This exclusive men’s shooting club, now demolished, was on the south shore of Pasqua Lake, the largest of the Qu’Appelle chain, west of Fort Qu’Appelle. Founded by the wealthy business and professional elite of Regina and area, such as James Henderson’s patron Norman Mackenzie and William Morris Graham, the Indian Agent at Qu’Appelle and later Western Indian Commissioner. Members and guests could fish or hunt game birds on the marshes at the end of the lake. Visiting dignitaries, including the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII), were also invited there while on official visits to the province. The evenings were spent in feasting and drinking, and guests would sleep in small rooms off the main banqueting hall. Henderson painted the Club a number of times and may have accompanied members there. Scandalously, W. M. Graham’s resignation as the Western Indian Commissioner was connected to his approval of a liquor permit for the Club, thus violating federal law in regards to drinking alcohol on Reserve lands, which put him in direct conflict with the policies he was enforcing.
-Dan Ring
For more on the Antepa Shooting Club and the scandal concerning W. M. Graham, see E. Brian Titley, A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada, UBC Press, 1986, pp. 191–196.
James Henderson
The Antepa Shooting Club, c. 1920
Oil on canvas
27.0 x 32.0 cm
Collection of Don and Claire Kramer, Regina, SK.
