Our family stayed behind at St Peter's Mission in Montana, and were close friends with Dumont's family and the others that stayed behind, like Mary Fields. Katherine Drexel had built a school there where Louis Riel taught and wrote his manifestos, and the Red River Metis lived there while petitioning the Canadian government and fighting the rebellions in Minnesota to take it back for the Dakota. Mother Amadeus was the head nun, who came from Philadelphia, and Katherine Drexel sent the nuns to Drexel University, so that the Metis and Blackfoot and Flathead Salish could get education at no cost, to help them with the westward expansion. We had come from the Traite Carre in Charlesbourg, Quebec, from the Moulin des Jesuites de Charlesbourg, and ended up at St Peter's Mission in Montana. We were somewhat Metis ourselves, but didn't really identify as that. Zoel Lefevre was a carpenter, highly trained, but after a robbery for the mine he worked for, he didn't get paid for the whole year, and we ended up living out of a wagon on the Judith river, and Blackfeet that camped out in tipis along the river through the winter helped us survive. Then Zoel met some Quebecers and Metis that invited him out to St Peter's Mission, which was started when the Iroquois told the Salish about the Christians, and they traveled to St Louis to ask Lewis and Clark about it, and they sent some Ursulines and Jesuits out to Montana. There were already some Metis that had gone out there, before the railroad was even built, and they spoke French and read western books and drank wine, and lived in cabins and tipis and wagons, and hunted bison. There are many letters back and forth between the nuns, which were considered radical extremists because they supported Mary Fields and Louis Riel, and St Peter's burned down, and the residential schools were begun, such as St Xavier's, which had hundreds of cases of abuse. The bishop was replaced, and Mother Amadeus and her 'radical' nuns were pushed out, and went to Alaska where they started another mission that is there to this day. We had also attended St Peter's and started a ranch and farm for a contract to supply the school with food. Dumont had escaped and lived quietly in our community for years until they extradited him to Canada and 'accidentally' shot and killed him while transporting him. My great grandfather invented some fish aerators and engines and worked as a machinist in Great Falls, and my grandfather and his brother wanted to get off the ranch and became scientists, but they had grown up in the little Cascade/St Peter's community. The church has been restored, and the community pooled funds together to mark all graves and show respect many, many, many years before any of the Every Child Matters movement, and we had a holiday in Mary Fields' honor. The old school is in ruins, and unfortunately they failed to stop the residential schools. You can read more about this in The Birdtail, and Lady Blackrobes books. I was shocked at how openly and honestly they argued about Karl Marx, equality, Metis and Indigenous rights, genocide, assimilation, etc. The people that started the residential schools knew what they were doing, and discussed it very openly. There were indigenous, Metis, and even some white people that did their best to fight against it, but unfortunately lost. Louis did the right thing, even knowing that he would probably be killed. I would like to come visit the community that crossed the border while we stayed behind in Montana, and if you ever go through the town of Cascade, you can go see the little church and ruins of the school. Take care! Thanks for sharing!
I am planning my trip soon. This was a beautiful and inspirational tribute Jesse (and M’nOnc Serge). Just learning these past weeks how and why we are Métis! It’s life changing.
Hey, Jesse! My 3rd Great Grand Uncle was Donald Ross. I went to Batoche and laid down tobacco for him and your uncle at the mass grave a few weeks ago. It was beautiful and peaceful there. :) Maxime Lépine was my 4th great Grand Uncle as well. Your video is beautiful and I’m so happy you had this journey with your dad.
I only discovered my red river roots this year and what that means to me. I've already been mentally planning my roadtrip to Saskatchewan and Manitoba to visit all the towns my families lived in and were buried in
first couple seconds into the video, with the music and the introduction had me hooked to keep watching. Great video, this feels so connecting for me; also being metis, makes me happy to see people creating content for others to see and feel too . :)
