Faith in the dead of WInter

The baptism of Baptiste Frederick, 1875

Jonas Thomas Frederick my son, is a miracle. 

He is named after my grandfather, Baptiste Jonas Thomas Frederick, born Jan 27, 1875 in Pembina, North Dakota, to Cyril Frederick a buffalo hunter and Adelaide Charette. 

Upon his birth his parents, both Pembina Chippewa/Metis with roots in the Cypress Hills and Wood Mountain regions of Saskatchewan, undertook an arduous winter journey to Lebret, Saskatchewan, with the newborn Baptiste and two other toddler children, on foot.

This journey was 300 miles in the dead of winter -- North Dakota to Lebret, done in 10 days in the harsh prairie winter -- to have Baptiste baptized in Lebret.  His baptism took place on February 7, 1875.

The strength, determination, and faith of our ancestors should be what we remember this long winter we are starting.  To have so much faith to take this journey in that cold, with three very young children on foot shows the strength of resolve our ancestors possessed.

That’s what we are made of. 

Leonard Frederick, Pembina Chippewa/Metis (2017)