The Qu'Appelle Valley stretches in an arc across southern and central Saskatchewan, northeast of Regina. The river that meanders through it connects a chain of lakes that attract tourists like horseflies during the summer, from Buffalo Pound Lake furthest west to Katepwa, Crooked, and Round Lakes further east, finally ending where the Qu'Appelle River runs into the Assiniboine near the Manitoba border. In Cree, it is called Katepwe-Cipi; it is usually translated into English as the Calling River Valley, but on maps and street signs it appears in French as a nod to the Métis who lived here.

The prairie that surrounds it is almost perfectly flat, sunburnt and parched during the summer and frozen solid during winter. Because of the river, the valley is improbably green and verdant year-round.

Like many prairie landforms, the Qu'Appelle Valley was created during the last Ice Age by glacial advances and retreats that gouged out lakebeds from the bedrock. The river itself began as a trickle of glacial runoff; thousands of years later it is deep, wide, and sluggish.

Archaeological evidence shows that the valley has been inhabited for over six thousand years; it played a central role in northern Plains Indian culture, serving as a gathering place for celebrations and ceremonies as well as a fishing and hunting ground. The valley's original inhabitants were Cree, Salteaux, and Dakota; it was also home to the Atsina until the mid-1700s.

In the early 1800s, European settlers began to move westward into the previously-unsettled expanse of Rupert's Land. This was understandably a worrisome issue for the area's indigenous peoples; as settlers slowly encroached on their traditional lands, the Qu'Appelle Valley became a symbol of First Nations solidarity. Even those who had been enemies, in inter-tribal conflict, could meet here without fear of violence.

By 1864, the Hudson's Bay Company had become aware of the valley's importance as a gathering place and a hunting ground; they established a trading post, later to become a town, called Fort Qu'Appelle. Métis buffalo hunters began settling in the valley by the mid-1860s, as the herds that they followed began to disappear from the prairies.

After the British North America Act brought Canada into being in 1867, the newly-formed federal government was quick to try and open the west for settlement without conflict through a series of agreements that came to be known as the Numbered Treaties. Rupert's Land was purchased in 1870 from the British Crown; Treaty No. 4 was signed in the valley in 1874, breaking up what is now south and south-central Saskatchewan into reserves. After some further negotiations, the Qu'Appelle Valley was set aside as a particular sort of reserve land; a 1300-acre parcel was set aside in 1879, "reserved as a camping place for Indians while being paid their annuities".

In 1876, after the Battle of Little Bighorn, Lakota chief Sitting Bull led his people into Canada, where the American cavalry force that pursued them couldn't follow; they took refuge in the Qu'Appelle Valley. His presence and influence led to the creation of a Sioux reserve close to the town of Qu'Appelle, which still exists today.

The Qu'Appelle region was a major source of supplies for Métis rebels during the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. The federal government, stating that the reserve land was being misused, reclaimed the entire valley, handing it over to the Department of the Interior to do with as they saw fit. This was in direct violation of the terms of the treaty, but no action was taken to amend the wrong until over a century later. In 1995, a joint First Nations bid to reclaim the treaty land was successful; it now has an archives and a Chiefs' Legislative Assembly for the organisation of political activities. Standing at one hundred and twenty feet in height, it is the world's largest inhabitable tipi.

After treaty negotiations had been completed, a number of small towns sprung up along the river: Qu'Appelle, Lebret, and Fort Qu'Appelle are three that managed to last until now, though they are small enough that they only appear on the most detailed of maps.

Fort Qu'Appelle was built around the Hudson Bay trading post; now it is a tourist village, though still centred around the fort, converted to an interpretive centre. It is also the first town to greet you driving in from the north.

Lebret, further south, was founded by accident. A bishop travelling through the valley missed Fort Qu'Appelle and set up camp here instead, later establishing a mission. A fieldstone church was built in the late 1800s, which still stands and still has an active congregation. The town also had a residential school, established shortly after Treaty No. 4 was signed. The school boasts the dubious distinction of being one of the last in the west to be permanently closed.

The town of Qu'Appelle was also built around a residential school, which opened its doors in 1884. A clinic for tuberculosis patients was established nearby shortly thereafter; called Fort San, it operated for a half-century, until legitimate methods of TB treatment and prevention became widely practised. Fort San is now a convention centre; the residential school was converted into a comprehensive high school in the 1970s.

Coming from a larger city, the first thing you notice about Qu'Appelle is the silence. It is one of the most peaceful places within easy driving distance of Regina, which explains its popularity amongst day-trippers despite the seeming lack of anything interesting to see or do.

A sceptic would tell you that the valley took its name from the way that even quiet sounds echo endlessly, but we hopeless romantics know that the real story runs along the lines of a simple but beautiful legend that originated here, as immortalised on a plaque in Lebret:

In ancient times, legends say, a Native brave walking through a green and unpeopled valley on the way to his wedding heard a woman call out his name. Impossible as it seemed, the voice was that of his bride-to-be who lived in a camp several days away. Uncertain, the brave shouted, "Who calls?" He heard an answering voice mimicking his words. Uneasy by these strange and puzzling events, he hastened homeward. When he arrived he discovered his true love had died. She had cried his name with her dying breath.

Against a background of bald prairie, the valley is at its most beautiful in autumn when the leaves begin to turn. Outside of the far north, it is one of the only places in Saskatchewan with a natural deciduous forest; but there is a certain charm in the fact that from the highway you can't even see it until you've started down the slope. Its secrecy and relative obscurity make it one of my favourite places in all of western Canada.

Sources:
Exhibition Background. McMichael Canadian Art Collection. http://www.mcmichael.com/exhibit-valleys2.shtml (16 September 2004)
Qu'Appelle: Tales of Two Valleys. McMichael Canadian Art Collection. http://www.mcmichael.com/exhibit-valleys.shtml (16 September 2004)
Qu'Appelle Valley Legend. http://interactive.usask.ca/ski/tourism/historic_sites/qu_legend.html (16 September 2004)
Stonechild, Blair. First Nations of the Qu'Appelle Valley. Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon). http://quappelle.mendel.ca/en/tales/treatyfour/firstnations/ (16 September 2004)
Stonechild, Blair. North West Resistance of 1885. Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon). http://quappelle.mendel.ca/en/tales/treatyfour/resistance/ (16 September 2004)
Stonechild, Blair. Treaty Number Four. Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon). http://quappelle.mendel.ca/en/tales/treatyfour/treaty/ (16 September 2004)
Also a number of afternoons spent wandering round the valley and talking to the people at the museum and the used bookstore in Lebret. Brought on by a sudden bout of homesickness. I wish that I could account for missing this place so terribly.