Filiation Généalogique des Guérêt~Dumont |
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Gabriel Dumont is best known as the man who led the small Métis
military forces during the Northwest
Resistance of 1885. He was born in the Red River area in
1837, the son of Isidore Dumont, a Métis hunter,
and Louise Laframboise.
Although unable to read or write, Dumont could speak six languages and was
highly adept at the essential skills
of the plains: horseback riding and
marksmanship. These abilities made
Dumont a natural leader in the large
annual Buffalo hunts that were an important
part of Métis culture. At
the age of fourteen Dumont received his
initiation in plains warfare when he
took part in a Métis skirmish with a large group of Sioux at the Grand Coteau
of the Missouri River.
By the 1860s, Dumont was the leader of a group of hunters living in the Fort
Carlton area. In 1872, he took
advantage of the growing traffic on the Carlton trail and opened a ferry across
the South Saskatchewan River
and a small store upstream from Batoche. In 1873, his position as a leader was formalized
when he was elected
as president of the short-lived local government created by
the Metis living on the south branch of the Saskatchewan.
His leadership role in the South Branch community continued. In 1877 and
1878, Dumont chaired meetings which
drew up petitions to the federal government
asking for representation on the Territorial Council, farming assistance,
schools, land grants, and title to already occupied lands. Dumont was also a
member of the delegation, which
convinced Louis
Riel to return to Canada and plead the Métis case to the federal
government.
When a provisional government was declared in 1885, Dumont was named
"adjutant general of the Métis people." He proved himself an able commander and
his
tiny army experienced some success against government forces at Duck Lake
and Fish Creek. The Canadian
militia, however, proved too large and too well
equipped for Dumont's army,
which collapsed on 12 May 1885 after a four-day battle near Batoche.
Dumont avoided capture by escaping to the United States where, in 1886, he
accepted an offer to demonstrate his marksmanship by performing in Buffalo Bill
Cody's
Wild West Show. After visits
to Quebec (where he dictated his memoires in 1889), Dumont returned to his old
homestead near Batoche. He lived
there quietly until
his death in 1906.
Photo
courtesy Glenbow Alberta Institute.
Page
information courtesy of Northwest Resistance http://library2.usask.ca/northwest/background/dumont.htm