One of Canada’s oldest northern communities celebrates 250 years with focus on land, memory and connection

The second-oldest settlement in Saskatchewan is marking a 250-year milestone with celebrations that are as much about memory and connection as they are about heritage.

As the five-day anniversary event begins on Friday, residents of Île-à-la-Crosse are turning to the water, and to the stories carried across it, to reflect on the community’s past and present. Larry Gardiner, a lifelong resident, is leading boat tours as part of the celebration, guiding visitors through waterways that connect generations of families and traditional travel routes.

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“Everybody has their own story about where they grew up, where they’ve been, where people lived,” Gardiner said. “There’s a lot of history.”

Stops along the tour include Beaver River, Sandy Point and Fort Black, which are sites that Gardiner said are essential to understanding how the region developed over time.

“Fort Black itself… there was actually a radar station there in the ‘50s. They were going to make an airport, everything there,” Gardiner said.

“There was a fort there at one time, a trading post.”

Established in 1776, the community became a key hub in the fur trade, situated at the intersection of major northern waterways used by both the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company. The name Île-à-la-Crosse is tied to that history. French voyageurs are said to have named the area after witnessing Indigenous people playing a traditional lacrosse game.

The area is also closely linked to early settlement and the religious history in the North. The community is the birthplace of Louis Riel Sr., a prominent Métis figure and father of Métis leader Louis Riel. A Catholic mission established in 1846 helped make the settlement an early centre for education and health care west of Winnipeg.

“We’re resilient,” Gardiner said. “This town’s been here for a long time.”

Despite its small population of roughly 1,400 to 1,500 residents, Gardiner said the community remains closely tied to the land and traditional livelihoods.

“There’s a lot of trapping, commercial fishing that comes out of this place. We’ve got a fish plant here, a processing plant,” he said. “We use our land a lot.”

Today, the region’s economy continues to rely on commercial fishing, forestry, wild rice harvesting and nearby resource industries, while also supporting outdoor recreation and tourism centred on the lakes and northern wilderness.

Maureen Belanger, the co-ordinator of the 250th anniversary celebration for the Northern Village of Île-à-la-Crosse said the gathering is about connection as much as commemoration.

“It’ll be an opportunity for a lot of folks that have moved,” she said.

“This is going to be an opportunity for them to come home.”

The boat tours highlight geography and oral history, but Belanger said they also bring up deeper reflections about identity, family and loss.

“Larry himself, myself, we each had a little island growing up,” Belanger said. “When it was time for us to come to school, we were removed from our parents’ homes.”

Belanger said the tours are intended to hold both celebration and remembrance, offering younger generations and visitors a chance to understand how families once lived across the lake system before displacement through residential school policies.

“We’d like to showcase where we all grew up and how much fun we had and all the wonderful life we had before being removed from our parents,” she said. “Good memories. That’s all we have of growing up across the lake.”

She said guests will be offered traditional food along the boat tour route.

“They’re going to serve fish and bannock and tea, a traditional meal that you would often be greeted with when you were visiting people in the islands,” Belanger said. “So, he’s going to give that as a taste of who we were growing up.”

The celebration will include cultural programming, live entertainment, traditional teachings, sporting events and a healing village offering ceremony and wellness support.

“If you need time to reconnect, re-energize with your spirit, that’ll be another venue that we’re offering,” Belanger said.

For Gardiner, the goal is straightforward.

“The first thing is I hope they have fun,” he said. “Have good laughs, everybody enjoy themselves… see our community, and tell a story about where we come from, about 250 years.”