Gabriel Dumont

Gabriel Dumont (born December 1837, Red River Settlement [Canada]—died May 19, 1906, Bellevue, Saskatchewan, Canada) was a Métis leader who rose to political prominence in an age of declining buffalo herds and was concerned about the ongoing economic prosperity and political independence of his people. He was a prominent hunt chief and warrior, but he is best known for his role in the North-West Resistance (1885) as a key Métis military commander and ally of Louis Riel.

Early life

Gabriel Dumont was the eldest son of hunter Isidore Dumont and grandson of French Canadian voyageur Jean-Baptiste Dumont. The Dumonts were a prominent Métis buffalo hunting family with a notable history of brigade leadership in the Saskatchewan country. They made their living as free hunters trading pemmican and hides with the Hudson’s Bay Company. Introduced to Métis buffalo hunting life in his early childhood, Gabriel Dumont mastered the many necessities of prairie life. Dumont could converse in seven languages (although he never learned more than a few words of English); he was an excellent marksman with both bow and rifle; he was a splendid horseman who possessed an extensive knowledge of prairie geography; and, like other Métis leaders, he had mastered the diplomatic culture of the northern plains.

In 1851, at age 13, Dumont was introduced to plains warfare when he fought at the Battle of Grand Coteau, defending a Métis encampment against a large Dakota war party. In 1862, accompanied by his father, he concluded a treaty between the Métis and the Dakota. Later, he helped sign a treaty with the Blackfoot, which led to a lasting peace with the Métis’ traditional enemies.

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Rise to political prominence

Dumont’s skill as a buffalo hunter led in 1863 to his election as hunt chief of the Saskatchewan Métis, a role he maintained until about 1881, by which time buffalo herds had virtually disappeared from the region. Dumont took no direct part in the Red River Resistance of 1869–70, although he did rush to Fort Garry to offer military assistance to resist Colonel Garnet Wolseley’s expeditionary force. Some sources indicate that Riel’s Provisional Government declined the offer, hoping instead for a peaceful resolution. During the 1870s and 1880s, Dumont owned a farm and operated a ferry at Gabriel’s Crossing near a place on the South Saskatchewan River where many Métis families settled after being pushed out of Manitoba.

Dumont was a visionary leader who recognized that the decline of the buffalo alongside increased Canadian agricultural settlement would result in great change on the prairies. He undertook a long-term political program aimed at maintaining the political and economic independence of Saskatchewan Métis. On 10 December 1873, Dumont called a meeting to form a new government for the Métis settlement of St. Laurent on the South Saskatchewan River. He was immediately elected president of the new Council of St. Laurent. A Métis government based on the buffalo hunt, the council institutionalized the Métis system of landholding on the South Saskatchewan River and devised a foundational legal code. With popular participation, Dumont instituted a formalized constitution that was written down for posterity by the local priest, Father André. As president, Dumont oversaw a committee of elected councillors and assumed the role of mediator, working out disputes among the people of St. Laurent. However, with Canada’s claim to sole governing authority in the region, the Council of St. Laurent faced political interference from its inception. Dumont had made clear to Canadian officials that the community was simply forming a local government and not a secessionist movement, and many colonial officials saw little cause for alarm. When officials in London, England, were notified of the movement, the British Secretary for the Colonies wrote that “it would be difficult to take strong exception to the acts of a community which appears to have honestly endeavoured to maintain order by the best means in its power.”

At the same time, the council did seek a degree of autonomous sovereignty and had no intention of relinquishing the territory to the Canadian land surveyors who began arriving in the 1870s and refused to respect the Métis system of land tenure. Sir John Alexander Macdonald’s government, meanwhile, showed no signs that they intended to treat the Métis as a self-governing indigenous people, and the arrival of the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1874 significantly increased tensions.

Dumont, Riel, and the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan

Dumont and his council sent several petitions to Ottawa in the early 1880s, insisting that Parliament recognize their land holdings and include river lots in the Dominion survey of the West. Having received no official response, the Métis at St. Laurent felt compelled to protect their land on their own terms. Dumont and several of his councillors decided in March 1884 to approach Louis Riel, whom the Métis considered an expert on dealing with Canada. A delegation was dispatched two months later to request that Riel travel to Saskatchewan to advise the people there on how to protect their lands and their freedoms. Dumont travelled with three others to St. Peter’s Jesuit Mission in the Montana Territory and convinced Riel to travel north to the Saskatchewan country. Riel and Dumont would develop a close friendship from that point on.

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In March 1885, as Métis attempts to negotiate with the Dominion government had still gone unanswered, Dumont called a general meeting of the St. Laurent Métis at Batoche. Several of the Métis present suggested taking up arms to defend their lands against Canadian settlement. Dumont offered to lead the St. Laurent defence if the people were committed to it. When this meeting later resolved to form a new provisional government—the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan—in order to negotiate with Canada and defend Métis lands, Dumont was chosen as the “adjutant-general,” organizing about 300 Métis soldiers in the same manner as the buffalo hunt. While Riel was officially the president of the provisional government, Dumont remained a central leader in the community and responsible for many political and military decisions.