Photo description:

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Betsey Ramsay gravesite located a few minutes walk north of the Kaltenthaler Beach on Lake Winnipeg. John Ramsay, a prominent member of a Saulteaux Aboriginal band in the Lake Winnipeg region, and his family, were instrumental in assisting the first Icelandic immigrants who arrived in Manitoba in 1875. The Ramsays provided the settlers with meat and instructed them in local survival skills: the building of warm log cabins and local fishing and hunting techniques. A smallpox epidemic that struck the settlement in 1876-1877 also affected local Aboriginals, including the Ramsay family. John lost his wife Betsey and four of his five children. They were buried here at Sandy Bar. In 1880 he went to Lower Fort Garry where he traded furs and purchased a marble gravestone for Betsey’s grave. He hauled the stone back to this site (which is now in the Municipality of Bifrost-Riverton), set it on the grave, and built a fence around it. 230731 - Monday, July 31, 2023.