St. Ann's centennial: 100 years of faith, Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, Belcourt, North Dakota, 1885-1985

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: North Dakota State Library
• Subjects: Hudson Bay; Canada; Indian; Hudson; Spence; Metis
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/27591

The families remained at Turtle Mountain while the men went on hunts. In 1882 they built the first log church as a place of worship for the missionaries who stopped here to rest from their travels and who would spend some time here administering the sacraments and evangelizing. In 1885 the church was named in honor of St. Ann and today St. Ann is still honored as patroness of the parish in Belcourt. Today there are three separate reservations based entities that may be considered to be comprised in part of Pembinas or descendants of Pem- binas. These are the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, particularly White Earth Reservation, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of the Turtle Mountain Reservation and the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana. bloods, complicating the possibility of ever arriving at a definite degree of Indian blood or other blood for that matter. Louis Kiel (1844-1885) Metis Leader, formed Provisional Government. Leader of Metis Rebellions, 1869-70 and 1885. Across the border in Canada there was also a group of mixed-blood Indians or Metis. After the Hudson Bay Company relinquished its charter to this territory the Dominion of Canada was formed under British rule. The Metis who were used to no particular laws or rules became dissatisfied with the new Canadian government and rebelled. The leader of this rebellion was Louis Riel whose name is legendary among many of the older Metis members of the tribe. In 1869 the Metis in Canada formed their own provisional govenment under his leadership but they were put down by the British army and as many as could escaped to the United States and came to live with the people of Turtle Mountain. Many of these refugees left their wives and children in Canada and because of fear of the British did not return to Canada. They remarried Metis women of Turtle Mountain and raised families here. This added to the admixture of Gabriel Dumont Louis Riel's Lieutenant in the 2nd Rebellion; April and My, 1885. Not all of the refugees remained here. Some moved westward to Montana and the remaining Canadian Metis moved from Manitoba to Saskatchewan and there married and raised families. Things did not go well for them there either and in 1885 they again rebelled against the Canadian government, this time under the leadership of Gabriel Dumont. Mr. Dumont went to St. Peter's Mission in Cascade, Montana where Mr. Louis Riel was teaching and implored him to return to Canada and lead the rebellion of his people against the Canadian government. Louis Riel's Council. Courtesy of Manitoba Archives. Back row: Unidentified, Pierre Delorme, Thomas Bunn, Xavier Page, Andre Beauchemin, Baptiste Tourous; Middle row: Pierre Poitras, John Bruce, Louis Riel, W.B. O'Donoghue, Francis Dauphinais, Tom Spence; front: Bob O'lone and Paul Pronteau. 90 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.