Family members line the road and cheer to "clap home" the Fieger siblings as they arrive at the end of their journey. - SUBMITTED PHOTO, FIEGER FAMILY
A journey begins with a single step, and for the Fieger family, theirs began 125 years ago.
Following the conclusion of Metis leader Louis Riel’s 1885 North-West Rebellion, amnesty was granted to Indigenous persons who fled the conflict. In 1897 a three-year-old Peter Swain, together with his family, began a pilgrimage to return to Canada from Montana, where they had lived among other Metis families as political refugees.
Arriving in the Cypress Hills and accepting scrip land, the Swain family settled at Skull Creek, Sask., south of Piapot, where Peter grew up to marry Florence Knapp and later where daughter Audrey was born. Audrey would marry entrepreneur Aloise Fieger in Medicine Hat at St. Patrick’s Church in 1949. Together the Fiegers raised six daughters and three sons.
On Sept. 5, 2022, sisters Anne Howard, Fritz Bitz, Wink Bedard, Alanna Jardine, Patti Fieger and Stevie Colvin set out to follow in their grandfather’s footsteps. Inspired by a friend’s Spanish El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, youngest sister Stevie prompted her siblings to embark on an unforgettable journey of their own: traveling a similar 500-kilometre route on foot that young Peter Swain had made from Montana to Saskatchewan more than a century before.
“We all thought it would be a wonderful tribute to honour our grandfather’s return to Canada,” shares Stevie of their trek dubbed The Long Walk, which took them from their grandfather’s birthplace to their mother’s birthplace. “All nine of us siblings hadn’t been together in more than 40 years. We wanted to spend some really long dedicated time together to strengthen our family ties.”
Ranging in age from 61-70, the sisters were undeterred by the arduous distance ahead of them. Joined by Wink’s Havanese puppy Harley and intermittently by brothers Jay and Paul Fieger, the group walked an average 20 kilometres a day, five days a week, for five weeks. While bravely battling cancer, eldest brother Leslie was prevented from taking part in person, but was with them in spirit every step of the way.
Setting out from their grandfather’s birthplace at St. Peter’s Mission, now a historical landmark, the group’s first leg of the trek took them 25 kilometres east to the nearest town of Cascade, Mont.
Via back roads and ditches and with Anne often ahead as the fastest walker, “We walked more or less along that trail from there, north and east to the Cypress Hills,” Anne recalls. “There’s a highway and private property in the way now, but we were going generally in the same direction.”
“It was 41C the first two days, gruelingly hard on us,” remembers Wink. “We got stronger by the end.”
“We all did have some challenges, sore knees, sore feet. But we all did our best and our share,” says Patti.
The family’s rest days were spent at base camps in Fort Benton and Havre in Montana, both major intersections for trade routes in their grandfather’s time, and across the border at Maple Creek, camping in motorhomes, trailers and cabins. Along the way the sisters took turns cooking and safety driving, with spouses joining the trek as they were able to offer support as drivers and at base camp.
Stevie passed the days collecting flowers and grain in her hatband while Fritz imparted Metis knowledge to her sisters. Long days on foot were filled with conversation about family, work, Fritz’ decision to retire, and remarking on how big the sky appeared compared to the view from Wink’s home in the Algonquin Highlands in Ontario.
“We discussed everything from the sublime to the ridiculous,” Wink quips.
At night around the supper table, Patti recalls how everyone would share a gratitude for the day, whether spotting a red fox seen running through a field, or a cool breeze on a hot day. Fritz shared how they would find a feather every day, believing each one to be sent from their late mother Audrey. In the first week of the journey, the family celebrated the news of the birth of Stevie’s new grandson, Lincoln Aloise Colvin.
Missing their brother Leslie who would go on to pass away Jan. 1, 2023, the siblings shared the burden of grief along the trail. Wink’s husband Bob had also intended to make the full journey alongside her, but passed away unexpectedly on July 30 prior to the trip. On a previous hike that at one time became perilous, Bob told Wink and her sisters, “Trust your boots.” On the most difficult days, that expression became the family’s mantra on The Long Walk.
Messages from home kept everyone going until the last day. On Thanksgiving Sunday, family members lined the road and cheered as the siblings arrived at the gates of the old Swain homestead at Skull Creek, where the farmhouse still stands and where buffalo now roam again as they had in generations past.
“We picked Thanksgiving as a windup because we felt that was a great way to come together and celebrate the success of The Long Walk,” says Stevie. “Together in sharing this story in a circle with our children and our children’s children, we drew a tangible line through seven generations.”
Anne’s husband had the route map printed on T-shirts to commemorate the sisters’ pilgrimage. Trusting their boots, each other and the steadfast resilience of their ancestors, the Fieger family left a trail of memories for future generations to follow.
JoLynn Parenteau is a Metis writer out of Miywasin Friendship Centre. Column feedback can be sent to jolynn.parenteau@gmail.com.
