Page 6 - Fortier Family History

Lees for all his support in tracing old photos and providing me a place to stay and a hot meal and bannock when I visited. In Marathon I would like to acknowledge Diane Michano Richmond (her grandmother was Sarah Finlayson, Agnes’ sister) for all the knowledge and guidance she has provided me over the years. Diane’s personal history was very similar to Doris’s so I especially valued her memories of what life was like for Native women before the 1980s who married non-Native men and lost their legal status as “Indian” and in many ways their cultural position as Native women. In addition, I would like to acknowledge and thank Wes Luloff, whose grandfather was Agnes’ oldest sibling Emile Finlayson. Wes volunteered to meet me in Nipigon in 2011 and drive me up to visit Longlac (Long Lake and Ginoogaming First Nations) for my first visit there. Wes has been instrumental in providing details about our Native Finlayson relatives and ancestors at Long Lake and Ginoogaming First Nations. Closer to home, I’d like to thank all my aunts and uncles for the family history details they have provided over the years since our Thirty-Year Family Reunion in 1994. Thanks to Sandra for that first letter with “Ojibway”, thanks Marianne for the Treaty Paylist records, thank you Linda for reminding me my nickname as a baby was “pickle”, thanks to Mickey for showing me where my dad died in Cameron Falls, thanks to Ron for his boundless energy and humor, to Dennis for driving to Lac Megantic and searching the local cemeteries for Achille and Marie Fortier, to Aunt Joan for all her support and that first batch of old family photos, to Cindy and Kathy who always welcomed me when stopping at Nipigon, and to Uncle Russell for sharing with me his childhood memories of my father Walter. That leaves just two whom I’ve never met, Butch (Arthur Robert) and Janet. So I still have some work to do. Finally, I would like to dedicate this to my parents, Walter Richard Fortier and Henriette Marie Bigaouette Fortier (Hinz) who planted the seed of my curiosity and nourished my sense of inquisitiveness. I inherited my “Fortier” name from my father, but it was my Bigaouette mother who was always there to support me and encourage me in all my endeavors. Now if she will just forgive me for “discovering” that her “Bigaouette roots” are not as “French” as we always assumed. You’ll have to read on to decipher that meaning.