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Adelaide Morin Thomas. (1847-1957)By Audreen Hourie

Adelaide Morin, the daughter of Metis parents Genevieve Rouix (Roy) and Pierre Morin,

was born at Ile la Crosse in 1847. The family moved to Brochet and there Adelaide met dashing

George (Geordie) Thomas, born to a Metis family at Brochet in 1840. He became Hudson's Bay

Factor at Moose Factory. They were married at Brochet in 1864, at a time when the Civil Warwas still raging between the northern and southern United States. With the exception of a few

trips to Selkirk by York Boat, Adelaide spent most of her life in the hard north. Adelaide lived to

be 110 years old. She made history then outlived it.

Geordie Thomas died in 1927, at the age of 87 years old and is buried in the St. Luke's An-

glican cemetery at Balsam Bay, Manitoba. Until about 1952, Adelaide lived alone in a tiny home

at Traverse Bay, Manitoba. There she snared rabbits and trapped muskrats to sell for provisions.

As she did almost one hundred years ago, Adelaide continued to live off the land. She netted fish

when the water was open, and in winter drilled holes in the ice for her catch. Close at hand was a

grove of Maple trees that Adelaide tapped and boiled down the sap. Now almost a forgotten art in

Manitoba, maple syrup was a vital part of her existence; a few quarts to her diet during the year.

The taste of Pemmican; the life of the north; Adelaide would say; is still fresh in my mouth...

Ile a la Crosse was a depot for Pemmican storage and Adelaide became an expert at making the

condensed food that was often the only rations for northern explorers and trappers. Adelaide

often shared her recipe for Pemmican. She would dry the lean parts of the meat in the sun, then

pounded it into a paste with a mixture of fat. The result was a flavored with acid-type berries such

as saskatoons. Pemmican was truly the lifeblood of the north.

Adelaide lived near her sister-in-law Sophia Linklater-Thomas (Daniel) at Traverse Bay.

The two women shared a lifestyle and made long leather Metis coats. The coats were designed

with fringes and intricate beadwork. A mixture of cornmeal and kerosene was used to clean the

leather coats. Sophia also made rabbit robes (blankets) which she sold to the Hudsons Bay Com-

pany along with the Metis coats. The fleshing tools of the two Metis women were part of the

Hudson's Bay Company Collections and are now in the museum collections at the Manitoba Mu-seum of Man and Nature in Winnipeg.

In her later years, Adelaide lived with her daughter Josephine Orvis at Traverse Bay. Retir-

ing early at family birthday celebrations to the tune of the Red River Jig and over a century ofmemories, Adelaide died at 110 years of agein in 1957. She is buried at St. Margaret's Roman

Catholic Church cemetery at Traverse Bay. (Contributed by Great Granddaughter Audreen

Hourie of Grand Marais from her recollections, those of Helen Hourie of Stony Point, the history

of the R.M. of St. Clements, and memories of the women in the family.)

Edited and Compiled by Lawrence Barkwell

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Coordinator of Metis Heritage and History Research

Louis Riel Institute

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