Old Wives Lake - Name

Name

According to a Cree tradition recounted by Métis guides accompanying the North West Mounted Police in 1874, sometime around 1840 a band of Cree hunters followed a herd of bison into Blackfoot territory and made camp near the lake. Blackfoot scouts discovered this band and attacked. Although the Cree were able to defend themselves, they anticipated an attack by a larger Blackfoot war party the next morning. The older women volunteered to stay behind to tend the fires through the night in the hope of fooling the Blackfoot into believing that they were not abandoning their camp to escape. Using this diversion as cover, the rest of the Cree successfully fled back to their home territory in the Qu'Appelle valley. When the Blackfoot arrived that morning they found only the old women, whom the Blackfoot killed in vengeance. This commonly recited version of the lake's naming has been commemorated by a historical marker situated beside Highway 2 near the lake. A variant telling of this narrative states that the Blackfoot warriors were so impressed by the women's courage that they left them alone and allowed them to rejoin their own people. Another First Nations oral tradition describes how a band of Assiniboine fleeing from pursuing Blackfoot warriors abandoned the old women in their band who could not keep pace with everyone else. The women continued their effort to escape by wading across the lake. However, they misjudged the water's depth and drowned. An Assiniboine tradition associates the name with a battle which occurred at the lake around the beginning of the 19th century in which Assiniboines vanquished their Blackfoot enemies. According to some First Nations traditions, the spirits of the dead women continue to haunt a small island in the lake from which their voices can be heard at night.

Some early accounts describing the region state that the name "Old Wives Lake" was originally applied to both the lake that currently bears that name and to nearby Chaplin Lake. In 1861, the British politicians Sir Frederick Johnstone and Henry Chaplin visited the area to hunt bison, antelope and elk for sport. Explorer John Rae, who accompanied the expedition, named area lakes in honor of its members: The lake now called Old Wives Lake became Johnstone Lake and Chaplin Lake received the name by which it is still known. Although the Canadian government officially adopted the designation "Johnstone Lake" in 1886; the First Nations peoples along with early ranchers and homesteaders in the area continued to refer to it as Old Wives Lake. In response to a petition by area residents to restore its traditional name, the Canadian board on geographical names formally renamed it Old Wives Lake in 1953.