Gabriel Dumont Speaks

Kerry Abel is a professor of history at Carleton University. She is the author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History, co-editor of Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects, and co-editor of Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History.

This book is an edited version of a memoir, dictated by Métis leader
Gabriel Dumont, that is housed in the Provincial Archives of Manitoba.
It is bound to be controversial, not so much for its contents but for
the way in which the “translator” has presented them. He explains
that the text is his “interpretation” of the original memoirs rather
than a direct translation, thereby destroying its utility as a
historical document. Furthermore, there are no explanations of names or
events referred to in the document, so only those expert in the subject
will be able to place much of the story in context.

The book consists of a brief introduction by the translator, and a
series of vignettes told by Dumont. There are personal experiences and
glimpses of Louis Riel, then a story about Dumont’s trip to Montana to
solicit from Riel help for the Saskatchewan Métis. The account of the
1885 Rebellion is lengthier, and gives particular attention to the
battle at Batoche. All the stories are interesting, as is the tone of
braggadocio throughout. Dumont describes his exploits in much the same
way as many First Nations legends describe cultural heroes and
tricksters. Unfortunately, the book is very poorly edited, with numerous
grammatical errors in the introduction and typographical errors
throughout.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this book is its implication that
there was a conspiracy to suppress the memoir. The translator, who
believes that the memoir constitutes “new evidence” about the 1885
Rebellion that may have been “withheld intentionally,” compares them
to another version published in 1949 by G.F.G. Stanley in the Canadian
Historical Review and concludes that the 1949 version was
“sanitized” to fit the authorities’ view of events. In actual
fact, the two versions are quite similar, the main difference being a
claim in this version that Canadian soldiers used “exploding
bullets” against the Métis. Furthermore, historians have not ignored
this version of Dumont’s memoir. Bob Beal and Rod Macleod make several
references to it in their widely read Prairie Fire (Hurtig, 1984), for
example. In spite of claims of the translator and publisher, this memoir
really does not provide any startling alternative insights into the
events of 1885.