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There is no longer any debate as to whether the total was actually received by them. Recent evidence has shown it was not. The land distribution was regulated by two different sections of the Manitoba Act, one for the children and one for the heads of households. This is because the "head of household" section was combined with the legislation confirming the tenure of existing land holdings. In effect, this made them answerable to the same standard as homesteaders, who had to clear a certain amount of the land before they got title. W.L. Morton stated that it was only after 1877 that Métis parents were eligible to receive land. Small wonder that shortly after 1870 many Métis people sought to leave the area.

Persecuted and discriminated against, they looked elsewhere for a place where they could continue their way of life. Many Métis lost their land from the grant - some practically gave it away while others were swindled out of it. Few were able to maintain their river lots on the Red River.

Some of the Métis decided to settle down and began farming while others went to live with the families of their mothers’ people on reserves. Others still clung to the old ways, working as freighters or free traders. Following the buffalo along the plains, they moved into North Dakota and Montana.

Some of those who settled down found suitable climate and land and created a community along the Saskatchewan River. The community was called St. Laurent. It is said by some that the Dumont family were among the first settlers. This prairie family began in 1794, when a Montreal trader named Jean-Baptiste Dumont took Josette "Sarcissee" as mate. They had at least three children born in Edmonton, Gabriel (1795), Jean-Baptiste (1801), and Isadore (1808). The family spent most of their history in the Saskatchewan. By the 1860s, a grandson, Gabriel, became the leader of a buffalo hunt, commanding about 200 hunters out of Carlton House. By 1868, this group had begun to settle along the South Saskatchewan and had received Father Alexis Andre to minister to them.

The communities along the South Saskatchewan absorbed many of those who fled the harassment and persecution in Red River.

Dispersed Red River Métis initially built Batoche. . . Founded in 1871 as "St. Laurent Settlement", Batoche and its environs consisted of 322 persons in that year, and by 1877, 500. In the early 1880s, more Métis came from Manitoba and this migration led to the creation of Batoche, St. Laurent, St. Antoine, Duck Lake and St. Louis Parishes, as settled communities with a population in 1883 of approximately 800 – 1500.⁴

The Métis communities developed according to the pattern set up by the life in the river lots and buffalo hunts.

In 1873 a local Métis government was set up in the village of St. Laurent near Batoche. On December 10, the Métis assembled in the village and democratically elected their own governing body. Gabriel Dumont was chosen, by acclamation, to be president for a period of one year. Eight councillors were, also elected. Together they were to govern the Metis according to rules patterned largely after the old buffalo hunt laws.

The council passed laws setting out the duties of the, council, regulating contracts (e.g. agreements made on Sunday were null and void) and authorizing the raising of money by taxing households. They also passed laws related to penalties for crimes such as horse stealing, dishonouring girls and lighting fires on the prairie in midsummer. On January 27, 1875 the council passed laws regulating the buffalo hunt: old laws which specifically forbade anyone from proceeding ahead of the designated departure date for the hunt were enacted, and new laws prohibiting anyone from leaving behind unused buffalo carcasses were also passed. The latter signified a genuine concern on the part of the Metis for their future, which was still heavily dependent upon the rapidly diminishing buffalo. ⁵

In the same time, those who still followed the buffalo were drawn further and further south after the disappearing herds, down to the Cypress Hills and into Montana.

James Dempsey: Rocky Boy Chippewa-Cree Reservation home of Rocky Boy High School

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The Last Refuge