My Genealogy and
 ROCHE PERCÉE
 Saskatchewan
Canada
 Main Index Page

 

 Site Index

 Souris Valley Views
 Village Views
 Sandstone Pictures (4)
 NWMP at Roche Percee
 Area Cemeteries
 WWI & II War Memorial
 Roche Percee Census
 Roche Percee Post Office
 Roche Percee History Articles 1, 2 
 Charles J. Glidden, Auto Tour, 1904
 Ken Friedt  ca:1910 Photos
 

 Martin Nolan ca:1930's Pictures
 Flood Pictures ca:1940's
 Centennial Celebration 2009
 Area Pictures 2009
 St. Peter's Spring
 1955 Roche Percee History Book (new 2012)
 Zieglgansberger Pictures
(new 2012)


Coal Mining Info

SE Saskatchewan Coal Index Page (new)

Note- All Coal Related Links
are now combined and revised
 in this new
SE Saskatchewan
 Coal
Index Page above


 Ichthyosauria Fossil (Pinto site)
-----------------------------------
 RM #4 Coalfields
-----------------------------------

Quick Area Links

 Estevan
 Bienfait
 Taylorton
 Pinto

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General SK. Info.
SE SK. Index Page

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Personal Home Pages
Recent Changes to this Site

Click to view a double Spheroidal Sandstone Concretion from the roche percee area.  I always thought it was a native artifact when I was younger
 

 

Links below
are NOT my sites
They may or may not
be valid and working

 Official Roche Percee Page

Birth/Death SK Index
Our Roots- History Books
Western Land Grants
Passenger lists 1865-1922
CEF WWI Search
WWI & WWII Search
Geographical Names
Pool Elevator Maps 1924/25
Estevan Mercury
Sask Cemetery list

 

 

 NO Reproduction in Whole or in Part, on ANY, and ALL of my Pages,
 Including Text and Pictures,
 May be made, without the express Written Permission
 of Web Editor, Doug Gent
© 2016

Want to add a link to my pages?
see my
Copyright Information Page
for the only Authorized Picture Link allowed.
All Pictures on all my web pages, are now Visibly Watermarked,
All my pages are now Right Click, (copy and paste), disabled.
I ask everyone that enjoys free history sites,
to start policing these violations.
If we don't stop this, no one will donate pictures to me, or anyone,
and we all loose.
If you see one of my pictures on Facebook, etc.
tell them to remove it.


 

 ROCHE PERCÉE

 aka- La Roche Percée

 January 12, 1909,
 Roche Percée Village was Incorporated

Village Located in the
SE corner of Saskatchewan

Section- Township- Range
30 - 1 - 6
West of the 2nd Meridian
Latitude-Longitude
49° 04' 00" N - 102° 48' 00" W

Population- 1991=154 / 1996=149
 Roche Percée,
 or translated "Pierced Rock",
 Known to the Metis as
 La Roche Percée

was a Religious site
for the Native Assiniboine
(Assnipwan, Stone Sioux)
 Tribes in this area.
In the Spring and Fall
they would perform
religious ceremonies at this site,
leaving gifts to "Manitou"
(one of the Deities or Spirits
 dominating the forces of Nature)

"The name is a translation
 of the Nakota  imyan-oghok
 referring to the nearby
 “Pierced Rock” landmark.

Picture donated by Kenneth J. Friedt, taken by unknown CPR man Sept 1910
 The rock lost its distinctive character
 after being struck by lightning
 and is now really nothing more
 than a sandstone outcropping."
 
Quote above from Bill Barry's
  "People Places" Book
 with his permission.

In another book written in 1924,
it says the pierced rock
was struck by lightning in 1922

Chief Dan Kennedy refers to this area as
 Inyan- Oghnok
The Assiniboine,
(Assnipwan, Stone Sioux)
 lived in the Roche Percee area,
in the late 1700's

The Roche Percée structure
was once sand on a sea bottom


 Arrow points to Roche Percee

A newspaper article from Sept 18, 1893,states,
 "The Town Site of Roche Percee is now laid out.
 It is a beautiful site for a town."

 Village Office Phone
(306) 634-4661

 


 
It is believed that the Assiniboine
 were originally Yanktona Sioux, 
but broke away around 1640 to 1650.
At that point they aligned themselves with
the Plains Cree Tribe.
 The name Assnipwan means "Stone Sioux"
referring to the practice of using stones to cook.
Although the history books refer to them as Assiniboine,
 they call themselves Nakota meaning "allies".
  There is no doubt they are Sioux,
 they broke away from -
 and became the implacable enemies of 
 the Dakota about 300 years ago.
                                                                        from Bill Barry, People Places

The Assiniboine traded corn received from
the Mandan and other village tribes,
 in what is North Dakota today.
They traded with Axes, Knives, Bullets, and gunpowder
from the French and English Traders.
They hunted in the Souris Valley in the Winter,
and the Turtle Mountains in the summer.

First White Man visits are reported in my
 History of Coal in the Area  
web page.

(Dr.) Sir James Hector, (1834-1907) F.R.S.
Scottish Geologist, Naturalist and Surgeon,
who was part of the Palliser Expedition in 1857,
 made reference to the petroglyphs in the area.
In 1857 he was appointed surgeon and geologist
 on this Government expedition
 for the exploration of western Canada.
 It started in Detroit in June 1857,
and ended at Vancouver
Island in January 1860.
Hector Mountain is named after him,
Kicking Horse Pass was named after him,
 getting kicked by a horse there, and nearly died there.
Shortly after the expedition, he went to New Zealand
where he got married and had children.
He is very famous there as well,
with the Hector Dolphin named after him.
Later in life he came back to Canada,
for a short time, as a guest of the CPR,
then he went back to New Zealand where he died.


Dr. George Mercer Dawson (1849-1901)
visited Roche Percee in 1879.
He reported on the Sandstone Rock Structure,
and sketched a number of the petroglyphs.
He was a Canadian Scientist and Surveyor.

 In 1939, Prof. William John Wintemberg, (1876-1941) F.R.S.C.,
an Archaeologist with the Victoria Memorial Museum
(later National Museum of Canada)
also reported on the petroglyph carvings.

Dr. Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn (1824-1902) F.R.S.,
a British Geologist,
and Director of the Geological Survey of Canada
made a visit, just prior to 1906,
and reported on the Coal.


 Family Connection
My father Phillip George Gent was born in Roche Percee 
The midwife who delivered him was  Mrs Francis Knight, 
who later became Mrs. Francis McKersie. 
Her and her Husband were long time residents of Roche Percee. 
My Dad was born in an old Cabin, 
next to the Roche Percee Hotel


 Flood 2011

I have changed the Roche Percee Pages
to these various shades of
BLUE,
as a sign of respect for the Flooding in 2011,
and the loss of Homes, Businesses, Parks,
and various Heritage sites,
in the Roche Percee Area,
during that disastrous time.
The Souris River, and Mother Nature,
can be a very powerful thing.

I encourage everyone to donate time and money,
to help the Citizens of Roche Percee fight through this.
Their ancestors stuck through many floods here,
and never gave up.  I hope the newer generation,
can fight through the disaster as well,
and help the older ones make it through.

I hope some of the oil money being made down there,
will go to rebuilding the whole place.
I hope one of the Oil Companies, or Coal Companies,
 has a Community heart, and goes the extra mile.
You make the money there, spend some of it there!

 HELP ROCHE PERCEE REBUILD!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
 


 
 

Mary Rose Suzanne Boyer
Mar 7, 1946 - Jan 31, 2012

She worked very hard
for the Community of Roche Percee,
and preserving the heritage of the whole area.
I respect what she did,
and will miss her input to these pages.

She was proud of her Metis Heritage
and I have added the Metis Sash background,
in her honour.
 

 


 
   
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No Reproduction in Whole or in Part may be made
without the express Written Permission
 of Doug Gent

Page created by Doug Gent © 2016
Created Aug 24, 2000
 Revised Apr 2, 2012

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