Dr. W.G. Anderson and an unnamed police officer appear at the site "halfway up Scholten Hill" where four graves were uncovered during road construction on Nov. 18, 1959. The remains are the subject of discussions between the City of Medicine Hat, the local Indigenous and the University of Alberta to repatriate and re-inter them in Medicine Hat.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Pat Ledene and Nancy Hoffman-Cayenne are old friends who fight like family sitting around a kitchen table, cutting each other off, naming off relations, and going in all directions to describe Saratoga Park.
The area of the South Flats neighbourhood where Metis and Indigenous families saw its hard times, was largely shunned by the greater community, but existed as a place, says Ledene, where people lived really no different than they would on a farm. They hauled water, dug outhouses and got by, having their share of fun and hard times.
Homes we’re built next to long-gone stockyards that are now the city’s memorial arboretum and a fenced dog park at the bottom of Scholten Hill.
Above it though, is a forgotten graveyard that is coming back into focus 74 years after remains were exhumed during road construction.
The city and Indigenous community are in advanced talks about how to properly “repatriate” those remains in agreement with the University of Alberta, where they are stored.
But questions linger about who they were and how many graves remain.
“I wish I’d have had this question put to me 70 years ago,” said Ledene. “I’d have found out … but nobody back then talked about death.”
Ledene, 86, moved to the area in the early 1950s, and remembers roadwork that led to the discovery of four bodies in 1958, but the burials predate her time there by decades.
“The bones, they need to be recognized, even if we don’t know who they are and buried proper, not left in a cupboard somewhere,” said Ledene.
“Nobody would want to be left in a cupboard.”
The issue of remembering Saratoga Park has been before the city for a number of years. Five years ago it renamed the path along the Seven Persons Creek as “Saratoga Trial” and historical information was placed on stands nearby.
Now an agreement to return the remains to the city is close.
It is a main point of the city’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation report, adopted last year, though the site is a potter’s field rather than a residential school site. One action is to help return artifacts when possible.
The plan is likely to re-inter the remains at Hillside Ceremony, similar to what was done with two anonymous pioneer graves discovered on the Southeast Hill since 2012, with appropriate interfaith ceremonies.
“It’s the city’s responsibility to provide some care to these residents,” public services committee chair Coun. Ramona Robbins said last fall on the issue.
In late 1959 road construction crews were pulling dirt from the hillside to build up what became Scholten Hill Road when sets of human remains from four individuals were uncovered in graves about three feet deep.
They were examined by a local doctor and determined to date between 1885 and 1900, a News report at the time stated. Longtime Saratoga Park resident Bill Bliss told the News the site was “Assiniboia” in nature but others noted a railroad construction crew that had camped in the area, suffering greatly from disease.
Notes about the specific cemetery only dot newspaper reports in the early 20th century, such as funeral processions, and brief mention in 1959 coverage of graves found six years earlier.
In 1920, a five-year-old girl named Edna Cayen was buried there after she died of accidental burns, according to the News editions of the day. It is the last known burial in the area.
Cayenne-Hoffman and Ledene can’t piece together the history of the girl, who was born 108 years ago, or place her in a family tree.
“It needs to remembered for the people who lived there,” said Hoffman-Cayenne, who said.
As for the remains’ final resting place, she said the memorial arboretum, where trees are planted in honour of deceased loved ones, is close to her home.
“It’s as good a place as any,” she said.
