Today, when talking about the North West Rebellion of 1885 is seems to be a foregone conclusion that Louis Riel and his war chief, Gabriel Dumont were justified in their actions that resulted in over 124 documented deaths.  It is unarguable that the main grievance of the Metis was pertaining to land entitlement.  All grievances were laid at the feet of the Sir John A. Macdonald, Prime Minister of the day, saying that it was his Government’s inaction that lead to rebellion because of delays in Metis obtaining titles for their land.   Evidence may exist to render this statement false.

I recently read an article in the Illustrated War News, dated May 16, 1885.  (Printed four days after the Battle of Batoche and the day after Louis Riel was captured.)  It explains that the Dominion Lands Act of 1879 gave the authority for land claim settlements.  (Macdonald returned to power in 1878. The Alexander Mackenzie Government (1873-1878) did nothing to address Metis land claims). This article tells of how William Pearce, officer of the Government visited Prince Albert and investigated land claims that had been made.  Through his investigations Mr. Pearce passed more than 100 Metis claims and urged them to apply for the formal entry by  which their land patents might be obtained.   Of these more than 100 claimants, only two of them applied for their land patents.  One of these claimants was said to be Gabriel Dumont.  What a surprise!  Could this be true?

Government agent Pearce says “During my first visit to Prince Albert, in August, 1883, I instructed Mr. Gauvreau, then assistant agent, a French Canadian, to visit every French settler, half breed or otherwise in the district, ascertain what particular quarter-section he was on, and urge him to make entry” also “ In the fall of 1883, William Pearce met with father Andre when he inspected the local land agency.  He urged the priest to get the Metis to make entry by quarter section, but he also explained that there was a legal way for the Metis to retain their unofficial river lots.”(1) Land surveyors were very busy at this time with over 200,000 quarter sections completed in 1883/1884 alone, with many more since 1879.   This certainly looks as though the Government was taking affirmative action on Metis land claims.  What am I to make of all this?  Was Gabriel Dumont, one of the leaders of the rebellion claiming to be disinherited from his land and demanding his ‘rights’ actually visited by Government agents and urged to apply for his land patent, and is found to eventually do so?  If so, why was he a participant in such a deadly game as the Rebellion of 1885? 

Did Gabriel Dumont actually apply for his land patent?  Did this documentation exist?

What implications would it have on the excuses for the 1885 Rebellion if such a document existed?  Has it been discovered previous to now?  If so, why has it been hidden all these years, why isn’t it widely known?  I began my search at the Land Titles Office in North Battleford.  I was informed that the Saskatchewan Archives at the U of S in Saskatoon would be the place to look for what I was seeking.  Thanks to the courteous and professional staff  at the Saskatchewan Archives Board, before I knew it, I was holding Gabriel Dumont’s DOMINION LANDS, N.W.T.  Application # 831 in my hands.    Could it be that Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont were disingenuous with their fellow Metis countrymen?  Did they instil the fears of civilisation, taxes, conscription and the threat of the loss of the river lot system into the Metis.  Were these the pretexts for Riel to provoke an uprising?  If Gabriel Dumont was allowed to apply for his formal entry to obtain the patent for his land, why didn’t other Metis do the same.  This is what their grievances were about.  Did Dumont urge his Metis brothers to file for their land patent as he had done?  If this is what the Metis wanted so bad and Dumont was allowed to do this, why weren’t the Metis coming in droves to apply for their land patents?  This option was open to all eligible claimants, why did so many not come forward to exercise the rights granted to them.  This news should have spread like wildfire through the land.   It is obvious that Dumont told his family members as explained in the following exert “Curiously, even as the Metis continued to agitate in 1883, a few of them, most notably Gabriel Dumont, his father, and his brother Isidore, made entry under the official system for quarter sections fronting the river.”(3)   How ironic that Gabriel Dumont’s brother Isidore died fighting at Duck Lake for something that he had already obtained.  All the talk about what a great scholar Riel was, why didn’t he tell his people the truth?  Why was Riel so intent on inciting rebellion?  “There is no denying that the government made some serious mistakes.” (2) There were many problems to be worked out. An Order-in-Council had been passed in January of 1885 for the appointment of land commissioners to settle Metis land grievances under similar rules as the Manitoba Act of 1870.  Riel knew this, why couldn’t he wait for due process to take its course?

Gabriel Dumont’s land application (left) is indisputable proof that the Metis’ main reason for the 1885 Rebellion is an undeniable lie.  That lie being that the Government of Sir John A Macdonald was doing nothing to settle Metis land claim grievances.  The Dominion Land Office was opened in Prince Albert on September 21, 1881 while the Government of John A. Macdonald was in power.  Most of the land in the immediate area of discontent had been surveyed by 1880, along with the survey of many river lots of which the Government knew the Metis preferred. 

Author Joseph Boyden states “But the prime minister refuses to even admit he’s received their many petitions.  Clearly, the government has no qualms about ignoring the Metis and their land, culture, rights. The Government hopes that if it ignores the Metis problem long enough, the problem will cease to exist.” (2)  Gabriel Dumont’s land application clearly indicates that Boyden’s statement is false.

With the revelation of this extraordinary evidence it shows that one of the leaders of the 1885 Rebellion, who professed that the Governments was not listening to the demands of the Metis, when two years previous exercised his right by making his formal entry for 160 acres of land.  Is this man not a hypocrite?  As a person of outstanding influence in the neighbourhood of Batoche, why did he not urge others to do as he did? 

Leading up to the 1885 Rebellion there were approximately 1300 Metis vying for land in the Prince Albert area.  All of their claims were investigated and it was found that only about 200 Metis were eligible, all others had already received their land or scrip under the Manitoba Act of 1870.  Each head of a family was granted 160 acres and 240 acres to each child born previously to 1870.  It has long been maintained that many of the Metis were robbed of their land by unscrupulous speculators and land agents.  This may be true in some cases, but one has to remember that most of the Metis were buffalo hunters and freighters, they were not farmers, they had no use for land, they chose money scrip as it was readily exchanged for cash.  Because of this, during 1885-1886 the government offered land scrip but this was rejected by most Metis as shown in “After having received permission from the minister to offer land scrip, they later found that it was refused by most Metis who overwhelmingly preferred money scrip.  Of 3,247 claims eventually allowed, only twelve per cent (394) were for land scrip.”  “This figure represents the result of free choice.” (3).  Contrary to these circumstances the Metis of today still claim that they were dispossessed of their land as recently stated by Clem Chartier.

The Metis did not learn from history, “The Metis who received scrip in 1885-1886 sold it exactly as their predecessors had done in Manitoba along with their children’s inher-itance and future. According to Chairman Street, the first recipient of scrip, a Metisse named Madeleine Hamlin, sold it immediately for $80 to a buyer from a Winnipeg bank who was following the commission.” (3)  Just as their Metis predecessors did in 1870 and in 1885-1886, the same results happened in 1899 with the Metis of the Mackenzie Valley. 

The actions of Riel and Dumont in 1885 didn’t help matters at all.  In fact, they actually hindered and prolonged the legitimate Metis Land claims process that was put in motion long before Riel began his agitation that resulted in the North West Rebellion.

With the discovery of Dumont’s land application and the events leading up to the 1885 conflict it looks as though the majority of the Metis were not really fighting for land at all, but instead for money.   This is better explained by a quote from Thomas Flanagan,   “Yet for the same rational economic reasons as in Manitoba, the Metis preferred immediate cash.   It is a serious error to think of this whole episode as having much to do with a desire for land on the part of the Metis.  They already lived on land, and their children, by homesteading, could get as much land as they could use.  The Metis wanted money and successfully exerted political pressure to get it.  This point must be emphasised because the almost mystical character which land has assumed in contemporary native politics tends to throw and anachronistic haze of distortion over the motives of the Metis in 1884-1885.” (3)  Dumont’s land application along with other reported events seem to prove that the Macdonald Government was very active in the settling of the so-called Metis land grievances.  Why did so many have to die?

Thanks to the Saskatchewan Archives Board in granting permission for the publication of Gabriel Dumont’s land application documents.

Barry J. Degenstein is the  author/compiler of “The Pursuit of Louis Riel”.