Rupert’s Land: Amerindians, Métis, and the Red River Colony

14 Sunday Jun 2020

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Canada

Tags

Louis Riel, Métis, Red River Rebellion, Residential Schools, Rupert's Land, Sir John A. Macdonald, The Earl of Selkirk, the Hudson's Bay Company, the Orange Order, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

Above is a picture of Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. Mr Adam claims he was the victim of police brutality, which is unacceptable. However, although they may be the very devil, I would hesitate to put The Royal Canadian Mounted Police on trial. In my life, they have done what the police is supposed to do: to protect and to serve.

—ooo—

In fact, the killing of George Floyd has led to accusations, resignations, dismissals, or a form of revisionism. Some of these are convincingly justifiable, others, less so. There can be no doubt that there are rotten apples in nearly every basket, but although racism is a serious problem in the United States, I could not extend the term “racist” to every American. Too many Americans oppose racism for me to generalize. Moreover, Barack Obama, an African-American, was elected to the Presidency of the United States and proved one of its finest presidents.

Sir John A MacDonald (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

cbb299c8-c0b7-460c-add9-2e245342dc9b (1)

The Métis provisional government (Wikipedia)

Aboriginals in Canada

Rupert’s Land
The Royal Charter of 1670
Aboriginal title
What of the Red River Colony?

I nevertheless researched the topic of Aboriginals in Canada and Blacks in Canada. However, this post is about the indigenous people of Canada. It cannot go further. It is about Amerindians after Confederation and the “purchase” of Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company, chartered in 1670. In Wikipedia’s relevant entry, by virtue of the Royal Charter, Rupert’s Land, which was bought by the first four confederated provinces of the future Canada, could not include territory already settled and inhabited by the indigenous people of North America.

However, this did not settle the issue of Aboriginal title over the land. At the time the Royal Charter was granted in 1670, the Crown did not have the authority to give jurisdiction of sovereignty over the territory already settled and inhabited by the indigenous people of North America.
(Rupert’s Land, Wikipedia)

Therefore, it appears that, by virtue of the Royal Charter of 1670, the “purchase” of Rupert’s Land by the first confederated provinces precluded settling land that was settled by the indigenous people of North America.

For that matter, could the first four provinces of the Canadian Confederation resettle the Red River Colony? The Red River Colony was established by the Earl of Selkirk who purchased and settled the Colony to give a home to dispossessed Scottish crofters (See Crofting, Wikipedia). However, the Red River Colony was soon home to retired voyageurs, and to several members of the disbanded Régiment de Meuron and De Watteville Régiment. These were Swiss mercenaries and veterans of the War of 1812. The Red River Colony was multicultural and bilingual. It was also home to English-speaking Métis and French-speaking Métis. It was Louis Riel’s Canada, officially bilingual and bicultural, and eventually described as multicultural. But it wasn’t so until the Official Languages’ Act was passed, in 1969. The Red River Colony was bought and settled land.

There are times when “officials” act too quickly, but under the Royal Charter, could the Red River Colony be part of Rupert’s Land? This is questionable. Yet, after the purchase of Rupert’s Land, descendants of United Empire Loyalists rushed west to get land. But it was not a Wild West.

Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald first began planning a permanent force to patrol the North-West Territories after the Dominion of Canada purchased the territory from the Hudson’s Bay Company.
(See The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Wikipedia.)

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was established in 1873 and was first named the North West Mounted Rifles and renamed the North-West Mounted Police. Although Quebec and Ontario have their own provincial police corps, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is Canada’s national police force, so, as soon as it was appointed, settling west in Canada was policed. But, in a policed Canada Amerindians were nevertheless sent to reservations and French-speaking Canadians had to live in the Province of Quebec because of the Orange Order. Sir John A. MacDonald and three other Prime Ministers of Canada were members of the Orange Order.

In an earlier article, I quoted the Canadian Encyclopedia:

Its members generally viewed Roman Catholics and French Canadians as politically disloyal or culturally inferior.
(See Orange Order in Canada, The Canadian Encyclopedia.)

I will close by stating, once again, that the purchase of Rupert’s Land was not consistent with the Royal Charter. Officials may not have read the details or may have reached an agreement that ignored the Royal Charter. Land was taken that belonged to Amerindians. They were not given a word to say, nor were the Métis. As for the use of French outside Quebec, the Orange Order (Wikipedia), Orange order (The Canadian Encyclopedia) would not allow it. They had no tolerance for the French and despised Catholics. Four Prime Ministers of Canada were Orangemen. Louis Riel’s Canada was born in 1969, when the Official Languages Act was passed, but Amerindians have lived on reservations, and I wonder whether this arrangement was the best. Confederation was followed by sending children to Residential Schools. Canada’s aboriginals were compensated for the harm inflicted on children who attended these schools.

During the years I taught at Saint Francis Xavier University, a young woman came to talk to me. She was taking a course I taught. She told me she was Amerindian and that she would therefore pass the course. I could not understand what she wanted. In the end, I had to tell her that I did not base grades on race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, religion, etc., but on the quality of one’s performance. She could, however, come to see me, if she experienced difficulties with the subject matter. She could also phone me at the office or at home. I would help.

Before closing, I should note that there is confusion concerning the word “race.” In French, race means “breed” and “race.” In l’abbé Lionel Groulx’s L’Appel de la race (The Call of the Race) race is breed or roots. I never included L’Appel de la race as necessary reading in my classes on French-Canadian literature. However, it is central to what is called “la question des écoles,” French-language schools outside Quebec, an issue one cannot remove from the discussion.

A discussion of the War of 1812, is relevant to both the Amerindian and Métis populations. Individual Amerindian chiefs negotiated treaties with the White. The famous Tecumseh opposed these treaties. He favored a centralized body of indigenous people. Tecumseh was killed on 5 October 1813, at the Battle of the Thames during the War of 1812.

There is/was racism in Canada and there were racial wrongs. Many Chinese died building a rail road across ranges of mountains. Moreover, the Japanese were sent to camps. As for the Indigenous people of Canada, they had a right to their land, and French-speaking Canadians should have been allowed to move west. They faced the school question, la question des écoles, which takes us back to Louis Riel. It is possible that the Royal Charter was amended officially, but I doubt it.

I must read further, but for the time being, I would urge demonstrators to be extremely careful. Covid-19 could kill millions. Demonstrations are very dangerous.

RELATED ARTICLES

Aboriginals in North America (page)
Racism in Canada: Notes (8 June 2020)
Gabriel Dumont, a Métis Leader (10 May 2018)
The Métis in Canada (4 June 2015)
The Red River Settlement (30 May 2015)
Canada’s Amerindians: Enfranchisement (24 May 2015)
Residential Schools for Canada’s Amerindians (21 May 2015)

Sources and Resources

The Canadian Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
Britannica
Newspapers
http://nationtalk.ca/story/featured-video-of-the-day-joseph-boyden-on-louis-riel-and-gabriel-dumont

Love to everyone 💕

Theresa Tam, Canada’s Top Doctor

A Print by Kenojuak Ashevak & a Diagnostic

19 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Art, Canada, Sharing

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

a Diagnostic, Canada, Gabriel Dumont, Inuit Art, Kenojuak Ashevak, Métis

The late Kenojuak Ashevak , considered one of the pioneers of Inuit art, saw her first-ever print, Rabbit Eating Seaweed, included in the 1959 Cape Dorset collection. The early work points to the distinctive style for which the famed artist would become renown. (Historymuseum.ca) (Photo credit: CBC.ca)

The Red Fox by Kenojuak Ashevak (Photo credit: Nunatsiaq News (See Aboriginals in North America)

I apologize for not posting for a long time. There has been a change in my life, but it is not a serious change.

Here is my story. A few weeks ago, I told my doctor that my memory was playing tricks on me. Test confirmed mild cognitive impairment. I will lose my driver’s license and my precious little red Toyota.

Do not be alarmed. I was not diagnosed until the early 1990s, but I have suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME since 1976. Victims get lost in mid-sentence and don’t remember words and names. I continued working and had a successful but shorter career than I would have liked. The only difference between the old and the new diagnostic is age. I am now older. But it could simply be that moving tired me out and that taking a mortgage, at my age, was stressful. Life is not always easy.

In short, I could not work on posts for several days because I was making various arrangements that would allow me to stay home for many long years, despite mild cognitive deficiency. Ironically, destiny led me to purchase a lovely apartment in the appropriate building. It has elevators, a heated interior swimming pool, and, as I have told you in an earlier post, it is located very near a small market place that includes a post office and most of the facilities I require.

My next post is on Métis leader Gabriel Dumont and the North-West Rebellion. Métis and Amerindians were losing their land, so surveyors can cut it up into little squares while a railroad was being built that woul take citizens from sea to sea: A Mari usque ad Mare, the Canadian motto.

Canadian Confederation was very costly,

As a leader, Gabriel Dumont was second only to Louis Riel. They resisted losses brought by Canadian expansion westward. The video inserted below is a fine account of events that took Canada from sea to sea, but a post is necessary.

Gabriel Dumont (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

The Voyageurs: hommes engagés

21 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canadian History, Métis, Voyageurs

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

canoe, Grand-Portage, Louis Riel, Manitoba, Métis, Minnesota, portage, songs of the voyageurs, the beaver, The Canadian Boat Song

Shooting the Rapid, 1879, Frances Ann Hopkins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shooting the Rapids by Frances Ann Hopkins, 1879 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Voyageurs

The voyageurs were the French-speaking Canadian boatmen or canoemen, who travelled in birch-bark canoes from Ottawa or Lachine, to fur-trading posts in what is now Manitoba and Minnesota, Grand-Portage being the main trading post.

First, they had to short-legged. Being short-legged was important because they had to transport as much fur as possible relatively small canoes and much of the fur was stored under each canoeman’s seat in the canoe. There was very little room for their legs.
Second, a strong upper body was an essential characteristic. They sometimes had to go from one waterway to another waterway and when they did, they carried fur (usually beaver pelts) and personal supplies on their back, bundles called bales, they carried on their backs, weighed more than 40 kilos (about 90 pounds), perhaps a conservative figure. And they also had to carry their canoe. These parts of their trips were called a portage (from the French porter: to carry).
Third, they had to be good singers.

The Singing Voyageurs

Travellers to North-America, fur traders, employees and governors of fur-trading companies, such as the Hudson’s Bay Company, historians, and others often reported that the Canadien voyageur, sang as he paddled canoes filled with precious pelts.

Les Trois Cavaliers fort bien montés (The Three Well-Mounted Horsemen), a folksong, inspired Irish poet Thomas Moore to give it new words in 1804. It became the famous Canadian Boat Song.

In Kitchi-Gami [i], J. G. Kohl writes that “They [the voyageurs] were chosen men! The best singers in the world:”

C’était des hommes choisis ! Les plus beaux chanteurs du monde!

Le Portage

Portages were so difficult that the men often chose to “shoot the rapids.” At such times, I doubt that they sang. “Shooting the rapids” was dangerous and many men died. Alongside the rivers the voyageurs used to go from Lachine (Montreal), or Ottawa, the usual points of departure, to what is now Manitoba and Minnesota, there are little white crosses. The voyageurs left small white crosses where boatmen had die.

The Contract: voyageurs and coureurs de/des bois

We have to distinguish between the voyageurs who had a licence to work in the fur trade and those who roamed the forests without the proper permit, called coureurs de/des bois. As for the voyageur, he was a hired man: an engagé. But the coureurs des bois were adventurers. They roamed the woods without a permit and if they got caught fur-trading, they faced sanctions and the beaver pelts they had not sold were confiscated.

These men usually signed a three-year contract which meant that they often left behind, a wife and children to whom the earnings of the voyageur were usually sent. However, many men lived with Amerindian women or married Amerindian women. Their children were Métis.

However, some voyageur wanted to marry a French-Canadian woman and simply waited. Canada’s Louis Riel‘s grandfather, Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière, went to Quebec to marry Marie-Anne Gaboury, the first white woman to settle in Western Canada. Their daughter Julie married a Métis named Louis Riel and they had a son they named Louis Riel. Several Métis remained in Manitoba, but the Battle of Batoche took place in Saskatchewewan. Many retired in Minnesota, USA. Those who did had usually been employed by the American Fur Trade company, founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808.

—ooo—

I will continue to tell the story of the voyageurs, but let this be the background. We have actually gone a long way. For the time being, I will continue to reflect on the fact that these men sang despite the dangers they faced and their isolation from their home.

Voyageurs

© Micheline Walker

12 January 2012

WordPress

_________________________

[i] G. Kohl, Kitchi-Gami. Wanderings Round Lake Superior (London: Chapman and Hall, 1860). Available in paperback, with an introduction by Robert E. Bieder, under the title Life Among the Lake Superior Ojibway (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1985 [1860]).

The Beaver

Louis Riel, as Father of Confederation

28 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Canada, Métis

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Gabriel Dumont, Hudson's Bay Company, Lagimonière, Louis Riel, Manitoba, Métis, Ontario Orangemen, Red River Rebellion, The Earl of Selkirk, Thomas Scott

Buffalo Hunt by Peter Rindisbacher (1806-1834; aged 28) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Métis Family by Peter Rindisbacher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Louis Riel’s demise is a fine example of what happened to French-speaking Canadians and their Amerindian spouses in the western provinces of Canada. A new post will follow.

From Coast to Coast

John A. MacDonald was the first Prime Minister of Canada and a Father of Confederation

Georges-Étienne Cartier was a Quebec Leader and a Father of Confederation

Gabriel Dumont (a Métis leader) took Riel to Saskatchewan (second Rebellion)

Louis Riel is the grandson of Jean-Baptiste Lagimonière/Lagimodière (1778-1855), a farmer and a voyageur who made a name for himself. On 21 April 1806, he married Anne-Marie Gaboury (1780 – 1875), the first white woman resident in the west, and the grandmother of legendary Louis Riel.

Upon learning that the Earl of Selkirk, DOUGLAS, THOMAS, Baron DAER and SHORTCLEUCH, 5th Earl of SELKIRK (1771 [St Mary’s Isle, Scotland] – 1820 [Pau, France]) was settling the Red River, Lagimonière and his wife went to live in the Red River settlement. But rivalry between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company was so intense that North-West Company men nearly destroyed the settlement.

Lagimonière was sent to Montreal to speak to Lord Selkirk, but taken prisoner on his way back to Manitoba. Lord Selkirk attacked the fort and the settlers were able to resume a difficult but relatively normal life. Lord Selkirk rewarded Lagimonière for his services, by giving him a large grant of land between the Red River and the Seine, close to present-day Winnipeg. Lagimonière had become a celebrity.

Louis Riel

The Lagimonières had several children: four girls and four boys and, at one point, they became a very prosperous family. One of the Lagimonière daughters, Julie, married a Métis, a neighbour named Louis Riel, and is the mother of Louis Riel (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885; aged 41) who is considered the father of Manitoba.

Louis Riel

Louis Riel (1844 -1885; by hanging)

An intellectually-gifted child, Louis Riel was sent to the Petit Séminaire, in Montréal. In a petit séminaire, one prepare for the priesthood. Louis Riel dropped out before graduation and studied law under Rodolphe Laflamme.

He was not very fond of the subtleties of laws and slowly found his way back to Manitoba working odd jobs in Chicago and St Paul, Minnesota. Many voyageurs who had been employed by John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company retired in Minnesota. Riel then travelled back to the Red River settlement, which had changed during his absence.

The Settlers, the Surveyors and William McDougall

On his arrival in St-Boniface, the current French area of Winnipeg, Riel observed that settlers had arrived from Ontario. They were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants who disliked Catholics. Many were Orangemen or Orangists. Settlers had also moved up from the United States.
As well, land surveyors were dividing up the land, but not in the manner it had been divided formerly. The long strips of land of New France were becoming square lots. This land still belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company, but the Crown was preparing for a purchase (1869) and no room was being made for the Métis.
Moreover, William McDougall, an outsider, had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the territory and was overseeing the progress of the land surveyors.
As for the Métis, they had suffered from an invasion of grasshoppers, so food was scarce. Moreover, immigrants were dwarfing Métis and Amerindians. They needed a leader and went to Louis Riel, who was literate and had studied law.

The Red River Rebellion: the First ‘Treason’

Riel quickly organizes a “national committee” to put an end to the surveyors’ work.
On 2 Nov. 1869, Riel and his men capture Fort Garry unopposed.
However, John Christian Schultz and John Stoughton Dennis start to prepare for an armed conflict.
The Federal Government recalls McDougall and orders are given to end the work of the surveyors.
Riel has John Christian Schultz and John Stoughton Dennis imprisoned in Fort Garry and
Riel and his Métis establish the Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia:

“The Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia was a short-lived legislature set up to pass laws for the North-Western Territory and Rupert’s Land provisional government led by Louis Riel from 1869 to 1970. The Legislative Assembly was named after the Council of Assiniboia that previously managed the territories before the Hudson’s Bay Company sold the land to Canada in 1869.” (See Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia, Wikipedia.)

Scott and Boulton recruit a small army and are joined

by a surveyor, Thomas Scott, an Orangeman, and
by a soldier named Charles Boulton.

A good will mission arrives from the Federal Government. One member of this group is Donald A. Smith, the chief representative of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Frightened by Thomas Scott and Charles Boulton, Métis have them imprisoned and court-martialed. They are condemned to death by Ambroise Lépine.

Charles Boulton is pardoned, but
Thomas Scott, a Orangeman, is executed, despite pleas on the part of Donald Smith of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Manitoba enters into Confederation: 12 May 1870

The Bishop of Saint-Boniface, Bishop Taché, returns from Rome carrying and amnesty proclamation for all acts previously performed. At this point, Riel and his men reach an agreement and the Manitoba Law is passed on 12 May 1870. The Federal Government gives land to the Métis and makes both French and English the official languages of the new Province of Manitoba.

However, in 1870, after learning that Colonel Garnet Wolseley is being sent to the Red River by the new Governor General, A. G. Archibald, Riel flees to the United States but returns home to Saint-Vital in the fall of 1871. He then offers to help keep Fenians from attacking the Red River Settlement.

Louis Riel

is elected into office in 1873;
He is re-elected to the Federal Assembly in 1874, but a motion to expel him from the room was proposed by Orangist or Orangeman Mackenzie Bowell and passed.
But Riel is re-elected into office. However, he was prevented from sitting with other members of Parliament.

At about the same time, Ambroise Lépine’s death sentence for the “murder” of Thomas is commuted. Lépine spends two years in jail and loses all his rights. However, Lépine and Riel are amnestied, in February 1875. Louis Riel’s amnesty is “conditional to five years of banishment from ‘Her Majesty’s Dominions.’”

Riel has a nervous breakdown in 1875 and is hospitalised for three years (1875-1878), under assumed names. He is treated for depression and turns to religion. At this point, Riel starts believing he has a divine mission to guide his people.

Riel was released from hospital and went to the United States where he managed to earn a living, became an American citizen, joined the Republican Party and, in 1880, married a Métis woman, Marguerite Monet. There is little information about Marguerite. Born in 1861, she died in 1886. Riel fathered three children, one of whom died as an infant.

North-West Rebellion (1885): The second ‘treason’

But in June 1884, Riel is asked, by Saskatchewan Métis, Gabriel Dumont to help Métis whose rights are being violated. Dumont had been defeated and wounded at the battle of Duck Lake, on 26 March 1885. Riel goes to Saskatchewan believing that it is his divine mission to do so. He takes over a Church in Batoche, Saskatchewan, gathers a small army, but on 6 July 1885, he is officially arrested and accused of ‘treason.’

He is tried and his lawyer asks that he be examined by three doctors one of whom comes to the conclusion that Riel is no longer responsible for his actions. This divided determination was not made public and Riel was condemned to death. Riel himself did not wish to use insanity as his defence.

Appeals fail so Louis Riel is hanged in Regina on 16 November 1885 and the body is then sent by train to Saint-Vital and he is buried in the cemetery of the Cathedral at Saint-Boniface.

To this day, opinion remains divided as to Riel’s guilt. Riel, who was hanged for “treason,” is nevertheless a Father of Confederation.

Comments

Yet, Louis Riel had been elected into office three times. He is still considered by many as the father of Manitoba. Moreover, Riel had brought Manitoba into Canadian Confederation as a bilingual province and with Métis being allotted the land they needed.

Yes, the Red River Rebellion was ‘treason,’ but clemency had been requested by the judge and there were mitigating circumstances: Riel’s mental health is one of these contingencies. However, the execution of Thomas Scott had long generated enormous resentment on the part of Ontario Orangemen or Orangists. As a result, being amnestied did not weigh in Riel’s favour.

As for the North-West Rebellion of 1885, it was ‘treason.’ Riel was found guilty and condemned to death, but the judge had asked for clemency. However, Orangists remembered the execution of Thomas Scott, and despite appeals, Riel was hanged ostensibly for ‘treason,’ but also, in all likelihood, for the “murder” of Thomas Scott.

These videos tell the story:

Buffalo Hunt, P. Rindisbacher

RELATED ARTICLES

The Fenian Raids
The Oregon Country

Photo credit: Wikipedia, all images

Artist: Swiss-born Peter Rindisbacher

Sources other than Wikipedia:

Lynne Champagne, “Lagimonière, Jean-Baptiste,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
George F. G. Stanley, “Gaboury, Marie-Anne,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
Lewis H. Thomas, “Louis Riel,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,

12 May 2012

WordPress

Bernard-Anselme and Joseph d’Abbadie: Sons of a Different Mind

16 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Canadian History

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadie, Identity, Joseph d'Abbadie, Métis, métissé, The Battle of Sainte-Foy, Treaty of Paris, Treaty of Utrecht

Baron de Saint-Castin by Wiliam H. Lowe, 1881, Museum Archives (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Baron de Saint-Castin by William H. Lowe, 1881, Wilson Museum Archives (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Baron’s Sons: Bernard-Anselme & Joseph

Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie de Saint-Castin had several children, most of them born to Pidianske, one of the daughters of Abenaki chief Madokawando. Two are known to historians and to the curious: Bernard-Anselme d’Abbadie (1689 – 1720) and Joseph d’Abbadie (active 1720 – 1746).

Both sons continued to fight the English, which had been their father’s mission, but did so in what appears a less aggressive manner. Jean-Vincent participated in King Philip’s War (1675 -1678), a conflict which was a response to attacks on New England settlers by Amerindians. Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie had played an active role in these attacks. King Philip’s War decimated the Amerindian population of New England. Of a total of 3,400 men, only 400 Amerindians survived, but on Britain’s side, of a total of 3,500, 2,900 men survived.

Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie did fulfill his responsibilities. However, when Jacques de Chambly, was freed, the French having paid a ransom, Jean-Vincent married Pidianske and soon identified with his Abenaki tribe. He had an habitation built surrounded by wigwams.

At the foot of my last post, I inserted a video, a French television programme. The programme’s host states that Jean-Vincent was an Abenaki. It was a clear case of self-identification, but Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie, Baron de Saint-Castin, an unlikely candidate, became an Abenaki chief (sachem), no less. He was assimilated.

Bernard-Anselme d’Abbadie, Baron de Saint-Castin

Bernard-Anselme (active as of 1707) Jean-Vincent’s first-born and fourth Baron de Saint-Castin continued to cultivate the loyalty of his tribe, following in his father’s footsteps. However, he married Marie-Charlotte d’Amours de Chauffours, of Port-Royal, the daughter of Louis d’Amours de Chauffours (born at Quebec – died in Paris, 1718). He thereby entered a prominent French family.

Bernard-Anselme began by dividing his time between Port-Royal, where he had his family residence, and Pentagouet, his native village, which remained an advanced bastion of the Acadian defences. But he was not really an Abenaki chief in the absolute sense, as his father had been[.] (Bernard-Anselme, DCB/DBC.)[1]

His sisters also married in the best Acadian families:

In December the baron’s sisters married Philippe Mius d’Entremont and Alexandre Le Borgne de Belle-Isle respectively; thus the Saint-Castins, Franco-Abenaki half-breeds, became linked by marriage with the best Acadian families.” (See Bernard-Anselme, DCB/DBC.) [2]

When news of Jean-Vincent’s death reached Nouvelle-France, Bernard-Anselme viewed himself as fourth Baron d’Abbadie de Saint-Castin, a title he would later claim.

In 1714, a year after Acadia fell to the British, by virtue of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Bernard Anselme and Marie-Charlotte sailed to France. In 1717, three years after his arrival in France, Bernard-Anselme, who had faced considerable opposition, was admitted into the States of the Béarn in the order of the nobility.” (Bernard-Anselme, DCB/DBC.)[3] It was a short-lived privilege as he died in 1720.

However, in the spring of 1720, he had written « Mémoire des services rendus par les sieurs de Saint-Castin, père et fils, » in which it is clearly stated that ties between the French and Native Americans protected the French and had to be secured. It is as though Bernard-Anselme were writing that Jean-Vincent, his father, had married an Amerindian in the line of duty. Bernard-Anselme died in the Béarn and was survived by his wife (d. 1734, at Pau), and his three daughters. The baronetcy fell to Marie-Anselme, Bernard-Anselme’s daughter.

The Buccaneers

Not that Bernard-Anselme was a candidate for life in 18th-century French Salons, by then the meeting place of philosophes, or intellectuals, not pirates. The life he chose was that of privateer, or buccaneer. He was in fact one of four French buccaneers, Pierre Morpain, Pierre Maisonnat, known as “Baptiste,”[4] and Daniel Robinau de Neuvillette. (Bernard-Anselme, BCB/DBC.)

In the year 1709 alone they sank 35 of their ships and took 470 of them prisoner. (Bernard-Anselme, DCB/DBC.)[5]

These buccaneers were a force to contend with.

Sir Francis Nicholson by Swedish artist Michael Dahl

Queen Anne’s War

Mighty as were buccaneers, on 5 October 1710, Acadia nevertheless fell to Francis Nicholson, commanding 2,000 soldiers and 36 ships. How could Acadia’s governor, Auger de Subercase, win this particular battle with only 500 soldiers and 127 militia men? Bernard-Anselme was on the high seas when Acadia fell to Britain. When he returned to Port-Royal, the capital of Acadie, it had been renamed Annapolis Royal, in honour of Queen Anne who supplied Nicholson with the ship, men and the artillery he required.

The Treaty of Utrecht

The Treaty of Utrecht, or Peace of Utrecht, was not signed until 1713, but Bernard-Anselme accompanied John Livingstone to Quebec, taking Acadia’s act of capitulation to Philippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor-general of New France from 1703 until 1725.

Marquis Philippe de Vaudreuil, Governor-General of New France (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bernard-Anselme, Governor of Acadie

A year later, an optimistic Vaudreuil named Bernard-Anselme d’Abbadie governor of what remained of Acadie, the current Cape Breton Island and Prince Edward Island, but Acadia, Nova Scotia and le Maine, could not be recaptured. It was still possible for Bernard-Anselme to ensure the loyalty of the Abenaki in a defeated Maine and other North American “Indians.” However, the Abenaki themselves needed the protection of the French. After King Philips’ War, a response to attacks on settlers, Amerindians knew there was little if any willingness on the part of Britain to accommodate Native Americans.

Acculturation

Allow me a “footnote.”

My last post allowed us a glimpse at a form of acculturation: a “process of cultural change and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures,” (Wikipedia). But in the case of Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie, acculturation did not happen in the direction sought by colonists, i.e. the assimilation of North American natives into a European culture. French ensign, Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie, Baron de Saint-Castin, was assimilated into Abenaki culture.

Jean-Vincent’s acculturation cannot be confused with that of Europeans involved in fur trading, beginning with the French, who married Amerindians. The history of the Bois-Brûlés (burnt wood), the Métis people of the central provinces of the current Canada, differs from that of North Eastern “Indians.” The Métis people became a separate nation. There is no Métis nation in Eastern Canada, but its population is métissé(e), often, if not mostly, unknowingly.

Joseph d’Abbadie de Saint-Castin

But to return to our tale of two brothers, Bernard-Anselme and Joseph, Joseph inherited his father’s looks. He was blue-eyed and blond. He and a yet-to-be identified brother, a third brother, continued to fight the British and were paid to do so, as had been Bernard-Anselme who died in France in 1720. Like his father Jean-Vincent, Joseph was also a chief, a great chief, of the Abenaki. In 1721, he was tricked into going aboard a British ship. He had been deceitfully invited for refreshments. Once he was aboard the ship, it lifted anchor. Joseph d’Abbadie was therefore imprisoned in Boston from November 1721 until May 1722. If he left prison, it was not for his blue eyes, but because he was a “great chief.” It seems his captors wanted to appease Amerindians.

By 1726, he was nevertheless recognized as an officer in the French army and served until 1746, when his unidentified brother died of wounds “received in a brawl” (see Joseph d’Abbadie de Saint-Castin). After the death of his brother, in 1746, Joseph was never seen again. It seems he literally “took to the woods,” or went into hiding. The French were losing the war.

Death of Wolfe by Benjamin West

The Battle of Saint-Foy by George B. Campion

Montcalm leading his troops

Death of Montcalm

Benjamin West, 1738 – 1820, The Death of Wolfe
George B. Campion, 1795 – 1870, The Battle of Sainte-Foy
Charles William Jefferys, 1869 – 1951, Montcalm (2)

updated conclusion

First our story is about self-identification. Bernard-Anselme and Joseph were sons of a different mind. One brother could be French, but not the other. Such was the reality they carved out for themselves.

Similarly, a large number of French Canadians look upon the Battle of the Plains of Abraham as the decisive event in the fall of New France. New France was conquered by Britain in a battle fought on Abraham Martin’s field on 13 September 1959.

That is not entirely the ‘truth.’ Nouvelle-France was ceded to Britain in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. In fact, there was another battle, won by the French. On 28 April 1760, the Chevalier de Lévis defeated the British at the Battle of Sainte-Foy, but it is as though this battle never occurred.

It could be that being conquered by Britain is a fate kinder than being ceded by one’s motherland, a motherland that kept its sugar-rich colonies.

—ooo—

Officially, Acadie was the first province of New France to fall to Britain, by virtue of the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, and under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, New France was conquered by Britain. It is also official that Acadians were deported in 1755 by the British and that no embittered descendant of Huguenots (French Protestants) had any role to play in this horrible event. Fortunately, I can’t remember the name of my Huguenot, which probably means that the British deported the Acadians unassisted.

As for our brothers, Bernard-Anselme was French and Joseph, an Abenaki and a chief. Our story therefore remains one of self-identification.

Reality is often conditioned by the human mind, which at times is a creative and forgiving mind. How else could we survive an otherwise horrific past?

On the third day, He rose again.

With kindest regards to all of you. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie, Baron de Saint-Castin (11 September 2015)
Louis Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran (25 March 2012)
Nouvelle-France’s Last and Lost Battle: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham (24 March 2012)

Sources and Resources

History of Castine, Penobscot, and Brooksville, Maine; including the ancient settlement of Pentagoët, Internet Archive
http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/medias/408027/question-d-images-les-vieux-pays
Georges Cerbelaud Salagnac, “ABBADIE DE SAINT-CASTIN, BERNARD-ANSELME D’, Baron de Saint-Castin,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed September 15, 2015, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/abbadie_de_saint_castin_bernard_anselme_d_2E
Georges Cerbelaud Salagnac, “ABBADIE DE SAINT-CASTIN, JOSEPH D’, Baron de SAINT-CASTIN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed September 15, 2015, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/abbadie_de_saint_castin_joseph_d_3E.html.
Bernard-Anselme d’Abbadie, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard-Anselme_d%27Abbadie_de_Saint-Castin
Joseph d’Abbadie, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_d%27Abbadie_de_Saint-Castin

____________________

Bibliography

[1] Georges Cerbelaud Salagnac, “ABBADIE DE SAINT-CASTIN, BERNARD-ANSELME D’, Baron de Saint-Castin,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed September 15, 2015, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/abbadie_de_saint_castin_bernard_anselme_d_2E

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Alexander Ross names Canadiens voyageurs ‘Baptiste,’ in Ross’s Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813 (Carlisle Massachusetts: Applewood Books Reprint [London, 1849]).

[5] Georges Cerbelaud Salagnac, op. cit.

Alfred Brendel plays Joseph Hadyn‘s Piano Sonata in E flat

The Métis in Canada

04 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Canada, Métis

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Countryborn, John Brant, John Norton, Louis Riel, Métis, Norma J. Hall, Paul Kane, Peter Rindisbacher, ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF 1763, War of 1812

: Cunnawa-bum, Metis (Plains Cree and British ancestry) by Paul Kane, c. 1849–56 (Courtesy: Art Institute of Canada)

The Métis in Canada

“The term ‘Métis’ does not mean any white person who believes they also have some Native ancestry.” (See Métis, Wikipedia.)

Many Canadians combine European and Amerindian ancestry to a lesser or greater extent. In the early years of the colony, French settlers married Amerindian women. After the arrival, between 1663 and 1673, of the “Filles du Roy,” men could marry French women.

However, we can’t presume that Quebecers of French ancestry stopped marrying Aboriginals, the minute the King’s Daughters arrived in New France. People of European extraction still marry Amerindians, but their children are not necessarily Métis in the narrow sense of the word. They are Métis if one uses the word Métis in its broadest acceptation. In other words, all Canadians who have some Aboriginal ancestry are métissés(e)s.

“Geneticists estimate that 50 percent of today’s population in Western Canada have some Aboriginal blood.” (See Métis People Canada, Wikipedia).

The Métis Nation

However, persons with aboriginal ancestry are not necessarily members of the Métis Nation. In this matter, the word “nation” makes all the difference. The people who took a dim view of the Earl of Selkirk’s endeavor to settle the Red River, which they inhabited and suddenly recognized as their home, were members of the Métis Nation, and so are their descendants. These may be the great or great-great grandchildren of French-speaking voyageurs, men who paddled canoes, but also men who managed the fort during the winter but not exclusively.

There were indeed Scottish, Irish and English fur traders who also married Amerindian women. Cuthbert Grant was a Métis. It could be that Canadiens were less reluctant to marry Amerindians. But Cuthbert Grant’s father, also named Cuthbert, nevertheless chose his wife, a woman he loved, and created a family. In short, there were Anglo-Métis, also known as Countryborn.

Cuthbert Grant (1793 – 15 July 1854) was an Anglo-Métis who may have been educated in Scotland. (See Cuthbert Grant, Wikipedia.) Young Cuthbert Grant led the Métis at the Battle of Seven Oaks, which has been called a massacre. The Métis outnumbered Governor Robert Semple and his settlers. Approximately 65 Métis fought some 28 settlers and their governor, Robert Semple. However, given that the Métis were realizing that the Red River was their territory; given, moreover that Amerindians were protected by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, it was imprudent of Governor Semple to leave the safety of Fort Douglas and venture out with settlers. However, did he know he was facing danger?

With respect to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, I should note that Cuthbert Grant, a genuine Métis, was never prosecuted. In fact, one wonders to what extent the Indian Act of 1876 (Canadian Encyclopedia) was valid. The enfranchisement or assimilation of Amerindians, advocated by Canada’s first Prime Minister, John A. MacDonald, reflects the tenets of his age, i.e. the belief that the white race was the “civilized” race. The Indian Act could therefore be viewed as an encroachment on the Royal Proclamation of 1763. So could, for that matter, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald’s role in the execution of Louis Riel, the leader of the Métis Nation. This fascinating question is for historians and constitutional scholars to debate.

To the left is a map showing the Proclamation Line. After the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 18 February 1815), which opposed Britain and the United States, the border between Canada and the United States was drawn mostly along the 49^th parallel, which means that after the Treaty of Ghent, a number of voyageurs were suddenly living in Minnesota. Many were Canadiens voyageurs who had been employees of John Jacob Astor. These voyageurs retired in Minnesota.

Louis Riel

Louis Riel (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) is the most famous Métis. He was born to a Métis father and the daughter of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière and Marianne Gaboury. The latter is the first woman of European descent to settle in the Red River Colony. So Métis would be the descendants of such persons as Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont, individuals for whom the arrival of settlers was an invasion of their nation, the Métis Nation, a people that was not recognized as Aboriginals, let alone a nation, until the Canada Act of 1982. The Canada Act or Patriated Constitution includes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.[3] The Métis stood in the wings for a very long time.

Riel, Louis and the Provisional Government Riel’s (centre), first provisional government, 1869 (courtesy Glenbow Archives/NA-1039-1). (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

The War of 1812 and Amerindians

Amerindians and Métis played a role in the War of 1812. American expansionism was a threat to Amerindians, so they fought alongside the British and their valor has been recognized.
https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1348771334472/1348771382418

Shawnee chief Tecumseh was killed on 5 October 1813 at the Battle of the Thames (Moraviantown). Both Métis Mohawk Chief John Brant and Métis John Norton, Six Nations War Chief, also distinguished themselves in the War of 1812 (The Canadian Encyclopedia).

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/29

Chief John Norton

Chief Tecumseh

Artists as Chroniclers

We have seen some watercolours by Peter Rindisbacher. Swiss-born Peter Rindisbacher’s family moved to the United States. Peter settled in St. Louis, but he had lived in the Red River Colony and had made watercolours, a portrayal of the life of Amerindians and Métis. Consequently, he alone depicted Assiniboia itself.

Homes on narrow river lots along the Red River in 1822 by Peter Rindisbacher with Fort Douglas in the background (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Winter Fishing on the Ice by Peter Rindisbacher, 1821 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

However, Paul Kane (1810 – 1871) bequeathed a more complete tableau of Canada’s Amerindians, including Métis, than Peter Rindisbacher. I have therefore included a National Film Board documentary on Paul Kane. However, American artist Alfred Jacob Miller‘s “Trapper’s Bride” has to appear on the front cover of the book telling the story of the children born to voyageurs, fur traders and, perhaps, bourgeois. Companies hired voyageurs, but so did bourgeois.

Conclusion

In short there are Métis and there are Métis. Thousands of Canadians have Amerindian ancestry, which makes them Métis if the word is given its broadest meaning. People belonging to the Métis Nation are the descendants of the people engaged in the fur trade who married Amerindian women and whose children were “Countryborn.” They live in Manitoba and Saskatchewan or they originate from these two prairie provinces. Louis Riel was executed in Regina, Saskatchewan, not Manitoba.

I have read many books on the voyageurs and started with Grace Lee Nute’s The Voyageur, first published in 1931. The Voyageur is a perfect introduction to the topic of voyageurs and their songs. Pierre Falcon was a Métis singer-songwriter who composed a song celebrating the Métis victory at Seven Oaks: La Chanson de la grenouillère [from frog, grenouille].

Norma J. Hall, Ph.D.

But we have reached the end of this post. WordPress author Norma J. Hall, Ph.D. has published authoritative posts on Assiniboia and provided lovely images. I would encourage you to read her articles. (See Sources and Resources, below.)

RELATED ARTICLES

The Red River Settlement (30 May 2015)
Louis Riel as Father of Confederation (22 May 2012)

Sources and Resources

Provisional Government of Assiniboia, by Norma J. Hall, Ph.D. https://hallnjean2.wordpress.com/the-red-river-resistance/children-of-red-river/
Aboriginal Contributions to the War of 1812
(Masson) Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest. vol II (Internet Archives) EN
(Masson) Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest. vol I (Internet Archives) FR
(Dr J. J. Bigsby) The Shoe and Canoe. vol I (Internet Archives) EN
War Museum Canada, 1812
http://www.warmuseum.ca/1812/

With kindest regards. ♥
____________________

[1] Voyageurs were mostly Canadiens, but the Bourgeois who hired them originated from various countries. St. Louis, Missouri where Peter Rindisbacher moved, was a city founded by Frenchmen Pierre Laclède, a fur trader, and Auguste Chouteau, a Louisiana fur trader. St. Louis was in French Louisiana, before its purchase by the United States in 1803.

[2] The Canada Act of 1982

35. (1) The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.

(2) In this Act, “aboriginal peoples of Canada” includes the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.

(3) For greater certainty, in subsection (1) “treaty rights” includes rights that now exist by way of land claims agreements or may be so acquired.

(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the aboriginal and treaty rights referred to in subsection (1) are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.

Paul Kane Goes West: a NFB/onF Documentary

Short documentary by the National Film Board of Canada. It is a 1972 production by Gerard Budner (1972: 14 min 28 s.). (Simply click on the link below to see the film.)

https://www.nfb.ca/film/paul_kane_goes_west

Paul Kane Project, Royal Ontario Museum

Aboriginals in Canada

14 Thursday May 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Canada, First Nations, Inuit, Métis

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Aboriginals, Alfred Jacob Miller, Amerindian, First Nations, Indian Act, Indian Register, Inuit, Métis, Nunavut, Walters Art Museum

“Bourgeois” W—r, and His Squaw, Alfred Jacob Miller (Courtesy Walters Art Museum, Baltimore)

“Apparently we have administered the vast territories of the north in an almost continuing absence of mind.”
Louis Saint-Laurent (12th Prime Minister of Canada)

—ooo—

The quotation above suggests that Canada has neglected its Inuit, known as Eskimos (Esquimaux; FR). It did, until 1939.

“In 1939, the Supreme Court of Canada found, in a decision known as Re Eskimos, that the Inuit should be considered Indians and were thus under the jurisdiction of the federal government.” (See Inuit, Wikipedia.)

Matters have changed as the stories of Nunavut and Nunavik confirm. Nunavut is now a separate part of Northern Canada. As for Nunavik, it is Northern Quebec, but Inuit also live in Labrador-Newfoundland (pronounced New-fen-land) (Terre-Neuve; FR) as well as Alaska (US), Siberia (Russia), and Greenland (Denmark). We will deal with Canadian Inuit only.

In English, the word Inuit is the plural form of Inuk, but in French one says un Inuit (singular) and des Inuits (plural). Esquimaux is the plural form of Esquimau.

Presents to Indians by Alfred Jacob Miller (Courtesy Walters Art Museum, Baltimore)

North American “Indians”

Let us begin at the beginning.

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia (see Indian), it seems Christopher Columbus, known as the discoverer of America (1492 CE), was the first person to use the term “Indian.” He may have thought he had discovered India, as would Jacques Cartier in 1534 CE. At any rate, the term spread to include nearly all American Aboriginals, with the probable exception of Eskimos (Esquimaux; FR).

People have started using the words Aboriginal and Amerindian (Autochtone et Amérindien-ne) with respect to “Indians.” However, although Eskimo has become a pejorative descriptor in the eyes of Inuit, Aboriginals may still be referred to as Indians, but less so as Eskimos, in the case of Inuit …

Groups of Canadian aboriginals

In Canada, there are three groups of recognized Aboriginals:

the First Nations, bands living all over Canada;
the Métis (mixed blood), the descendants of voyageurs (French mainly, but also Scottish or Irish) who married Amerindians and live mainly in what is now Manitoba (from Manitou);
the Inuit, the inhabitants of Nunavut (Northwest Territories) and Nunavik (Northern Quebec and Labrador).

Until recently, however, only First Nations Amerindians were status Amerindians, most of whom lived on Indian reserves.

According to the census of 2011, Canada totaled 1,400,685 people, or 4.3% of the national population. These are “spread over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands with distinctive cultures, languages, art, and music.” (See Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Wikipedia.)

Images: Alfred Jacob Miller (2 January 1810 – 26 June 1874)
Crossing the North Fork of the Platte River (Courtesy Walters Art Museum)
Indian Girl with Papoose Crossing Stream (Courtesy Walters Art Museum)

Crossing the North Fork of the Platte River, AJ Miller

Indian Girl with Papoose Crossing Stream, AJ Miller

Governance

The Indian Act
The Indian Register
status Amerindians
The Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada

The rights of Amerindians in Canada were first recognized by George III, king of the United Kingdom, in his Royal Proclamation of 1763. Members of the Royal family still receive gifts from Amerindians who feared that having lost the protection of the French, who offered gifts, settlers would invade their land and endanger their life. The genocide of Amerindians could well be the worst ever. They were massacred. England drew a proclamation line behind which the aboriginals of its new colony would be secure. A Royal Proclamation also protected Britain’s French-speaking subjects.

As you know, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 was of a temporary nature, but it was reaffirmed in the Constitution Act (1867). However, the Indian Act, passed in 1876, harmed Amerindians in that its aim was enfranchisement or assimilation. The Indian Act is a “Canadian statute that concerns registered Indians, their bands, and the system of Indian reserves.” (See Indian Act, Wikipedia.) The rights of Amerindians were reaffirmed in the Canada Act (1982), a document which includes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“[T]he Constitution Act, 1982 entrenched in the Constitution of Canada all the rights granted in native treaties and land claims agreements enacted before 1982, giving the rights outlined in the original agreement the status of constitutional rights.” (See James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, Wikipedia.)

Note the word “registered.” The Indian Register has been the list of status or registered Amerindians. Status Amerindians are First Nations Amerindians. Métis are in the process of becoming status Amerindians, but …

Status Amerindians have certain rights and privileges:

“the granting of reserves and of rights associated with them, an extended hunting season, a less restricted right to bear arms, an exemption from federal and provincial taxes, and more freedom in the management of gaming and tobacco franchises via less government interference and taxes.” (See Indian Register, Wikipedia.)

In Ottawa, Aboriginals are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC), Affaires autochtones et du développement du Nord canadien, AADNC, formerly named the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. However, not all aboriginals are considered status Aboriginals. As noted above, the Métis have only begun to gain recognition.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/court-of-appeal-upholds-landmark-ruling-on-rights-of-m%C3%A9tis-1.2613834

Greenland Eskimo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Canadian inuit

Inuit were also latecomers. They were not recognized as aboriginals until 1939 and are not status Amerindians. There are four groups of Inuit, two of which live in Nunavut and Nunavik.

Nunavut

Furthermore, Inuit have only recently been associated with a particular territory and a particular language. Nunavut did not become a separate territory until 1 April 1999. On that day, it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act. Nunavut’s Inuit speak Inuvialuktun.

Nunavik (Québec)

In theory, the federal government has sole jurisdiction over Aboriginals,

“Section 91 (clause 24) of the Constitution Act, 1867 gives the federal government (as opposed to the provinces) the sole responsibility for “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians”. The government inherited treaty obligations from the British colonial authorities in Eastern Canada and signed treaties itself with First Nations in Western Canada (the Numbered Treaties).” (See Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Wikipedia.)

Nunavik, however, is a community of Québec Inuit who speak Inuktitut. They are protected as per the Royal Proclamation of 1763.

In the 1960s, Quebec started developing hydroelectric resources in the north. It built the Manicouagan Reservoir and, in 1971, it created the James Bay Development Corporation to “pursue the development of mining, forestry and other potential resources starting with James Bay Hydroelectric Project, without consulting the native people.” The Quebec Association of Indians “sued the government and on 15 November 1973 won an injunction in the Quebec Superior Court blocking hydroelectric development until the province had negotiated an agreement with the natives.” The injunction was overruled, but in the end Quebec had to sit at the negotiation table. (See James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, Wikipedia.)

At the moment, Québec has its own Assemblée des Premières Nations du Québec et du Labrador (APNQL) and its Inuit live in Nunavik, Northern Quebec. Inuktitut, the language spoken by the inhabitants of Nunavik, is an officially recognized language under the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101; 1977).

Nunavut

Nunavik (Québec)

The Métis

We have discussed the Métis, both in voyageur posts (see Canadiana 1) and telling the story of Louis Riel.

Riel’s story is a testimonial with respect to the hurdles Aboriginals had to face, the worst of which was assimilation. So I will break here and deal with assimilative measures that could have led to the destruction of Canada’s Amerindians. I am certain that former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien sought the welfare of aboriginals in his 1969 White Paper, but abolishing the Indian Act would have resulted in the disappearance of Canadian Amerindians. They protested.

Inuit are now educated in their own mother tongue, but climate changes are threatening their livelihood. They use kayaks instead of canoes. Martin Frobisher was the first European to meet an Inuit.

With kindest regards to all of you. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 (Indigenous Foundations) (6 May 2015)
Louis Riel as a Father of Confederation (22 May 2013)
The Week in Review & Louis Riel Revisited (20 January 2013)
Sir Martin Frobisher as Privateer and Hero to his Queen (26 November 2012)

Sources and Resources

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (25)
Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nation Peoples, Métis and Inuit
1969 White Paper
James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement
James Bay = la Jamésie

Inuit
Beate von Horn, producer
Mari Boine Persen (Norwegian Sami singer)
translation – Vuoi Vuoi Mu, Idjagiedas

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 (Indigenous Foundations)

06 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Canada

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Métis, ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF 1763, The Indian Magna Carta, voyageurs

The Trapper’s Bride by Alfred Jacob Miller (American, 1810-1874), 1850 (Photo credit: Joslyn Art Museum)

Put simply, Canada’s Aboriginal peoples were here when Europeans came, and were never conquered.

Canadian Aboriginal Art at the Senate

The history of Canadian Aboriginals in Canada differs from the history of American Aboriginals. The French did exploit Amerindians by providing them with alcohol and trinkets in return for precious pelts. However, François de Laval (1623 – 1708), the bishop of Quebec, threatened to excommunicate the “sinners.”

As for Amerindians, they tortured to death several missionaries. The best-known is Jean de Brébeuf. Mohawks, allies of the British, captured and tortured Europeans. One of their victims was Pierre-Esprit Radisson (1636 – 1710), who was saved by his Amerindian family and eventually escaped. He and his brother-in-law, Médard des Groseillers (1618 – 1696), discovered the sea to the north, the Hudson Bay. Fur traders could henceforth travel by boat to collect beaver pelts.

The French Régime

the settlers’ dependence on Amerindians
anedda
birch-bark canoes
voyageurs
Métis
pemmican

In 1535, the year after he claimed Canada for France, Jacques Cartier failed to return to France before the onset of winter. Several members of his crew started to die of scurvy. Amerindians supplied Cartier with infusions of thuja occidentalis, white cedar, and saved his men. Jacques Cartier was at Stadacona, an Iroquoian (Mohawk) village near the current Quebec City. This was Cartier’s second trip to what would become New France in the first decade of the 17th century. He was returning his sons, Domayaga and Taignoagny, to Chief Donnacona.

The French also owe Amerindians their birch-bark canoes. These were light and could be built in very little time with material nature provided. How would Canadiens have become voyageurs and guides to explorers without the birch-bark canoes? The voyageurs learned Amerindian languages—there were and are several—and Amerindians prepared their food, pemmican.

More importantly, given that France had sent very few women to New France until 1663, when the King’s Daughters, les filles du roy, started arriving, a significant number of French settlers married Amerindian women.

So did Voyageurs. Some signed a three-year contract and stayed at the trading posts during the winter. They often married an Amerindian woman. They founded a people: the Métis, recognized aboriginals who speak Michif, a mixed language. Recognized aboriginals comprise the First Nations, the Inuit and the Métis.

The best-known Métis is the ill-fated Louis Riel, the “Father of Manitoba” and the grandson of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière and Marie-Anne Gaboury “the first woman of European descent to travel to and settle in what is now Western Canada.” (See Marie-Anne Gaboury, Wikipedia)

Pierre Le Royer, coureur des bois, 1889

Louis Riel, the “Father of Manitoba”

Arrival of Radisson in an Indian Camp, Charles William Jefferys, 1660

Conference between the French and First Nations leaders. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Proclamation of 1763: the Indian Magna Carta

When New France became a British colony, Amerindians feared for their survival. Settlers wanted their land. England’s answer was the Proclamation of 1763. The Proclamation of 1763 protected the French and it also protected aboriginals.

This story resembles that of the Quebec Act of 1774 which put England’s new French colony on an equal footing with British settlers by allowing them to keep their language, their faith, their seigneuries and their Code civil.

Where aboriginals are concerned, the Proclamation of 1763 became their Magna Carta. It in fact turned 250 years old in 2013 and is enshrined in the Canada Act of 1982.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/royal-proclamation-of-1763-canada-s-indian-magna-carta-turns-250-1.1927667

If one is looking for the underpinnings of the Constitution of 1867 and Patriated Constitution of 1982, the Canada Act, the Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774 are fundamental texts.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development

Canada has a Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development and a Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. Jean Chrétien, a former Prime Minister of Canada, was Minister of Indian Affairs for six years.

His [Jean Chrétien’s] one bold attempt to change how Ottawa traditionally dealt with native Canadians – the 1969 White Paper on “Indian Policy” – was so spectacularly repudiated by Indian leaders as a denial of their special status in Canada that it took him years to overcome their suspicions about his underlying motives.

Conclusion

We are not ready for a conclusion. This story is a very long one and it has a few sad chapters. However, we have seen that the bonds that developed between Amerindians and the French were often dictated by need, but they were true bonds. For instance, the French needed not only canoes, but snowshoes and the appropriate clothes. They used what the Amerindians used.

Moreover, after New France was ceded to Britain, both the inhabitants of New France and Amerindians were protected by Britain. The British may have had a motive: the Thirteen Colonies wanted their independence. There would be a war. Therefore, it was best not to alienate those who might help or to make sure they remained neutral. However, what seemed to be temporary became permanent. The rights given Amerindians became permanent rights. Such is also the case with the Quebec Act of 1774. There are separatists and extremists, but there has also been a long and mostly compatible partnership.

My kindest regards to all of you. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

In these Fairylike Boats …
The Singing Voyageurs
The Voyageur Mythified
The Voyageur from Sea to Sea
The Voyageur & his Canoe
The Voyageurs & their Employers
The Voyageurs: hommes engagés (hired men)←

Sources and Resources

Jacques Cartier, First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Mohawks, Proclamation of 1673, Louis Riel, Canadian Encyclopedia
indigenous.foundations.arts.ubc.ca (University of British Columbia)
How did the Seven Years War Affect Native Americans?
The war that made Canada (National Post)
http://www.cbc.ca/revisionquest/
Canadian Aboriginal law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Aboriginal_law
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples 1991

—ooo—

According to the Canada Act of 1982

35 (1) The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.

(2) In this Act, “aboriginal peoples of Canada” includes the Indian, Inuit, and Metis peoples of Canada.

(3) For greater certainty, in subsection (1) “treaty rights” includes rights that now exist by way of land claims agreements or may be so acquired.

(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the aboriginal and treaty rights referred to in subsection (1) are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.

35.1 The government of Canada and the provincial governments are committed to the principal that, before any amendment is made to Class 24 of section 91 of the “Constitution Act, 1867”, to section 25 of this Act or to this Part,

(a) a constitutional conference that includes in its agenda an item relating to the proposed amendment, composed of the Prime Minister of Canada and the first ministers of the provinces, will be convened by the Prime Minister of Canada; and

(b) the Prime Minister of Canada will invite representatives of the aboriginal peoples of Canada to participate in the discussions on that item.

Royal Proclamation of 1763

And whereas it is just and reasonable, and essential to our Interest, and the Security of our Colonies, that the several Nations or Tribes of Indians with whom We are connected, and who live under our Protection, should not be molested or disturbed in the Possession of such Parts of Our Dominions and Territories as, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are reserved to them, or any of them, as their Hunting Grounds — We do therefore, with the Advice of our Privy Council, declare it to be our Royal Will and Pleasure, that no Governor or Commander in Chief in any of our Colonies of Quebec, East Florida. or West Florida, do presume, upon any Pretence whatever, to grant Warrants of Survey, or pass any Patents for Lands beyond the Bounds of their respective Governments. as described in their Commissions: as also that no Governor or Commander in Chief in any of our other Colonies or Plantations in America do presume for the present, and until our further Pleasure be known, to grant Warrants of Survey, or pass Patents for any Lands beyond the Heads or Sources of any of the Rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the West and North West, or upon any Lands whatever, which, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us as aforesaid, are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them.

And We do further declare it to be Our Royal Will and Pleasure, for the present as aforesaid, to reserve under our Sovereignty, Protection, and Dominion, for the use of the said Indians, all the Lands and Territories not included within the Limits of Our said Three new Governments, or within the Limits of the Territory granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company, as also all the Lands and Territories lying to the Westward of the Sources of the Rivers which fall into the Sea from the West and North West as aforesaid.

And We do hereby strictly forbid, on Pain of our Displeasure, all our loving Subjects from making any Purchases or Settlements whatever, or taking Possession of any of the Lands above reserved, without our especial leave and Licence for that Purpose first obtained.

And We do further strictly enjoin and require all Persons whatever who have either wilfully or inadvertently seated themselves upon any Lands within the Countries above described. or upon any other Lands which, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are still reserved to the said Indians as aforesaid, forthwith to remove themselves from such Settlements.

And whereas great Frauds and Abuses have been committed in purchasing Lands of the Indians, to the great Prejudice of our Interests. and to the great Dissatisfaction of the said Indians: In order, therefore, to prevent such Irregularities for the future, and to the end that the Indians may be convinced of our Justice and determined Resolution to remove all reasonable Cause of Discontent, We do, with the Advice of our Privy Council strictly enjoin and require, that no private Person do presume to make any purchase from the said Indians of any Lands reserved to the said Indians, within those parts of our Colonies where We have thought proper to allow Settlement: but that, if at any Time any of the Said Indians should be inclined to dispose of the said Lands, the same shall be Purchased only for Us, in our Name, at some public Meeting or Assembly of the said Indians, to be held for that Purpose by the Governor or Commander in Chief of our Colony respectively within which they shall lie: and in case they shall lie within the limits of any Proprietary Government, they shall be purchased only for the Use and in the name of such Proprietaries, conformable to such Directions and Instructions as We or they shall think proper to give for that Purpose: And we do, by the Advice of our Privy Council, declare and enjoin, that the Trade with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our Subjects whatever, provided that every Person who may incline to Trade with the said Indians do take out a Licence for carrying on such Trade from the Governor or Commander in Chief of any of our Colonies respectively where such Person shall reside, and also give Security to observe such Regulations as We shall at any Time think fit, by ourselves or by our Commissaries to be appointed for this Purpose, to direct and appoint for the Benefit of the said Trade:

And we do hereby authorize, enjoin, and require the Governors and Commanders in Chief of all our Colonies respectively, as well those under Our immediate Government as those under the Government and Direction of Proprietaries, to grant such Licences without Fee or Reward, taking especial Care to insert therein a Condition, that such Licence shall be void, and the Security forfeited in case the Person to whom the same is granted shall refuse or neglect to observe such Regulations as We shall think proper to prescribe as aforesaid.

And we do further expressly conjoin and require all Officers whatever, as well Military as those Employed in the Management and Direction of Indian Affairs, within the Territories reserved as aforesaid for the use of the said Indians, to seize and apprehend all Persons whatever, who standing charged with Treason, Misprisions of Treason, Murders, or other Felonies or Misdemeanors, shall fly from Justice and take Refuge in the said Territory, and to send them under a proper guard to the Colony where the Crime was committed, of which they stand accused, in order to take their Trial for the same.

Given at our Court at St. James’s the 7th Day of October 1763, in the Third Year of our Reign.

GOD SAVE THE KING

George III (See Indigenous Foundations)

The Week in Review & Louis Riel Revisited

20 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, History, Métis

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Abenakis, Battle of Batoche, Louis Riel, Métis, Pauline Marois, Quebec, Thomas Hobbes, United States

: Abenakis (Algonkian Amerindians), 18th Century (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Summary of this week’s Posts

What a week! This is what I wrote last Sunday when putting an end to that week’s posts. This week, I expressed my wish for Canadian unity, using a quotation from Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part II, xxii). Hobbes looked upon “private force” as unlawful. It was a breach of the “social contract.” (See Thomas Hobbes on “Private Force”.)

I then remembered that on 4 September 2012, a man had tried to kill Premier-elect Pauline Marois. This time, violence was not used by a member of a terrorist cell of an “indépendantiste” Québécois Party. The shooter was a bilingual Quebecer and his weapon was a gun. Richard Henry Bain, the accused, is about to stand trial, if doctors determine he is fit to appear in court. If so, gun ownership may be an issue. The Newtown Massacre has triggered a debate that is likely to spill over the US border and may spare Québécois and Quebecers another painful referendum. Secession from Canada, on the part of Quebec, is an endeavor that requires serious examination. (See Shooter Aimed at Premier-elect Pauline Marois.)

Finally, I remembered that although the settlers of New France had to defend themselves against attacks by Iroquoians and built fortresses, for most of its history, Canada has needed its Amerindians to ensure the “security of the state.”[i] It started during the winter of 1535-1536, when Amerindians came to the rescue of Frenchmen dying of scurvy. Later, in the seventeenth century, French settlers married Amérindiennes because France had not sent women. The French in Canada are métissés. Then came the voyageurs who needed the guidance of Amerindians. (See Shooter Aimed at Premier-elect Pauline Marois)

Music of the Week

If I had to choose, my favorite music of the week would be “If Ye Love Me” by English composer Thomas Tallis (30 January 1505 – 23 November 1585, Greenwich), yet I also love Sir Henry Wood‘s ‘Suite No. 6,’ a transcription of J. S. Bach‘s ‘Lament,’ the ‘Adagio’ from Bach’s ‘Capriccio on the Departure of His Most Beloved Brother’ in Bb major, BWV 992. YouTube released this video on 17 January and I featured it the very same day. I am glad I do not have to choose.

Hero of the Week

Louis Riel (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885), a Member of Parliament, a Métis leader, almost a lawyer (he studied Law), the Father of Manitoba and a Father of the Confederation remains a controversial figure. He was executed at the age of 41, in Regina, Saskatchewan. I mentioned him in one of this week’s post, but had previously written about him. (See From Coast to Coast: Louis Riel as Father of the Confederation)

The Above Image

The Abenakis are Algonkian/Algonquian Amerindians. They first lived in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, but moved to what is now Quebec. Many died of diseases brought by Europeans, smallpox, in particular. There are Abenakis to this day. They live in Vermont, Quebec and New Brunswick. However, most have been assimilated and most have long converted to Catholicism. Given that they converted to Catholicism early, settlers may have chosen brides among Abenakis.

The Theme

So the week had a theme. Hobbes condemned factious “private forces.” People want to protect their identity, but need they create a country within a country. People also want to protect themselves, but need they carry dangerous firearms and create militias that threaten rather than protect “the security of a free state.” Do we have the right to encourage discontent? Last Spring, Quebec students whose tuition fees are the lowest in Canada opposed a small raise, a few hundred dollars. Madame Marois stepped in.

—ooo—

I am including a video on the Métis of Batoche. The Métis were defeated at the Battle of Batoche (9 May – 12 May, 1885). Louis Riel was hanged on 16 November 1885. Gabriel Dumont, who had requested Riel’s help, had fled to the United States.

Louis Riel as Father of Confederation

22 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Canada, Métis

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Gabriel Dumont, Hudson's Bay Company, Lagimonière, Louis Riel, Manitoba, Métis, Ontario Orangemen, Red River Rebellion, The Earl of Selkirk, Thomas Scott

Buffalo Hunt, by Peter Rindisbacher (1806-1834; aged 28)

A Métis Family by Peter Rindisbacher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Coast to Coast

John A. MacDonald was the first Prime Minister of Canada and a Father of Confederation

George-Étienne Cartier was a Quebec Leader and a Father of Confederation

Gabriel Dumont (a Métis leader) took Riel to Saskatchewan (second Rebellion)

Louis Riel is the grandson of Jean-Baptiste Lagimonière (1778-1855), a farmer and a voyageur who made a name for himself. On April 21,1806, he married Anne-Marie Gaboury (1780 – 1875), the first white woman resident in the west, and the grandmother of legendary Louis Riel.

Louis riel

The Lagimonières had several children: four girls and four boys and, for a time, they became a very prosperous family. One of the Lagimonière daughters, Julie, married a Métis, a neighbour named Louis Riel, and is the mother of Louis and is the mother of Louis Riel (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885; aged 41) who is considered the father of Manitoba.

Louis Riel

Louis Riel (1844 -1885; by hanging)

An intellectually-gifted child, Louis Riel was sent to the Petit Séminaire, in Montréal, to prepare for the priesthood. He dropped out before graduation and studied law under Rodolphe Laflamme.

He was not very fond of the subtleties of laws and slowly found his way back to Manitoba working odd jobs in Chicago and St Paul, Minnesota, where many of the voyageurs employed by John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company had retired. He then travelled back to the Red River settlement, which had changed during his absence.

The Settlers, the Surveyors and William McDougall

On his arrival in St-Boniface, the current French area of Winnipeg, Riel observed that settlers had arrived from Ontario. They were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants who disliked Catholics. Many were Orangemen or Orangists. Settlers had also moved up from the United States.
As well, land surveyors were dividing up the land, but not in the manner it had been divided formerly. The long strips of land of New France were becoming square lots. This land still belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company, but the Crown was preparing for a purchase (1869) and no room was being made for the Métis.
Moreover, William McDougall, an outsider, had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the territory and was overseeing the progress of the land surveyors.
As for the Métis, they had suffered from an invasion of grasshoppers, so food was scarce. Moreover, immigrants were walking all over the Métis’ flower-beds, metaphorically speaking. They therefore needed a leader and went to Louis Riel for help.

The Red River Rebellion: the First ‘Treason’

Riel quickly organizes a “national committee” to put an end to the surveyors’ work.
On 2 November 1869, Riel and his men capture Fort Garry unopposed.
However, John Christian Schultz and John Stoughton Dennis start to prepare for an armed conflict.
The Federal Government recalls McDougall and orders are given to end the work of the surveyors.
Riel has John Christian Schultz and John Stoughton Dennis imprisoned in Fort Garry and
Riel and his Métis establish the Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia:

Scott and Boulton recruit a small army and are joined

by a surveyor, Thomas Scott, an Orangeman, and
by a soldier named Charles Boulton.

Charles Boulton is pardoned, but
Thomas Scott, an Orangeman, is executed despite pleas on the part of Donald Smith of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Manitoba enters into Confederation: 12 May 1870

The Bishop of Saint-Boniface, Bishop Taché, returns from Rome carrying and amnesty proclamation for all acts previously performed. At this point, a committee of Métis reach an agreement and the Manitoba Law is passed on 12 May 1870. The Federal Government gives land to the Métis and makes both French and English the official languages of the new Province of Manitoba.

Louis Riel

is elected into office in 1873;
He is re-elected to the Federal Assembly in 1874, but a motion to expel him from the room was proposed by Orangist or Orangeman Mackenzie Bowell and was passed.
But Riel is re-elected into office. However, he will not sit with other members of Parliament.

At about the same time, Ambroise Lépine, who condemned Thomas Scott to death, is also condemned to death for the “murder” of Thomas Scott, but his sentence is commuted. He spends two years in jail and loses all his rights. However, Lépine and Riel are amnestied, in February 1875.

Next, Riel spends nearly three years (1875-1878) in hospital where he was treated for depression. He has turned to religion and feels he has a divine mission to guide his people.

Riel was released from hospital and went to the United States where he managed to earn a living, became an American citizen, joined the Republican Party and, in 1880, he married a Métis woman, Marguerite Monet (1861-1886). Riel fathered three children. His wife, Marguerite, died of tuberculosis in May 1886. She lived with Louis Riel’s mother, Julie Lagimonière.

North-West Rebellion (1885): The second ‘treason’

But in June 1884, Riel is asked, by Saskatchewan Métis, Gabriel Dumont, to help Métis whose rights are being violated. Riel goes to Saskatchewan believing that it is his divine mission to do so. He takes over a Church in Batoche, Saskatchewan, gathers a small army, but on 6 July 1885, he is officially arrested and accused of ‘treason.’

Appeals fail so Louis Riel is hanged in Regina on 16 November 1885 and the body is then sent by train to Saint-Vital and he is buried in the cemetery of the Cathedral at Saint-Boniface.

To this day, opinion remains divided as to Riel’s guilt.

Comments

As for the North-West Rebellion of 1885, it was ‘treason.’ Riel was found guilty and condemned to death, but the judge had asked for clemency. However, Orangists remembered the execution of Thomas Scott and despite appeals Riel was hanged ostensibly for ‘treason,’ but also, in all likelihood, for the “murder” of Thomas Scott.

Riel, who was hanged for ‘treason,’ is nevertheless a Father of Confederation.

These videos tell the story:

Buffalo Hunt, P. Rindisbacher