Ernestly ?!Ernestly ?!By ERNIE NEUFELD, Weyburn Review Associate Publisher
Two television clips earlier this summer had an interesting parallel, in that both related to stunt undertakings purporting to revisit experiences of Canadian pioneers.
One focused on the adventurous mariner and crew who recently set sail from Reykjavik, Iceland, for L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, following the approximate route of Leif (the Lucky) Ericcson one thousand years ago.
Few people nowadays are unaware of the fact that archeological digs have established beyond any reasonable doubt that the first Europeans to land on and establish settlements on this continent were not the Spanish-commissioned crews of Christopher Columbus and their successors, but Leif Ericcson and his Icelandic cohorts. He named this new-found land Vinland.
His 21st century imitators are making the two-month voyage of thousands of miles not in a modern vessel equipped with all the trappings now considered necessary to ocean travel, but in a sailing boat built as nearly as possible to the specifications of Ericcson's craft of 10 centuries ago.
Paralleling this undertaking (sort of) is the one-year adventure announced on television and radio about the same time. Two young Canadian couples have been chosen to live for a year in the lifestyle of Canadian prairie settlers in the late 1800s, and to face some of the same challenges.
Over 1000 applications were received for the History Television and Life Network project, and if the selected pairs complete their undertaking, each will receive $100,000.
The four will be placed on a homestead somewhere about two hours from Winnipeg, and will start with a "mere $500 in currency of the day." "Within a year, using only period-appropriate resources, they will build a homestead, raise livestock, hunt, fish and grow crops. With no running water, electricity or grocery stores, these couples must feed themselves, build shelter and endure the Manitoba heat and cold."
Although there is a town within five miles, they may go there only on foot or by cart. They will be required to record their experiences in written diaries, and by means of their only modern piece of equipment, a hand-held video camera.
I concede they are accepting a challenge many of us would not be equal to. We many even envy them, but most of us breathe a sigh of relief when we return to our soft and secure lives after a few days or a week at a primitive fly-in fishing camp - to which we have taken a hamper full of steaks, hams, bacon and eggs, and untold other goodies.
In comparing the pseudo-pioneers of History Television with the real pioneers of our part of the world, even those of us who were spared their hardships and heartaches have no difficulty spotting obvious differences.
Our settlers came to live among other strangers to the land, and they had not been selected after having been checked out for health, mental attitudes and personal circumstances suiting them eminently for the challenge. They simply came!
They came, often, with babies and growing families who needed nurturing and nursing through illness; some brought failing or ailing parents. Some had borrowed money for the basics with which they started out, and to see them through emergencies. There was no fail-safe panic button to rely on when space became thin between rocks and hard places.
Beside building their humble sod homes on the treeless plains and breaking the necessary soil to prove their homesteads, and constructing shelter for their animals, their commitment to faith and future demanded that they join their neighbors in building schools and churches.
And at the end of the year, they did not receive a pot with $100,000, but only a deed and the choice of continuing to root, hog or die in the circumstances in which they began - or to surrender and return whence they had come.
On the Icelandic seafarers clip, an off-camera interviewer pressed the captain to maximize the perils and valiance of his venture. He declined to overstate an obviously challenging mission, but after a brief struggle for words he said with a grin, "At least we know there's land where we're going."
A wise summation that can easily be applied to the "Real West" exploit. Like Leif, the real prairie pioneers did not know what awaited them in the uncharted waters of the future.
My address (also listed on the Review's Website) is ernestly@pathcom.com.
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