Sometimes testimonials about the same story vary. The stories are the same but different people are involved.

Below are two testimonials of what happened to John Snow at la Coulée:

    “One incident which occurred during the course of this project centred around the personality of a man named Snow. This Snow was a tyrannical martinet who held the job of foreman on the Dawson project. So grievously did Snow abuse his authority, that one fine day, the men in Snow’s crew ganged up on him and would have certainly drowned him in a coulee out (west) of Richer but for the intervention of two strapping giants of over six feet each, named Harrison. This coulee is known locally as Rebel Coulee to this day.”

Alexandre Bériault, 1957

Source: Derksen. (1957, Dec 6). Last Survivor of the Old West. Steinbach Carillon, Steinbach, Manitoba, CA (P.12). Retrieved June 20, 2020 from https://newspaperarchive.com/browse/ca/mb/steinbach/steinbach-carillon/1957/dec-06-p-12/

    “About what I told you about them wanting to throw Snow in the Brokenhead river. It was my brother-in-law David Champagne who told me that it was him and one of his friends who stopped them from throwing him into the little Brokenhead river (La Coulée).”

Alexis Carrière, 1935

Source: Carrière, A. (1935, April/May). Témoignage d’Alexis Carrière er Lettre [écrit à l’occasion de…et à qui?]. Original testimony and letter is in French though an English translation of the letter was made by ?…and accompanies the testimony. Carrière family collection.

La Coulée, Manitoba where John Snow set up the headquarters and camp for building of the Dawson road in 1869 and was later that year “dunked” in La Coulée by Thomas Scott and three other labourers who worked on the line . Photo credit: Mireille Lamontagne

The Notorious Thomas Scott

“Interestingly, it was with his white employees that Snow had his worst time. When he refused their demand for an increase in pay, they attacked him, roughed him up and came very close to throwing him in the river. Their ringleader was subsequently tried and fined for this assault. His name was Thomas Scott, described by historian Joseph K. Howard as “an irascible young Canadian… He soon became one of the most important figures in the history of the West merely by getting himself shot.”

Don Aiken

Source: Aiken, D. (1988, May 6). Heritage Highlights. Winnipeg Real Estate News. Also in Feilberg, E., & Annell, L. (1989). Pioneer History of Glenn, East Braintree & McMunn (P.18-25). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10719/2239350

Thomas Scott, insurgent, labourer (born c. 1842 in Clandeboye, County Down Ireland; died 4 March 1870, in Red River Colony). Scott was an Irish Protestant who moved to the Red River Colony in 1869 and joined the Canadian Party. His actions against the Provisional Government of Assiniboia twice led to his arrest and jailing. Scott was convicted of treason and executed by the provisional government, led by Louis Riel, on 4 March 1870. His execution led to the Red River Expedition, a military force sent to Manitoba by Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald to confront the Métis at Red River. From that point on, Protestant Ontarians, especially members of the powerful Orange Order, wanted retribution from Riel for Scott’s death. Scott’s execution led to Riel’s exile and to Riel’s own execution for treason in 1885. Source image (left): The Begbie Contest Society. (n.d.) Canadian Primary Sources in the Classroom – Riel and Manitoba. Multiple Perspectives. Retrieved June 29, 2020 from http://www.begbiecontestsociety.org/RIEL%20and%20MANITOBA.htm

Gibson, D. (2015). Law, Life and Government at Red River, Volume 1: Settlement and Governance, 1812-1872, Volume 13 of Rupert’s Land Record Society Series (P.227). McGill-Queen’s Press – MQUP, 2015 (pp.549). Retrieved July 5, 2020 from https://books.google.ca/books?id=1X60CgAAQBAJ...

Mr. Snow presses charges against Thomas Scott. Thomas Scott and George Fourtney are found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine. Source: Nor’Wester (1869, Nov 23). Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA. Page 1. Retrieved July 5, 2020 from https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm:2744425

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