Ron and Yvonne Pierreroy have deep roots through Prince George and area. Their ancestors have been present since long before Prince George existed. Their families were both witnesses and a part of all the changes that led to our current city.
“The first Pierre Rois was a trapper out of Quebec.” Says Ron. “He came to the Hudson Bay post at Fort St James. He married a Nak’azdli woman, and they had a son. They named him Pierre, too, but he changed the family name to the English spelling.”
Pierre married Sophie Boucher, a sister to Granny Seymour, for whom our Seymour subdivision is named. Their son took his father’s full name and combined it to the new family name of Pierreroy. He was Pete Pierreroy.
Pete’s son was Wilfred Pierreroy, who was born in 1915, the same year that Prince George was incorporated. Ron says his father Wilfred was often invited to take part in celebrations for Prince George because of that. When he was 14, Wilfred left home with a saddle and a horse and worked as a cowboy. Later he learned to be a saw filer. That was a job in high demand at the time, so he and his young family moved from place to place until Ron was eight and they settled in Prince George, near Grandpa Pete Pierreroy’s trapline.
As a small child, Ron wandered the trapline with Grandpa Pete. It ran along the creek that runs through modern day College Heights, out to the Shell station west of town and up around behind UNBC. Parts of their trail and the trapper’s cabin can still be spotted on the trails behind and around UNBC. The trapline was sold to someone else, possibly named Bob, as the cabin is sometimes referred to as Uncle Bob’s cabin.
When Ron and Yvonne visited the Huble Homestead a few years ago, their tour guide told them about a piece of the Pierreroy family history they did not know. Ron knew Grandpa Pete Pierreroy delivered supplies up and down the trails, including the Huble Homestead. He didn’t know Annie Huble credited Pete Pierreroy with saving the family’s lives when he found them sick during the Spanish Flu epidemic and cared for them until they recovered.
Grandpa Pete lived in a cabin near the river, on land that is now the Landsdowne subdivision. Ron remembers visiting when he was 11 or 12. Grandpa had a table made of planks, stools that were chunks of wood and a dirt floor. At some point the land was sold and streets were created and named, including one named Pierreroy Road! There is a lot of history represented in the trails and streets of Prince George.
Yvonne’s roots are equally deep and long. She can trace her mother’s ancestry back to Chief Kw’eh (aka Quaw) who is famous for having four or maybe five wives. He saved the life of James Douglas who later became the first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Douglas was described by George Simpson, governor of Rupert’s Land, as a stout, reliable man who could become violent when aroused. There was an incident in 1828 when he pursued a Dakelh/Carrier suspect into the Nak’azdli village. There are reports of violence and the Nak’azdli say that Douglas was only allowed to leave alive with Chief Kw’eh’s permission. His relationship with the local natives did not recover and Douglas was transferred to Fort Vancouver in 1830.
Chief Kw’eh has hundreds of descendants in the area. His son Simeon, dubbed Le Prince by one of the Hudson Bay factors, had a son Joseph, who had a son Benoit, who had twelve children, one of whom is Mildred, the mother of Yvonne Pierreroy.
Yvonne’s mother told her that when she was released from Lejac Indian Residential School at the age of 16, her father, Benoit, took her and her older siblings out on the trapline in Nation Lakes in September. It did not matter that she was a girl, she was taught to check traps and prepare furs for sale. Each of the children had their own traps to tend. When they returned to Fort St James before Christmas to sell their furs, each one got to keep the proceeds of their work. The Hudson Bay Company kept the post in Fort St James open until 1952.
Yvonne Pierreroy’s mother married and had twelve children like her parents. Yvonne’s father built their home in Fort St. James, built riverboats, made his own fish nets, snowshoes and anything else needed to support his family. Her mother would tan her own moose and deer hides and sew moccasins, mukluks and gloves to sell. Her parents were very rich in their language and culture and passed their knowledge to the children.
Yvonne attended Lejac Indian Residential School from Grade 5 to Grade 8.
“In Grade 5, every day after school, we had to darn socks. They would bring over a tub full of socks from the boys’ side,” explains Yvonne. “There were a hundred boys and a hundred girls in the school. In Grade 6 to 8, we learned to sew on the machine. We did a lot of mending, making our own clothes and other items for fund raising.”
Yvonne was a sponge, soaking up all the education she could. After leaving Lejac, she continued at the Prince George College, where she met Ron. When she graduated, they got married.
“We were both involved with the Prince George Native Friendship Centre as founding members.” Says Yvonne, “In 1971, I was the Indian Princess for the Friendship Centre. Ron was friends and neighbours with one of my classmates and that is how we met.”
Ron worked at Canfor Clear Lake sawmill until its closure to support Yvonne and their two children. Then he retired and went to work for Yvonne. He built a hide wringer to help with curing moose hides.
The Pierreroy home is near the creek where his grandfather’s trapline ran. Ron likes living where he wandered as a child and youth, even if there are a lot more houses. They still pop across the road to pick berries!
With her family, Yvonne has contributed to the First Voices website to preserve and teach the Dakelh language and produce publications. Her parents taught her the local plants and berries, which are good for food and medicine.
The past year has been busy. Yvonne was an online elder advisor for an Emily Carr program. Her project was to share her knowledge on beading. Currently she is working on four commissioned sewing projects.
In the summer of 2020, the family decided it was time to repair Yvonne’s father’s trapper’s cabin at Camsell Lake. It meant hauling all the materials across the lake by boat. Ron and Yvonne parked their trailer at the campground. With the help of family and friends, they loaded up the borrowed river boat and headed across. The cabin had to be lifted, the flooring and foundation replaced and then lowered back in place. On one momentous day, they hauled four 30-foot beams across!
This summer, they plan on staying close to home. Their yard needs attention and next year they hope to be travelling again. The cabin at Camsell will have its tin roof replaced this year to complete its transformation from a trapper’s cabin to a family meeting place. Times change and we adapt!
