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Michel Dumas
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Metis leader.
Born at St. Boniface on 1 December 1849, son of Michel Dumas Jr. (1828-1889) and Adélaïde Lespérance (1830-1914), nephew of Isidore Dumas and Daniel Dumas, his father was the second son of Michel Dumas Sr. and his first wife, Josephte Sancheau Contree. His mother was the daughter of Alexis Bonami Lespérance, a leader of the La Loche York Boat brigades, and Marguerite Gourneau.
In June 1884, he joined a delegation of men (James Isbister, Gabriel Dumont, and Moïse Ouellette) who went to St. Peter's Mission School near Cascade, Montana Territory, to persuade Louis Riel to return to Canada to lead a political movement in the North West Territories [today, Saskatchewan]. Following the North West Resistance during which Riel was captured, Dumont and Dumas fled across the border on 27 May 1885 into Montana Territory, only to be detained almost immediately by an American Army Cavalry detachment near Fort Assinniboine. Their detention was brief, however, as presidential instructions from Washington ordered their immediate release.
For a time in the mid-1880s, he worked in Montana Territory for prominent cattle rancher Robert S. Tingley. In August 1885, he was hired to appear in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, as a French-Canadian trapper, in the 1889 Exposition Universelle (Paris World's Fair). Together with Maxime Goulet, Maxime Lépine, and Jules Marion, he left St. Boniface on 30 March 1889, taking two Red River carts, two teams of dogs, and a buffalo gun. He performed with the show for a short time until he was allegedly fired for repeated drunkenness. After his return to Canada, he lived for a time near relatives at Ebb and Flow where he was a schoolteacher.
On 2 January 1875, he married Véronique Ouellette (c1852-?, daughter of Joseph Ouellette and Marie Anne Lamirande) at St. Norbert. They had nine children: Louis Dumas (1875-?), Isidore Dumas (1877-1878), Joseph Dumas (1879-?), Arthur Alexandre Dumas (1881-1886), Marie-Rose Adélaïde Dumas (1883-1886), Charles Alexandre Dumas (1885-1887), Marguerite Olivine Dumas (1887-1953), Georges Alfred Dumas (1889-?, husband of Marie Rose Tourond), and Michel-Adelard Dumas (1896-1896).
He died at St. Boniface on 13 December 1901 and was buried in the St. Boniface Cemetery.
“Relying on Riel,” The River Press [Fort Benton, Montana], 18 June 1884, page 4.
“Riel's Lieutenant capture,” New York Times, 29 May 1885, page 1.
“Washington news,” The Madisonian [Virginia City, Montana], 5 June 1885.
“Local notes,”The River Press [Fort Benton, Montana], 23 September 1885, page 6.
Death registrations [Michel Dumas Jr, Michel Dumas, Adelaide Dumas], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Tribune, 26 December 1901, page 1.
“Mariage [George Alfred Dumas],” La Liberte, 18 November 1917, page 8.
Endnote 15, “Signifying the nation: Gabriel Dumont, Harry Robinson, and the Canadian Captivity Narrative” by Christine Kim, Studies in Canadian Literature, Volume 28, Number 1, Spring 2003, page 90-108.
Veronique Ouellette, Ancestry.
Michel Dumas, FindAGrave.
Michel Dumas, Geneanet.
This page was prepared by Lyle Brennen and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 2 July 2023
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