Royal Alberta Museum

We woke up to wind and pouring rain, luckily I had planned a day that would mostly be indoors. (we found out that most flights to/from Edmonton were cancelled today.) After sleeping in, we headed out to the RoyalAlberta Museum in Edmonton. Unfortunately, I misread the directions and we got a tour of downtown quite by accident. We eventually found the turn I had missed and the museum too. This is a natural history museum covering the original people of the area and the minerals, plants, birds, and animals of Alberta. The most extensive exhibit in on the original peoples of the area. Alberta has been inhabited since the end of the Ice Age about 11,000 years ago. We learned about the way of life of these people, their tools, medicines, spiritual practices and how they hunted, fished and eventually farmed this area. At the end of the exhibit, the relations with the European and Canadian government were covered. I don’t know who was treated worse, the American Indian or the First People of Canada. There problems were very similar – treaties not followed, land taken, reservations, discrimination, and the destruction of their way of life. In Canada, they had a period where they were forbidden to even perform their ritual dances. As late as the 1970’s the government was trying to assimilate the people rather than let follow their own culture. That has finally changed since the 1980’s where they now have more control of their health system, education, and society.

As we went through the other sections of the museum, the dinosaur/fossil area was pretty small, they had a lot of dioramas about the wildlife, but the best section was actually on the minerals (both from Alberta and world-wide). They also had a traveling exhibit on leather jackets – how they started as protection for motorcycle and car riders in the 1930’s, but became the signs of rebellion and rock-and-roll in the 1950’s. There were some interesting leather jackets worn by Elvis Presley, the Fonz, and other notable characters.

Indian Fish Trap Diorama

After the museum, we visited the West Edmonton Mall, the original huge mall. Yes, there were lots of stores and an amusement park like in Mall of America, but they also had an ice skating rink, a mini version of Sea World, and a water park within the enclosure. Given all the rain, we enjoyed watching the people – lots of ethnicities, clothes, and interestingly shoes. On the way back to the trailer we stopped at Smitty’s for dinner, they had a great senior meal: main course with vegetables and potatoes, soup, drink, and desert for $10.49.