my research, I met with Norman’s niece Alma. During one of our visits I asked whether she knew why the paterfamilias, Percy, had chosen the name Aweme for the area around the homestead. She did not know, nor did two of the Vane sisters (half sisters to the Criddle children) who I met in 1993 at an unveiling of a plaque at Spruce Woods in honour of Norman. I had read about this genteel English family’s hardships while attempting to pioneer in a harsh prairie environment in the late 1800s. The parents were well educated but had no aptitude for farming. The family suffered cold, heat, drought, grasshopper plagues, mosquitoes and semi-starvation. During one year they could afford only flour swept from the floor of a flourmill. Sometimes while ploughing, the boys would catch and roast gophers because there was nothing else. Knowing of the family’s hardships and of Percy’s perverse nature and wry sense of humour, I asked Alma whether the name could have been a contraction of “awe me” to reflect their hard life. The thought had not occurred to her but said that it was possible. Perhaps the answer is in Percy’s diary, which has as many erasures as a soldier’s censored letters. We shall never know the answer, unless other records come to light.
S. R. Loschiavo
Research Scientist (Retired)
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Dear Editor:
I would like to respond to the letters of Donna Sutherland and Lorraine Swanson of the Chief Peguis Heritage Park in your last issue. The reason that I wanted to write a review of Sutherland’s biography of Chief Peguis is that I was familiar with many of the sources that she used and there were many errors in her research. Dr. Ruth Swan and I focused on three sources because we did not feel it was necessary to document every error.
I have done extensive archival research on many of my ancestors like Sutherland. I do not like negative stereotypes either. One of the best ways to challenge stereotypes is to document contemporary sources and explain the context of the authors: their background, ethnic perspective and audience. Sutherland noted that she included extracts of primary sources so that the readers could draw their own conclusions. I think it would have been helpful if she had included some analysis of the stereotypes portrayed by the missionaries who were trying to convert Peguis and Ojibwe relatives to Christianity. Young readers might be confused about the racist attitudes of these religious writers. The missionaries’ letters suggested that Peguis was rewarded because he converted to Christianity whereas his son who committed suicide at the death of his child was punished for resisting the new religious ideas. It would be helpful to know why the missionaries invested so much personal effort into these conversions and why they held such distorted images of local people. If Sutherland had included more fur trade extracts, she might have found that many of these outsiders had different ideas than their European countrymen. Not all newcomers to the Red River Valley demonstrated these racist ideas.
We did not have room to include a discussion of all the errors, but felt that a review of some of the sources would demonstrate our concern with Sutherland’s interpretation of the historical evidence in primary sources. Chief Peguis was an important historical figure and his biography should portray him as accurately as possible.
Edward A. Jerome
Hallock, Minnesota
Page revised: 16 June 2012
