Podcasts about prime minister john a macdonald

A New Review of the Podcast Before I reprise the story of Crowfoot, I wanted to give a shout out to an iTunes listener with the screen name Jul121314 in the U.S. for the kind review. The review is titled "Great Storytelling". They continue saying: "Love listening to the stories - current and historical. I love the Canadian Rockies and this podcast gives me a much deeper understanding. " Thank you so much. Those that know me will tell you that I'm always trying to find the "story" hidden within a subject. Science and history are full of fascinating stories, and my goal with this show is to make sure that you always have a great story to enjoy. Crowfoot and Treaty 7 In last week's episode, I introduced you to the Blackfoot Chief Crowfoot. He was born at a time when the Blackfoot ruled the plains from Cypress Hills to the Continental Divide and from Montana to the North Saskatchewan River. If you haven't listened to that episode, you can enjoy it at www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep062. When I wrapped the episode, the Northwest Mounted Police had marched westward to chase away whiskey traders that had invaded Canadian territory from Montana. Crowfoot was happy the government would remove the whiskey that had ravaged his people, but he still wanted to better understand the role of the Mounties on Blackfoot territory. Once the Mounties were settled into their camp at Fort MacLeod, Colonel Macleod requested a meeting with the leaders of the Blackfoot Nation. When the meeting finally took place, and the leaders of the Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan were gathered, Crowfoot asked Macleod to help the people understand the role of the police in their territory. By the time Crowfoot left Fort Macleod, he felt a strong affinity to the Colonel. Both understood the importance of peaceful relations and Crowfoot had already seen how the police were able to put an end to the trade of whiskey to his people. Crowfoot also felt Macleod was a man of his word. It was a precarious time for the nations of the Confederacy, and trust was critical if they were to move forward. Crowfoot saw this as a sign that the old ways had to change. He began to discourage his followers from raiding enemy camps to steal horses. The era of intertribal warfare would need to end. On the short term, the fortunes of the nations of the Blackfoot improved. With the expulsion of the whiskey trade, the Blackfoot Nation began to rebound. Rather than booze, they once again began to trade for horses and other goods necessary for their people. Despite this short-term feeling of complacency, Crowfoot saw disheartening changes within their territory. What had started as a trickle, was gradually becoming a flood of white men into Blackfoot territory. At the same time, the once plentiful buffalo were beginning to decline. For a nation so culturally tied to the previously endless herds of bison, Crowfoot imagined a time when the buffalo may no longer roam the plains. As incomprehensible as it would have been to him a few years earlier, Crowfoot worried for the future of his people. Reverend MacDougall, Crowfoots long-trusted friend explained that other First Nations had signed treaties with the Canadian government and that these treaties would ensure the rights of the Blackfoot by spelling out their claims to what must have felt like an endlessly shrinking landscape. It's likely that Crowfoot could not have any real concept of what a treaty would mean for his people, as well as what they would be giving up. What he did know was that more whites came every year and along with them fewer buffalo were available to hunt. It was only a matter of time before once endless herds were a memory and he knew there needed to be some agreement with the government of the whites. There was ample reason to be sceptical of any treaty with the government. The southern members of the Blackfoot Nation signed a treaty with the American government in 1855. It wasn't long before it became obvious it wasn't worth the paper it was written upon. Monies due were never on time, the quality of the promised supplies continually dropped over time, and more settlers meant the government continually insisted on changing terms of agreements already signed. When gold was discovered in Montana in the 1860s, the trickle of white settlers became a torrent. This led the Bloods and Piegan to defend their territory prompting Americans to send in the cavalry. The "Blackfoot War" as the dispute became known was finally settled when the Cavalry slaughtered 173 Piegan in an undefended camp. Most of the victims were women and children. When the Mounties arrived in the west, several of the Chiefs that would be asked to sign the Canadian Treaty were also signatories of the disastrous American one as well. Late in 1875, Crowfoot called a council of chiefs to discuss the possibility of a treaty with the Canadians. Along with all five head chiefs representing the three tribes, an additional 10 minor chiefs took part. They created a petition which was presented at the newly built Fort Calgary. They complained that white settlers were homesteading without restriction, usually in the best hunting grounds, and that incursions were increasingly common with Cree and mixed-blood Metis that were also hunting buffalo in their territory. Since no Indian Commissioner had been sent to them, they insisted that one: "visit us this summer at the Hand Hills and [state] the time of his arrival there, so we could meet with him and hold a Council for putting a [stop] to the invasion of our country, till our Treaty be made with the government." South of the border, a treaty with the Sioux, like the Blackfoot Treaty of 1855, had been signed in 1868, giving them hunting rights along the North Platte River and east of the Bighorn Mountains. Whites were to be excluded as long as there was good hunting for the Sioux. Well, all of that quickly fell apart when gold was found in the Black Hills in 1874. Prospectors flooded Sioux lands, and despite the pleas of the Sioux that the government honour the treaty, they were instead met with soldiers of the United States Cavalry. When the Sioux rebelled, the cavalry led by General George Crook, descended upon a large gathering of Cheyenne and Sioux along the Powder River. The carnage forced many to surrender and return to their reservation, but it also radicalized many who moved west to gather their strength for the coming conflict. Central to this was the great Sioux chief Sitting Bull. He sought to build a broad alliance, among both friend and enemy, to fight a common foe. Emissaries were sent to neighbouring tribes to seek allies in the coming conflict. One of these messengers was sent to the camp of Crowfoot. He offered a gift of tobacco, as well as horses, mules, and should they defeat the Americans, white women slaves. They also promised that once the Cavalry were defeated, they would ride north to rid the plains of the white men. The police were few and the people of the plains were many. Crowfoot needed little time to turn down offers of war with the whites, particularly with the Sioux who had long been their enemies. His message was met with a threat. The Sioux were strong and had a plan to destroy the soldiers; then they would come for the Blackfoot along with the police. As is often the case, timing is everything. When the news of the threat arrived in Crowfoot's camp, Inspector Cecil Denny happened to be present. Crowfoot shared with him the entire story. Denny promised the protection of the police to the Blackfoot, and Crowfoot offered 2000 warriors should the Sioux march north. The year was 1876 and Crowfoot stated: "we all see that the day is coming when the buffalo will all be killed, And we shall have nothing more to live on…  Then you'll come into our camp and see the poor Blackfoot starving.  I know that the heart of the capital white soldier will be sorry for us, and they will tell the great mother who will not let her children starve. We are getting shut in.  The Crees are coming into our country from the north, and the white men from the south and east, and they are all destroying our means of living; but still, although we plainly see these days coming, we will not join the Sioux against the whites, but will depend upon you to help us." This speech impressed Denny who sent a copy to Queen Victoria who personally responded to the chief to thank him for his loyalty. While this was playing out in Canada, Sitting Bull had already routed General George Armstrong Custer at the Little Bighorn in Montana. However, rather than following up on their threats, the Sioux realized their time in American territory was finished and they fled north into the Cypress Hills within Canadian territory. Sitting Bull, who had threatened to wipe the Mounties from the landscape, instead assured these same Mounties that he would break no laws in Canada. Again, Sitting Bull sent gifts of tobacco to Crowfoot's camp. This time the message was one of peace and friendship. The chief refused to smoke the tobacco until he understood Sitting Bull's true intentions. To his surprise, a party of Sioux, including Sitting Bull himself arrived at his camp. They both pledged peace and smoked the tobacco. The following year, the Canadian Government arranged to negotiate a treaty with the Blackfoot. Colonel James Macleod and Lieutenant Governor David Laird were appointed as commissioners charged with negotiating a treaty with the nations of the Confederacy. The presence of Sitting Bull in Canadian territory helped hasten the urgency of cementing a positive arrangement with such a powerful nation. At the same time, cattle were beginning to make their presence known on the plains and many envious eyes were looking westward towards the plentiful grasslands of Alberta, or what would eventually be Alberta. To complicate matters, in 1872 the government had promised a railroad link to British Columbia to connect it with the rest of the nation. This meant that a ribbon of steel would have to cross the country; the territory of the Blackfoot lay smack dab along the future line. As the various groups of the Blackfoot Confederacy, Sarcee, and Stoney nations gathered, Commissioner Laird summarized the changing conditions on the plains: “in a very few years, the buffalo will probably be all destroyed, and for this reason, the queen wishes to help you to live in the future in some other way.  She wishes you to allow her white children to come and live on your land and raise cattle, and should you agree to this she will assist you to raise cattle and grain, and thus give you the means of living when the buffalo are no more.  She will also pay you and your children money every year, which you can spend as you please.” His speech essentially asked them to share their hunting grounds in return for some land, cows, potatoes, ammunition and a whopping $5.00 per year. In return, they would be signing a treaty that would essentially strip them of their rightful ownership of their traditional territories; territories won through generations of war, blood, and sacrifice. Laird had little empathy for these first nations and often belittled claims that, to the Blackfeet, were not trivial matters. One of the Blood Chiefs, Medicine Calf had already signed one treaty - with the Americans. He saw that treaty continually broken and the terms ignored. He spoke: “the Great Mother sent you to this country, and we hope she will be good to us for many years…  The Americans gave at first large bags of flour, sugar, and many blankets; the next year was only half the quantity, and the following year grew less and less, and now they give only a handful of flour." When he asked about compensation for firewood used by the police and settlers, Laird responded: “Why, you Indians ought to pay us for sending these traders in fire water away and giving you security and peace, rather than we pay you for the timber used.”… The negotiations were hard and contentious. The many leaders of the various nations all had different ideas of what would be necessary to sign a treaty. According to one story, a white man spread a line of dollars on a table and informed Crowfoot that this was the currency by which the white man traded…not skins. Crowfoot took a handful of clay, made a ball, and placed it in the fire. He then looked to the white man and said: “Now put your money on the fire and see if it will last as long as the clay.” When the white man responded that his money will burn, Crowfoot retorted: "Oh your money is not as good as our land, is it? The wind will blow it away; the fire will burn it; water will rot it. Nothing will destroy our land. You don’t make a very good trade.” The chief handed the white man a handful of sand and asked him to count the number of grains of sand. When the white man admitted that he couldn't possibly count every grain, Crowfoot replied: “Very well, our land is more valuable than your money. It will last forever. It will not perish as long as the sun shines and the water flows, and through all the years it will give life to men and animals, and therefore we cannot sell the land. It was put there by the Great Spirit and we cannot sell it because it does not really belong to us. You can count your money and burn it with a nod of a buffalo’s head, but only the Great Spirit can count the grains of sand and the blades of grass on these plains. As a present, we will give you anything you can take with you, but we cannot give you the land.” Crowfoot showed that he truly understood the idea of ownership, but it is debatable as to whether he truly comprehended what the loss of all their land would mean to the Blackfoot. As negotiations continued to drag on, there were rumours that the northern Piegan were pondering massacring the government representatives. Crowfoot was against any violence towards the commission. The situation began to improve when the remainder of the leaders of the Blood tribe finally arrived at the treaty site. As the last of the great chiefs of the Confederacy arrived, even though the negotiations were difficult, the presence of the entire nation in one place helped raise spirits. Crowfoot consulted a medicine man for whom he had great respect. When asked if he should sign a treaty, the response was: “I want to hold you back because I am at the edge of the bank.  My life is at its end.  I hold you back because your life henceforth will be different from what it has been.  Buffalo makes your body strong.  What you will eat from this money will have your people buried all over these hills.  You will be tied down, you will not wander the plains; the whites will take your land and fill it.  You won’t have your own free will; the whites will lead you by a halter.  That’s why I say don’t sign.  But my life is old, so sign if you want to.  Go ahead and make the treaty.”… In the end, the various chiefs trusted Crowfoot to make the final decision as to whether they should sign. Finally, Crowfoot rose to speak: “While I speak, be kind and patient.  I have to speak for my people, who are numerous, and who rely upon me to follow that course which in the future will tend to their good.  The plains are large and wide.  We are the children of the plains.  It is our home, and the buffalo has been our food always.  I hope you look upon the Blackfeet, Bloods, and Sarcees as your children now, and that you will be indulgent and charitable to them.  They all expect me to speak now for them, and I trust the Great Spirit will put into their breasts to be a good people into the minds of the men, women and children, and their future generations... The advice given me and my people has proved to be very good.  If the police had not come to the country, where would we all be now?  Bad men and whiskey were killing us so fast that very few, indeed, of us would have been left today.  The police have protected us as the feathers of the bird protected from the frosts in winter.  I wish them all good, and trust that all our hearts will increase in goodness from this time forward.  I am satisfied.  I will sign the treaty.” With Crowfoot's words, the other chiefs also made their mark upon the treaty. The next order of business was to decide where their reserves would be located. Crowfoot believed that a single large reserve would help to keep their nation strong and strengthen their negotiating power with the whites. When there was no resistance he selected a long strip of land four miles wide extending some 320 km east into buffalo country. While the whites wanted the Blackfoot to take up farming, Crowfoot could not see his people surviving by "scratching the land" to grow food. He picked rich hunting grounds, but poor land for farming. Crowfoot was the first to sign. He expressed the concerns many of the Blackfoot had: “Great Father!  Take pity on me with regard to my country, with regard to the mountains, the hills and the valleys; with regard to the prairies, the forest and the waters; with regard to all the animals that inhabit them, and do not take them from myself and my children forever.” After Crowfoot, all the other chiefs, true to their word to him, also made their mark on the treaty. A missionary that was present at the signing, Father Scollen, was later asked if he thought the Blackfoot understood the magnitude of the document they had signed. He replied: “Did these Indians, or do they now, understand the real nature of the treaty made between the Government and themselves in 1877?  My answer to this question is unhesitatingly negative… Crowfoot, who beyond a doubt, is considered the leading chief of the plains, did not seem to have a faint notion of the meaning of the treaty…  All the other chiefs followed Crowfoot, and the substance of their speeches was that they agreed with him in all that he said…” How could they understand the implications of the treaty? Interpreters whose job it was to explain the terms had no words that would help the chiefs truly understand the concept of giving up vast territories to be settled on tiny plots of land. The Blackfoot would soon learn what signing this treaty meant. For generations, they had relied on winter snows to force the bison towards their winter hunting grounds in the foothills. This year the snows didn't come. Instead, winter fires on the prairies forced the bison to stay north of the Cypress Hills. The Blackfoot, as they had always done, had no choice but to follow the herds. Soon they found themselves on the edge of their territory and within spitting distance of their traditional enemies the Crees, Assiniboines, and Sioux. The winter was very difficult and starvation was a regular visitor to the camps. Sitting Bull once again visited Crowfoots camp and, while Crowfoot had no issues with the great chief, he advised that the Sioux stay away from their camps in such stressful times. He was worried that he would not be able to control his warriors. While spring brought a few buffalo back to the plains, Crowfoot could see that the future would no longer see them as master of territories occupied by vast numbers of buffalo. The bison were fewer and fewer and the many competing nations were all desperate for the same few animals. Crowfoot also learned that his friend Red Crow, chief of the Bloods, had decided, against the advice of Crowfoot, that he wanted a reserve farther south. This meant the joint reserve Crowfoot hoped for would not happen, and the single voice they might have with the government would now be partitioned. Crowfoot felt betrayed by his friend Colonel Macleod who had approved the request by Red Crow. He knew that this would weaken the power of the Blackfoot and was sure there was treachery on the part of the commission. The next winter was no better. The bison were scarce and the Blackfeet began to starve. Instead of bison, in desperation, they began to kill anything that was edible, whether it was a rabbit, ground squirrel, mouse, porcupine, or even badgers. If it had meat, it was fair game. Pleas to the government who had previously promised to feed the nation fell on deaf ears. Over the winter, they began to eat the camp dogs, and in time, began to eat anything made of leather, from moccasins, leather bags, and any piece of animal skin that might contain nourishment. The winter was terrible. In addition to the starvation, a party of 1,000 equally weak Crees camped just a few miles away. After a heated argument led to one of the Cree being killed, they finally moved on. Finally, in July of 1879, Edgar Dewdney was appointed as Indian Commissioner. He heard the pleas of Three Bulls and the other Blackfeet and brought beef along with flour and tea to offer relief to the starving. As he reported: “On arriving there, I found about 1300 Indians in a very destitute condition and many on the verge of starvation.  Young men who were known to be Stout and  hearty fellows some six months ago, were quite emaciated and so weak they could hardly work; the old people and widows, who, with their children live on the charity of the younger and more prosperous, had nothing, and many a pitiable tale was told of the misery they had endured.” That summer, the Blackfoot were advised by Dewdney and Colonel Macleod that many bison were being seen around the Cypress Hills. The Blackfoot followed their advice and sent the old and sick to Fort Macleod to be cared for by the police. As it turns out, those headed to the fort would fare far better than the warriors that headed out to hunt as their forefathers had done before them. As they approached Cypress Hills, Crowfoot met his foster brother Three Bulls who told him the animals that had previously been there had now moved out of the area. American hide hunters had set fires south of the border to prevent the normal northward migration of the buffalo, trapping them south of the border. While Crowfoot had never taken his people south of the American border before, the southern Piegan had always hunted there. Crowfoot had no choice but to head south into unknown territory. Unfortunately, his reputation preceded him and his arrival was heralded by a scalding news story in the American media: “Crowfoot has always been the leader of noted murderers, and is responsible for the death of more than one emigrant and prospector, yet this red butcher has been the pet of the Mounted Police ever since the latter arrived in the country” It hurts me to share quotes like this, but it's necessary to show the difference between Canadian and American views towards First Nations. At the same time, it was the Canadian government, with whom the Blackfoot had signed treaties with the promise of fair treatment and supplies of food, that had forced them to be there in the first place. The Americans resented the presence of so-called Canadian Indians and they had a good reason. Dewdney, in private correspondence, admitted as much: “I advised them strongly to go and gave them some provisions to take them off.  They continued to follow the buffalo further and further south until they reached the main herd and there they remained…  I consider their remaining away saved the government $100,000 at least.” Americans saw their territory swarmed by natives of every affiliation, from Blackfeet to Sarcee to Gros Ventres, and on and on. Each of these nations had no other choice, except starvation. The bison were quickly vanishing and these were all people of the bison. In addition to the scorn and risk of cavalry attacks from travelling south of the border, suddenly they were back in the lands of the whiskey trader. No sooner were their bellies full, did the whiskey wagons arrive in their camps. Suddenly, in addition to the whiskey, there was a new voice trying to whisper into their heads, a Metis by the name of Louis Riel. Riel had been a leader of the Metis when confederation transferred the lands of the Red River Settlement to the fledgeling Canadian government. He understood that the transfer of lands would be done with little consultation to the first nations and Metis that were already living there. In 1869, when the government sent surveyors to partition and run the area, Riel led his people in a rebellion. The government sent out soldiers and Riel fled to the U.S. to escape prosecution where he continued to promote mixed-blood rights. His resistance led to the founding of the province of Manitoba, and despite living in exile, he was elected three times to the federal government in absentia. Also in his absence, his colleague Father Nol Ritchot, managed to stare down John A. Macdonald and his Conservatives in negotiations and have the province of Manitoba established in May of 1870 while Riel was still in hiding. It was just a tiny postage stamp in terms of its present size. While merely one-eighteenth the size of modern-day Manitoba, it accomplished its goals of protecting the Red River settlement and the Metis for whom Riel had fought. Riel was gone from the political scene in Manitoba, but he was still working to coordinate a much larger rebellion that would take control of the Northwest Territories. While in Montana, Riel met with Crowfoot. As Crowfoot described the meeting: “He wanted me to join with all the Sioux, and the Crees, and half-breeds.  The idea was to have a general uprising and capture the North-West, and hold it for the Indian race and the Métis [mixed-bloods].  We were to meet at Tiger Hills, in Montana; we were to have a government of our own.  I refused, but the others were willing…” Riel had persuasive words, but Crowfoot could see they led only to ruin for his people. Like Sitting Bull a few years earlier, he was able to see past the passion and the fervour to the ruinous results. Somehow, despite being starved into another country, he still had confidence in the Mounted Police. In his conversations with Riel, there was an interpreter present, a false-priest by the name of  Jean L’Heureux. While L'Heureux had never been ordained as a priest, he roamed the plains preaching the gospel. Despite this official stature as a false-priest, others like Father Lacombe hired him as an interpreter due to the very close relationship with the first nations of the plains, in particular, the Blackfoot. He was a confidant of Crowfoot and he described Riel's words: “I soon learned the whole plan of the affair, which was nothing less than the invasion and taking possession of the North-West Territories, with the help of a general uprising of all the Indian tribes, united to the half-breeds…  That R…was to be governor, and Riel the first minister of his cabinet, where a seat was to be given to the Indian chief who, with his people, would help the half-breeds most in the contemplated invasion… Riel planned for his allies to meet at Tiger Hills and from there to march on the Canadians. Unfortunately, the Americans in whose territory Crowfoot's people were currently residing, also heard these stories of war parties. Like Sitting Bull, Crowfoot didn't want anything to do with Riel's rebellion and soon Riel realized that with the Americans aware of his plans, it was best for him to make tracks for the Judith Basin in Montana and talk no more…for now of rebellion. Oddly enough, Sitting Bull also met with Crowfoot in Montana. He had slipped south of the border as he had done numerous times to hunt. His people, like the Blackfoot, were also forced south of the Medicine Line in the quest for bison. He wanted no quarrel with the Blackfoot as he knew that he needed to return to Canada as soon as possible. He said to Crowfoot: “my children will be your children and your's mine.  From now on we will never fight again and we will be on the same side at all times.” He even named one of his children Crowfoot. Unfortunately, within days, a Sioux war party raided Crowfoot's camp and stole numerous horses. The two men never spoke again. While Sitting Bull's people were officially still in Canada, the situation for them got increasingly worse. Prime Minister John A Macdonald didn't like having the Sioux warrior on Canadian soil and he believed that Major James Walsh of the fort that bore his name in the Cypress Hills, was too lenient with Sitting Bull. However, Walsh had gained a great respect for the old Chief, as long as he kept his people peaceful. Macdonald had Walsh transferred to Fort Qu’Appelle, some 250 km distant. He was replaced by an officious inspector Lief N.F. (‘Paddy’) Crozier. He was instructed to convince Sitting Bull to go back to the U.S. Finally, in July of 1881, Sitting Bulls remaining followers rode south and surrendered at Fort Buford on the Yellowstone River. In the meantime, Walsh had taken vacation time and travelled to Chicago to meet with an American Indian Agent with whom he was friends. He pleaded for fair treatment for the Sioux. Sitting Bull was imprisoned for 20 months at Fort Randall in South Dakota and was freed in May of 1883. The following year, while touring Canada and the U.S. he met Annie Oakley. The Minnesotan sharpshooter deeply impressed the old chief and he adopted her as his daughter, giving her the name "Little Sure Shot". She continued to use that name throughout her career. He joined the Wild West Show of Buffalo Bill Cody in 1885 but only stayed for four months before returning to his reserve at Standing Rock. Around this time, a new native religious movement called the ghost dance became popular. The military was fearful of it and became convinced that Sitting Bull was an instigator. They ordered him arrested and during the scuffle, the old chief, along with numerous other Sioux, were killed. The plains had lost another great chief and songs of mourning filled the air at Standing Rock. Like Crowfoot, Sitting Bull was a man trapped in time. He was from a once proud and powerful nation that saw his way of life destroyed. While he chose a different path than Crowfoot, he did so with the conviction that he was doing what was best for his people. Next week, I'll finish the story of Crowfoot and the Blackfoot as they are eventually forced back to Canada amidst Cavalry threats, sickness, and starvation. Yellow Ladyslipper Orchid A few episodes back, in episode 60, I talked about the Calypso orchid and how it tricked bumblebee queens into pollinating it without providing any nectar reward. This week, I want to look at another related orchid, the yellow ladyslipper orchid. Orchids are a very old family of plants, and along with the dandelion or daisy family, represent the two largest plant families on the planet. There are more than 28,000 different orchid species on the planet today. Each one has evolved a slightly different strategy to attract their specific pollinator. Few plant families have diversified as much as the orchids in order to attract a very specific insect to act as courier to transplant pollen from one flower to another.  Orchids are also part of the major plant group called monocotyledon. This includes most of the grasses and sedges, along with lilies and irises. Monocots, as they are commonly referred, usually have grass-like leaves, with the veins running parallel to the leaf margin. Their petals are also usually arranged in multiples of threes, for instance, three or six petals. Most flowers reward pollinators with treats of nectar or pollen. Pollen is one of nature's most perfect foods. It contains everything that a honey bee needs to survive: sugar, proteins, enzymes, minerals and vitamins. The nectar is used to make honey to feed the larvae in the hive. So many plants have evolved specifically to provide one or both of these as a reward for pollinators visiting the plant and taking a bit of pollen to another plant to assist in cross-pollination. Across the orchid family, there are both nectar rewarding species and food deceptors like the Calypso which trick the bee into visiting but leave them hungry when they leave. Most orchids have three petals and three sepals. Unlike most plants though, where the sepals are usually nondescript, in orchids, often the sepals look just like the petals. This is particularly true of the ladyslippers. The yellow ladyslipper has three sepals that resemble the petals. One rises vertically above the plant and the other two fall behind and below the flower. It also has three petals, although the third one is modified into the pouch so distinctive in ladyslipper orchids. The other two petals, which resemble the sepals, tend two twist and curve forward as if they were the shoelaces that would tie the slipper onto the imaginary foot was this really a slipper. Above the pouch is a yellow triangular structure used to guide the bees into the pouch. Just in case they need further direction, there are purple markings that literally point down on the lip. To the bee, this means "follow this arrow to get pollen and/or nectar". Unfortunately for the bee, it gets neither. Like the Calypso, the yellow ladyslipper doesn't produce any nectar for the production of honey. That's alright, then a feed of pollen will do just fine. Unfortunately for the bee, the pollen of these orchids is all packed together into a single sticky mass. This allows a single bee visit to produce thousands of tiny seeds. When the bee follows the arrow on the lip into the pouch, it becomes trapped. Inside the pouch though, there's another series of purple lines that guide the bee towards the rear of the flower where there are two exit points for bees that are the right size. Too large and they may find themselves trapped in the pouch. Tiny angular hairs also serve to nudge the bee in the right direction towards these exits…oh and yah…the orchids reproductive organs. First, it passes the stigma or female part of the plant. If the bee has visited another orchid previously, the sticky pollen mass will be deposited here. Then, just before it exits the flower, an additional pollen mass will be placed on its back where it can't access it for feeding purposes. It will just stick there on the hopes that the bee gets duped once again. Without a pollen or nectar reward, there is little to motivate bees to keep visiting these orchids. That's why allowing a single visit to produce thousands of seeds is a good strategy - it makes every visit count. Why do bees come back? In part because of the seductive fragrance of the flower. It resembles the bees own pheromones. In addition, any bees that have already visited and escaped, leave their scent as well. This also serves to attract other unwitting bees. Once the flower is pollinated, it will produce a hard, vertical pod that contains thousands of tiny, wind-dispersed seeds. Once the seeds are released, for most plants the story would end. They would hopefully find their way to a place with good soil and germination would take place. For orchids, the story is not quite that simple. The seeds of the yellow ladyslipper are tiny and have very little in the way of food reserves. All plants need help in obtaining nutrients from the soil. Their roots need nitrogen and phosphorous to promote growth. Specialized fungi in the soil called mycorrhizal fungi are able to make these minerals available to the plants in return for a little of the sugar produced by the leaves. The fungi wraps itself around and, in some cases, within the roots. The plant provides sugar in return for these essential nutrients. Some 90% of all plants on the planet rely on these beneficial fungi for their growth. There are thousands of species of mycorrhizal fungi, and for most plants, they are not too fussy as to which species their roots associate with. They have sugar to trade, and the fungi have nitrogen. You give me yours and I'll give you mine. Some plants, as in the case of orchids though, are very particular. The yellow ladyslipper only associates with a small number of fungi species. It also needs their help to even germinate. Each of the seeds of the orchid are tiny and lack any food reserves. They need to land on just the right soil, which contains just the right fungi. Before they can germinate, the fungi have to wrap themselves around the seeds and provide not just nitrogen at this stage but also sugars. The plant seed has none so the fungus has to sustain the seeds until they can germinate. Essentially, at this time, the plant is parasitic to the fungus as it's not providing any sugars in return for the nourishment it is taking. Later, as the fungus feeds the seed until it germinates and grows, a period that can take years, The plant will begin to reciprocate and provide sugars to the fungus. In most plant relationships. Essentially, the relationship varies between one of parasitism and one of mutual benefit. Yellow ladyslippers also take hiatuses at different times in their lifespan where they won't sprout at all for several years. During these dormant times, it will, once again, rely on the fungi for nourishment. Unfortunately, this intense reliance on very specific soil fungi means that you can't transplant ladyslippers. The plants produce thousands of seeds specifically because the chance of germination is very rare. Only those few seeds that land in the right place, which contains the right fungal partner, have any chance of survival. It's important to think of orchids as a kind of compound species. The flower is only one component of the living plant. The fungi is intricately wound around and within its roots. One cannot exist without the other. If you see people tempted to dig them up or pick them, please let them know just how fragile these flowers are and that picking them today may mean that we never again get the pleasure of seeing another flower in that location. The more I learn about orchids and the orchid family, the more impressed I am. They are one of the most uniquely diversified group of plants on the planet. Because most don't offer nectar to their pollinators, they have to develop innovative ways of attracting them and making sure that each visit counts. And with that, it's time to wrap this episode up. Remember that Ward Cameron Enterprises is your source for all things Rocky Mountain. We offer nature, hiking, step-on, and photography guides to make sure your visit is a memorable one. Expert guides share the stories behind the scenery. If you'd like to reach out to me personally, you can hit me up on Twitter @wardcameron, or drop me a line at info@wardcameron.com. Don't forget to check out the show notes at www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep063 for links to additional information, and while you're there, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss another episode

Ode to Grizzly 148 This has been a heartbreaking week as bear 148, the beloved daughter of Banff's most famous bear 66, was translocated far away from her home territory of Banff and Canmore all the way north to Kakwa Provincial Park, located to the west of Grand Cache. It was a difficult decision for officials with Alberta Environment and Parks, but 148 was getting increasingly closer to people and in the end they felt that the risk of an escalation in behaviour left them with few options other than to move her out of the area. This is the second time she has been moved. Earlier in July she was captured and returned to an area west of the Town of Banff but she returned to Canmore to feed on buffaloberries. In past episodes, I've talked at length about the importance of buffaloberries to bears and how they will always be attracted to low elevation valleys in order to take advantage of these critical calories. One message that doesn't seem to be getting out is that the bears have little choice but to be in communities like Canmore and Banff at this time of year. Buffaloberries need sunlight to grow. Sunlight requires openings in the forest canopy, and this is provided by developers cutting down trees, urban parks, trails and roads…all things that are prevalent in townsites. Essentially, townsites create great conditions for buffaloberry to thrive, even more so than the undeveloped areas between Canmore and Banff where openings are created more sparingly by falling trees or old fires. When you put it all together, there will likely be more berries in Canmore than there will be in an undeveloped forest area. Powerline right of ways become habitat patches for a few months of the year. Every new trail we build allows sunlight to percolate down to the forest floor and creates good conditions for buffaloberries to grow. The story of buffaloberries is about much more than corridors. Wildlife movement corridors are about allowing animals connectivity with adjacent patches of good habitat. Animals will often use the corridors to simply traverse between places like Banff and Kananaskis, through Canmore. However at this time of year, corridors become habitat patches as the openings create buffaloberry buffets. Bears are attracted from many miles to take advantage of these critical foods. It's for this reason that the story of 148 is particularly poignant. She was the canary in the coal mine. If we couldn't create a situation where she could take advantage of the berry crop, then what is the hope for the other 7 or 8 bears currently feeding in the valley? Closures are an important strategy at this time of year, but a closure that is ignored is no closure. If people violating closures get injured by bears, it's always the bears that pay the ultimate price. We need to think beyond 148. Her chances of survival are very slim, but how many other bears do we need to lose in a similar fashion. If we don't create a workable solution then so much of our current battles for corridors will be for nothing. Alberta Parks simply doesn't have the resources to constantly patrol the many entrance and exit points on some of these closures - and neither does Parks Canada. I was impressed to hear about Canmore Bylaw Officers charging people trying to shortcut between the Peaks of Grassi and Quarry Lake over the weekend as well. Maybe it's time for a new approach. I know from my posts on the Bow Valley Community Connection Facebook page that we have a very engaged local population. Maybe we need to set up volunteer systems where people are trained in bear safety and ecology who simply wait at key entry points to try to encourage people to obey the closures. This could NOT be a vigilante force. It would a group of educators, helping people to understand the importance of the closures and how important it is that the bears are allowed to feed unimpeded during the brief berry season. This would help keep both people and bears safe. The volunteers could coordinate with the various enforcement agencies, but their role would simply be one of awareness. Recent studies on wildlife corridors showed astounding use by people and dogs, both on and off leash. The study showed that in the designated wildlife corridors around Canmore, people accounted for 94% of traffic. Of that, 56% of the incidents included people with dogs - and 60% of the dogs were off leash! We need to have a visible presence during closures and maybe a Friends of Wildlife patrol could work similarly to the Wildlife Guardians in the national park that patrol bear jams and try to educate visitors on safe ways to view wildlife responsibly. They also set up stations at popular viewpoints with the sole purpose of providing education and outreach. Our wildlife patrol could fulfil a similar role, educating and informing, while also adding additional sets of eyes to help enforcement officials when the need arises. Next up. Walter Moberly's western surveys The Canadian Pacific Railway Part 2 - Walter Moberly I can't tell the story of the building of the Railway without mentioning Walter Moberly. He was a pivotal personality in the history of British Columbia and a huge proponent of a transcontinental railway. Born in Oxfordshire, England in 1832, his family moved to Upper Canada when he was just 2 years old. As he grew into a man, he became a logger and worked several timber holdings in the Muskoka area before he headed west to British Columbia. He began to do some survey work for the community of New Westminster, and between 1961 and 64 he worked on a number of road building projects. He helped Edgar Dewdney build the Dewdney trail from Hope to the Okanagan. He also built a section of the road to the Caribou gold fields. This experience led him to be named the Assistant Surveyor General of British Columbia in 1865, and he was assigned to search for new travel routes through the mountains landscape of the province. It was this year that Moberly made his most important discovery - Eagle Pass which enabled him to travel through the Gold Range from Shuswap Lake in the Okanagan to join the Columbia River at Revelstoke. As Moberly told the story of the discovery, he shot an arrow at an eagle nest and watched the eagle as it flew up the valley. Since the birds were unlikely to fly up a valley blocked by mountains, he decided to follow them and discovered Eagle Pass. At this time, there was NO talk about a transcontinental railway, but Moberly always believed that it as an unavoidable eventuality. He claimed to have blazed a tree and carved "This is the Pass of the Overland Railway". Eventually, some 20 years later, the railroad would follow this portion of his imagined route. It didn't take Moberly long to hear about the agreement to build the railway in 1972 and so he set about to position himself as just the man to get the job done. By coincidence, as a child, he had gone to school with a girl named Susan Agnes Bernard. She was now the wife of Prime Minister John A Macdonald, and so he managed to talk his way into a dinner invitation with them at their home in Ottawa. Never a shy man, Moberly told Macdonald that he knew exactly where the train should go and that he was the man to do it. In fact he could begin construction within 6 weeks of his return to British Columbia. The boast came with a caveat: "I don't know how many millions you have, but it is going to cost you money to get through those canyons" Moberly had an ego bigger than the mountains and there was only one possible route - his route! He returned to B.C. as District Engineer in charge of the region between Shuswap Lake and the foothills of the Rockies. Moberly was as tough as nails and one of the best axemen in the country, but it would take more than muscles and axes to crack the mountain barrier. Between Shuswap Lake and the foothills sat the impenetrable Selkirk Mountains. Even the Columbia River couldn't penetrate these ramparts. It's forced to flow north for 200 hundred kilometres to go around the northern extent of the Selkirks before turning south towards the U.S. If the mightiest river on the Pacific couldn't crack the mountain rampart, than how could the railway? In fact, Moberly had this all figured out as well. He planned on going around the Selkirks by crossing an old fur trader route over Howse Pass. This would take it through Eagle Pass, around the Selkirks to the north and enter Alberta to the west of the current day Saskatchewan River Crossing and David Thompson Highway. Moberly spent the next 8 months exploring the territory of his proposed line. He also explored the Selkirks to see if there was any possible pass through. After being almost buried by an avalanche, he spent New Year's day of 1872 all alone in a trappers cabin. He wrote in his diary: "I think it...one of the most wretched and dreary places I ever saw...this was the most wretched New Year's Day I ever spent." but as for the Selkirks he continued "I found there was not any practicable pass through the Selkirk Range." He reported his finding to the Chief Surveyor Sandford Fleming. Now did I mention that he had an ego? The thought that Fleming would not agree with his routing never crossed his mind and so he decided to start the work of surveying the Howse Pass right away. After all, better to apologize than ask permission…right? Fleming did agree to a quick trial line through the pass, but Moberly planned for a detailed location survey. He instantly took Fleming's approval to mean that his route was confirmed. As he put it, he read the telegram: "which led me to infer that the line I had taken so many years to explore and discover, and which I was quite confident would be the best to adopt for the proposed transcontinental railroad, would be adopted" After hiring men, hiring pack trains and buying thousands of dollars on supplies, much of which had already been dispatched to places like Eagle Pass, he received a telegram from Fleming telling him that the Yellowhead Pass to the west of Jasper had been chosen instead of Howse Pass. The telegram arrived just 4 hours before his party headed into the wilderness. He was ordered to head north through the Athabasca Pass and to conduct a survey of the Yellowhead Pass, which is the route the Canadian National Railway takes today. Moberly was crushed and actually tried to buy his way out of his contracts, but alas, it was too late. Moberly met with Fleming in the Yellowhead and Fleming was extremely displeased with his excessive spending. Moberly thought Fleming unpatriotic for not using his route. Clearly these two men were not going to get along. Before long, Fleming sent a message taking control of the survey away from Moberly and giving it to someone else. Moberly simply ignored the message and continued working. As he put it: "the instructions conveyed in the letter were too childish to be followed" He would obey orders: "when I could see they were sensible but not otherwise...I went on the survey for business, not to be made a fool of" When Marcus Smith was officially placed in charge of the British Columbia surveys, Moberly left the service. Ironically, some 20 years later, the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway would be hammered in Eagle Pass, right where he predicted so many years ago. One of the great things about much of our western history is that the first-hand journals of many explorers have survived to help keep their stories alive. But we also have to keep in mind that many of these journals were written for their boss. They weren't going to enter: "I saw a grizzly bear and wet my pants". Instead they'll say: "I saw a grizzly and I dropped it from 200 yards with one shot from my Henry rifle". However occasionally we find a journal that was written for more personal reasons. Such is the case of Robert M. Rylatt. Rylatt was one of the surveyors that Moberly had dispatched to Howse Pass. He had a sickly wife and felt that the money from the survey work would help get her the level of care that she needed. His journal was written for his mother and he constantly states that if he ever thought it would be published, he would drop his pen immediately. Rylatt was in charge of the pack trains on the expedition. He signed up for a one year contract, but there was an option to extend it to 2 years - at the railroad's discretion. When he left home in July of 1871, little did he know that he would not return home until June of 1873. Once dispatched, there really was no way to quit. The wilderness was too remote for a lone individual to walk out without the support of the pack trains. Along with Rylatt, Engineer E.C. Gillette was in charge and the party also included 4 surveyors, sixteen axemen, 8 native and Mexican packers and a hunter. Every day Rylatt had to supervise the loading and unloading of 45 pack animals carrying almost 7 tonnes of supplies. About the pack animals Rylatt wrote: "How worried would be any member of the Humane society, could he see the treatment animals in a Pack Train receive, where the animals themselves are only a secondary consideration, the open sores on their backs, from hard and incessant packing, angry and running with humour, over which the Packer, too often, if not closely watched, without washing throws the heavy apparajos, or Pack Saddle, and as the sinch [sic] is tightened the poor beast groans, rears and plunges and not unfrequently sinks down under the pain, only to be whipped again into position." The work was backbreaking. The axemen led the way, hacking through endless numbers of both standing and prostrate trees. Only then would the pack trains continue on. When they met the junction of the Columbia and Blaeberry Rivers, the real work began to cut their way towards Howse Pass. It was about this time that Rylatt first began to feel lonely: "Your sense of being alone in the heart of a city, or even in a village, or within easy distance of fellow beings...gives you no claim to use the term 'alone'. You may have the feeling peculiar to being alone--that is all. Listen sometime when you think you are alone...Can you hear a footfall; a door slam in the distance; a carriage go by? Or the rumble of one...? Can you hear a dog bark? Hare you a cricket on the hearth or even the ticking of a clock...? They reached the pass on October 26, 1871 and the snows of winter quickly signaled that they would need to settle in and wait for spring. Once the snows landed, there would be no mail, pay or new supplies until the next spring. By New Year's Day, tempers were flaring and Rylatt found himself in a standoff with several of the crew that were trying to raid the supplies, and accused Rylatt of hiding the sugar that had ago run out. As they rushed the pantry, he took an axe and cut off three of the fingers of the ring leader. When they returned an hour later, all armed with axes, Rylatt held them off with his Henry rifle. As he wrote: "the roughs of the party are in open mutiny. Growling at their food, cursing me for being out of sugar, all this I care little for...but my pent up feelings have found vent today, and the leader of the roughs will carry my mark to his grave. I have passed through a somewhat exciting scene and don't care to have it repeated" As spring arrived, so did mail, but nothing for Rylatt who was distraught at not knowing if his wife was alive or dead. "We were informed that the white man who undertook to carry down the mail from Wild Horse Creek to Hope last fall, did not reach; and that this spring his body was found somewhere on the lonely route, the mailbag beside him" The mosquitoes were unrelenting as well: "I have smothered my face with mosquito muslin, smeared my hands with bacon grease, but bah! nothing keeps them off, and the heat only melts the grease and sends it beneath my clothing" On May 15, they received word that the Howse Pass route was to be abandoned and that they were to head north. Rylatt also received a long awaited letter when Moberly arrived in camp. In the letter, his bedridden wife begged for him to return but Moberly would not release him from his contract. By August of 1872, the mosquitoes were unrelenting and Rylatt was also beginning to suffer from the effects of scurvy. "My teeth have a feeling of looseness, and my gums are so sore, to touch them with my tongue gives me acute pain; am wondering if it is a touch of Scurvy; it is not very comforting to be sick in the mountains, but to be sick and all alone makes the chills creep down my back. These mountains are inhospitable enough for a man in full vigor." In September, he received three more letters, the last saying: "Oh! Bob, come home, I can't bear it". He was overcome with grief as there was no way he could make his way home to his beloved wife. By October, they were camped at the base of Mounts Hooker and Brown near to Athabasca Pass in present day Jasper National Park. It was here on Oct 19 that Rylatt received a message that simply stated: "Dear Rylatt--The papers state your wife has passed beyond the stream of time. Don't be too cut up, dear old fellow" Three days later, his dog Nip broke through the ice and Rylatt was unable to help as the dog vainly struggled to get out of his icy trap. As he disappeared beneath the ice, Rylatt dropped to his knees and screamed: "Oh God! Must everything be taken from me?" By April, Scurvy was taking its toll on Rylatt: "My mouth is in a dreadful state, the gums being black, the teeth loose, and when pressed against any substance they prick at the roots like needles. At times the gums swell, almost covering the teeth. To chew food is out of the question and so have to bolt it without mastication. My legs also becoming black below the knee...My breath is somewhat offensive and I am troubled with a dry cough. In fact I feel like an old man" With his poor health, he was finally allowed to leave the surveys and return home to an empty house. He left on May 13, 1873. Rylatt's ordeal showed us the things we don't often see in the journals of surveyors and explorers…the hardship, the horror, the loneliness and, in Rylatt's case, the heartbreak. Rylatt's journals are still available for purchase on Amazon.ca. I'll leave a link in the show notes for those that may like to buy a copy. Of all the books I've read on the survey, this one is my favourite because of its brutal honesty. Next week, we'll begin to look at the surveyor that ended up cracking the barrier of the Selkirk Mountains, Major A.B. Rogers. Next up - bird eating deer…say what? Bird-eating Deer While this is a story that comes out of states like South Dakota and Pennsylvania, it's just so unexpected that I thought it might be of interest to listeners of this podcast. It may also be happening right under our noses, but simply not been observed. So often we categorize our wildlife as either carnivore or herbivore depending on what they eat. Deer eat plants and Cougars eat deer. Some animals, like bears and humans get the special title of omnivore or eater of everything. Well it looks like those labels may have been too limiting as scientists have recently discovered that deer are a major predator of songbirds…yes you heard that right, white-tail deer eat birds, in particular ground nesting birds like eastern meadowlarks, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds and others. You can go onto Youtube and find some a number of videos of deer munching on a bird or two but researcher Les Murray placed cameras on 25 different nests in Valley Forge National Historic Park in Pennsylvania. Eight of the 25 nests was beset upon by predators and, as it turned out, the number-one predator was white-tailed deer. White-tails ate all 5 eggs from an eastern meadowlark nest, all but one egg from a field sparrow nest and four 5-day old nestlings from another field sparrow nest. Ok, so deer at a few eggs and nestlings - well they accounted for 38% of the recorded predation events as compared to 25% for fox, and 13% for both raccoons and weasels. Studies had shown that deer do occasionally eat an egg or nestling, but nobody expected that they were such an avid fan of birds. It may have something to do with sheer numbers of deer as opposed to the numbers of fox or raccoons. As songbird populations are shrinking in many areas, this is the first study to indicate that deer may actually play a role in the drop in population. States like Delaware have population densities of 45 deer/square km. That's potentially a lot of deer to hoover up eggs. The first time a bird was discovered in the gut of a deer was in 1970. It was later discovered that birds netted for population studies in Michigan were also being gobbled down by white-tails. Maybe it's time to redefine the word herbivore? Next up solar eclipse time Solar Eclipse coming next month On August 21, parts of North America will get the chance to experience a total solar eclipse. For many sky watchers, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Few people ever get to see a total solar eclipse simply because they are very rare. They take place when the moon lines up perfectly between the Earth and the sun and blocks out all of its light, casting the moons shadow on the Earth. For those of us in the mountain west, we won't get the full-meal-deal, but we should be able to see about an 85% coverage of the sun by the shadow of the moon. This eclipse is unique in that it will travel right across the U.S. from coast to coast - and that hasn't happened since 1918. Globally, partial solar eclipses happen between 2 and 5 times each year, but total eclipses only happen every 12-18 months. While we won't get to see the total eclipse, it will still be a special event. Want to see the TOTAL eclipse, well then it's time for a road show…'shotgun'. Head south to Oregon, Idaho or Montana. The total eclipse will last for just a few minutes and within a 110 kilometre wide band stretching from Oregon to South Carolina. You'll also need to be ready at between 10 am and 12:30 pm Mountain Daylights Savings Time. For those of us that can't do a road trip, it will begin at 10:18 am, hit its maximum at 11:31 am and be finished at 12:48 pm. If you want to learn about the timing where you are, I'll leave a link in the show notes at mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep038 to make sure you don't miss the show (https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2017-august-21) Now don't you be looking directly at it though as you can quickly damage your eyesight. You can buy special eclipse glasses for a few dollars or build a pinhole projector to help you watch it without risking vision damage. I'll have a link to this as well (https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/box-pinhole-projector.html) While we haven't had a many cloudy days this summer, should you just not have luck, you can watch it live on NASA's site by clicking the following link: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-live-stream And with that it's time to wrap this episode up. For links mentioned in this story simply visit www.mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep038 for show notes and links to additional stories.