Keeping the Ojibwe horse alive at Quetico Provincial Park

Grey Raven Ranch made its annual summer visit to the day-use beach in Quetico Provincial Park this long weekend.

The Canadian nonprofit offered visitors the chance to freely enter the pen and learn more about the Ojibwe horse, one of Canada's rarest horse breeds. It is now looking to expand into the U.S. for the benefit and preservation of the breed.

Within the first day alone, well over 100 people came to meet and greet two of over a dozen horses that live at the ranch in Seine River First Nation.

"It's been really a struggle for the caretakers of these horses to keep them alive and to help them thrive," said Heather O'Connor, a volunteer for many years with the Grey Raven Ranch.

"So they come to the park every Labour Day weekend in Quetico because this used to be their natural habitat. So it's part of the park's management plan to include this piece of natural heritage and cultural heritage of the park."

A Quetico-Inspired Story

As part of the ranch's awareness efforts, O'Connor also read the picture book Runs with the Stars or Wiijibibamatoon-Anangoonan, which she wrote during an artist residency at the provincial park.

"It's in English and English-Ojibwe so that it can be used in schools for kids to learn about this piece of Canadian history, Indigenous history and learn about the horses. And, hopefully, grow up to be wanting to...take care of the horses and conserve them themselves," said O'Connor.

According to O'Connor, these horses once ran wild in the woods and lived for centuries alongside the Ojibwe people by helping them run their trap lines and haul wood. However, they almost disappeared in 1977 when the government labelled them 'nuisance horses' and many people, including farmers, took to slaughtering them.

To prevent the government from culling the herd, O'Connor explained that the people of the Lac La Croix First Nation smuggled the four remaining horses in the area across the border to a farmer in Minnesota, who let them live loose on his land.

Eventually, these horses were bred with a Spanish Mustang allowing the herd to grow to the 175 it has today.

Meet the caretakers

Kimberlee Campbell, a U.S. citizen working with Grey Raven Ranch, and her partner Darcy Whitecrow from Seine River First Nation are longtime caretakers of the Ojibwe horse. They have worked to breed the horses, raise awareness of the breed and get other people involved in their caretaking and breeding.

She said they have brought the horses to the provincial park almost every Labour Day for over 10 years.

As someone who is 70-years-old now and does "not have too many years left", Campbell said she is always searching for the next generation to continue the project.

"That's the way I got this horse project. It was handed off to me by people who were getting older and needed to retire out of it, and so it's an intergenerational, I think, labour of love," said Campbell.

"By many Canadians who are white, who are Indigenous, who are of other racial makeups. You know, many, many people have helped this horse. And so by bringing them to the park, we hope to continue that. We hope to keep it going, play it forward."

But, beyond bringing some attention to the horses, she said the annual event has also allowed them to find sponsors and meet with people interested in contributing to their preservation.

"It is obviously Anishinaabe Ojibwe culture and a cultural heritage, but it is also the heritage of anybody who is from the area and is interested in the history and how life was lived here," said Campbell.

With the program growing and too many horses to be cared for at Seine River, Campbell said Grey Raven Ranch has begun fostering several horses in different areas, including Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and the United States.

In two and a half weeks, she said they will start getting the bred horses pregnancy tested and working on some of their ongoing training issues. They are also hoping to have several babies in the spring. 

"As you can imagine, it's complicated and takes several generations and about 10 years to create another generation of foundation animals for the breed so that we can keep them genetically healthy as well as with us," said Campbell.

This is also part of a 10-year, three-generation out-cross project that aims to keep the gene pool healthy and add a little more variety without changing the breed.

Campbell encourages people to come out to the park until Monday morning before they leave.

"These are the horses that for generations have been bred and kept in this area in northwestern Ontario and northern Minnesota... If you're in the area, these are your horses, too," said Campbell.