Archived Exhibits: The Pottery of P.G. Downes
Who was P.G. Downes?
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Prentice G. Downes was an American school teacher who lived in Concord, Massachusetts, but at heart he was an historian, cartographer, adventurer, and naturalist who loved the north. He made canoe trips through northern Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories in 1936, 1937, 1939, 1947, and 1951. He kept detailed journals in which he recorded not only daily events but also the stories and traditions of the Cree and Dene people. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Downes maintained steady correspondence with Frank Speck (a well-known ethnologist of the early 20th century) and Harry Moody (an avocational historian and ethnologist at Denare Beach). He prepared a manuscript about Cree beliefs, most of them told to him by Adam Ballantyne of Pelican Narrows. In 1943, Downes published Sleeping Island, based on the journal of his 1939 trip from Brochet at the north end of Reindeer Lake to Windy River at the north end of Nueltin Lake, NWT (now Nunavut). The book reveals a man who was passionate about the north, about its history, and about the cultures of the Cree and Dene people who lived there. |
The Pottery
On his first journey to northern Saskatchewan in 1936, Downes traveled by ship, train, and plane to Pelican Narrows. From there, he and his companion, Solomon Merasty of Pelican Narrows, canoed via the Sturgeon-Weir, Churchill, and Reindeer rivers to Reindeer Lake. About half way up the lake they had to turn back because of bad weather. Downes made the following entry in his journal on September 12, 1936, while at Southend on Reindeer Lake: "Bill Douglas, the old trapper, came over and brought some pottery shards he found on Sandy Island 30 mi. North of here on raised beach 7' high, 400' from water. Amazing shape and design--and location." |
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In 1937, he donated the sherds to the National Museum (now the Canadian Museum of Civilization) in Ottawa. In 1939, he published a description of these sherds in the journal American Antiquity, the first published description of pottery from northern Saskatchewan.
This type of pottery is now called Clearwater Lake Punctate. These pots with a globular body and vertical or outflaring neck are characterized by a single row of punctates (small round indentations) around the rim. Clearwater Lake Punctate pottery is found in the boreal forest extending from central Manitoba to central Saskatchewan. In Saskatchewan, it was made from approximately AD 1200 to 1500. Clearwater Lake Punctate pottery is one regional expression of what archaeologists call the Selkirk Composite that extends throughout the boreal forest from northwestern Ontario to eastern Alberta. Most archaeologists think that the Selkirk Composite represents the ancestors of modern-day Cree. |
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Where did Douglas find the Pottery?
Map of Reindeer Lake, SK.
The exact location of "Sandy Island", where Douglas said he found the sherds, is a bit of a mystery. Downes gives the location as about 30 mi northeast of Southend or near Wapus Island at approximately 56o 38'N, 102o 40'W; however, there is no "Sandy Island" officially recorded for that section of Reindeer Lake. The official "Sandy Island" is too far north. "South End Sandy Island", where Downes and Merasty were wind-bound for two days, is too far south.
The location near Wapus Island is probably correct. Douglas had one of his trapping camps nearby at the mouth of the Wapus River, so he would be very aware of all that was around his camp site, including any archaeological artifacts. Downes describes the area as "a really lovely spot - low sand banks and grass and a series of small bays backed by the steep cliff-like hills". If there are sand beaches at the mouth of the Wapus River, it is quite possible that there are sand beaches on a nearby island that would justify giving it the local name "Sandy Island".
Further Reading
Fact Sheet No. 4: The Pottery of P.G. Downes
R. H. Cockburn. 1984. "To Reindeer's Far Waters: P.G. Downes' Journal of Travels in Northern Saskatchewan, 1936". From: The Journal of Polar Studies Vol 1:131-178.
Downes, P.G. 1938. Reindeer Lake Pottery. American Antiquity 4: 48.
Downes, P.G. 1943. Sleeping Island: The Story of One Man's Travels in the Great Barren Lands of the Canadian North. Coward-McCann, Inc. New York (reprinted 1998, edited and with an introduction by R.H. Cockburn, Western Producer Prairie Books).
Acknowledgements
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, PQ; Mrs. E.G. Downes, Concord, MA; Dr. R.H. Cockburn, University of New Brunswick.
For further information contact the Exhibits Unit
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