Dumont, Gabriel

Gabriel Dumont, Métis leader (b at Red River Dec 1837; d near Batoche, Sask 19 May 1906). Gabriel Dumont, son of Métis hunter Isidore Dumont and grandson of French Canadian voyageur Jean-Baptiste Dumont, was brought up to the free prairie life of the age before government entered the West. Though he could not read or write, he knew 6 languages; he was a good shot with bow and rifle, a splendid horseman and canoeist and an unrivalled guide.

Keywords

Born in 1837

Native Political Leaders

Dumont was introduced early to plains warfare when, aged 13, he took part at Grand Coteau in the defence of a Métis encampment against a large Sioux war party. Yet in 1862, with his father, he concluded a treaty between the Métis and the Sioux, and later one with the Blackfoot, that helped ensure pacification of the Canadian prairie. Dumont's skill as a buffalo hunter led to his election in the summer of 1863 when he was still 25 as permanent chief of the Métis hunters on the Saskatchewan. Until the virtual elimination of the buffalo, he led the Métis on the hunt; the last time was in 1881.

Dumont took no direct part in the Red River rising of 1870, though he made an offer - rejected by Louis RIEL - to bring Métis to resist WOLSELEY's expeditionary force. He recognized that great changes were coming to the prairie with the decline of the buffalo and spread of Canadian influence.

In 1873 he became president of the commune of St Laurent, the first local government between Manitoba and the Rockies. Modelled on the organization of the buffalo hunt, the commune tried to establish a system of landholding, since Dumont recognized that when hunting ended, his people would have to turn to farming. In 1875 the commune confronted the newly arrived North-West Mounted Police and the attempt at local government ended; concern over land did not, however, for government surveyors and land speculators began to flood the West and Dumont led the Métis in agitating for recognition of their rights.

When the campaign made no progress, Dumont was one of the delegates who sought Louis Riel's assistance. Negotiations with the government foundered, and when Riel declared a provisional government at Batoche, Dumont became "adjutant general" in charge of the tiny Métis army of 300 men formed at the beginning of the rebellion. During the subsequent NORTH-WEST REBELLION, he was a remarkable guerrilla leader. He won the first battle against the NWMP at DUCK LAKE in March 1885; he halted General MIDDLETON'S army at Fish Creek on Apr 24.

But Riel did not allow Dumont to continue his successful guerrilla campaign, and Batoche was besieged and captured, despite the resistance Dumont organized on May 12. Hearing Riel had surrendered, Dumont fled to the US. He plotted to rescue Riel, but the latter was too carefully guarded; following Riel's execution Dumont joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as a crack marksman.

After the amnesty for rebels, he returned to Canada in 1888 and to Batoche in 1893. He hunted and traded a little, and dictated 2 vivid oral memoirs of the rebellion. He died suddenly of heart failure in 1906. Gabriel Dumont was a man of great chivalry, superbly adapted to the presettlement prairie life; in the world that followed, his skills lost their relevance, and so his qualities of intelligence and personality were ultimately wasted.

Dumont, Gabriel
Gabriel Dumont was a man of great chivalry and military skill, superbly adapted to the presettlement prairie life (courtesy Glenbow Archives).

Author GEORGE WOODCOCK

Links to Other Sites

The Northwest Resistance 1885
This extensive information source about The Northwest Resistance 1885 is from the University of Saskatchewan.

Métis
A brief overview of the turbulent history of the Métis community in Western Canada. Part of “The Kids’ Site of Canadian Settlement” from Library and Archives Canada.

The Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture
This site features a wealth of primary sources about Métis history and culture. Includes oral history interviews, photographs, and various archival documents. Also offers informative learning activities that will immerse students and teachers in Métis traditional life and customs.

Extraordinary Canadians
Click on the brief profiles of some "extraordinary Canadians" and the authors who write about them in this series from Penguin Group (Canada.) Also includes bios of artists who created the cover art for each book.