Sorry if off topic again but further to the bits on Duck Lake
There are a good many places called Duck Lake, I know of several one beiong a beautiful lake in Montana.
The one in question is from Sask. near Batoche. There was a battle or perhaps more accurately a skirmish there between North West Mounted Police and the followers of Louis Riel. The Duck Lake fight is considered the first action in what is known as the Riel Rebellion or North West Rebellion
A good book on the subject is "These are the Plains" written by Alvina Hamilton. She was the daughter of a gentleman named Bonneau who came from Quebec. Her brother Pascal established a large ranch in southern Sask. It was Pascal who took Riel's body and hid it under a church floor following the hanging and later delivered it to Riel's family for burial. Riel's mother stayed with the Bonneau's during the trial and later execution.
Because of their french background they knew a good many of the influential metis but being a railway contractor the family also had connection to the gov't side. If I recall correctly, Mrs. Hamilton , has a part in her book about a meeting between Gabriel Dumont , the metis "general" and Joe McKay that took place years later. In the encounter Dumont tells McKay that he was the one who fired the shot that left Dumont with a prominent scar on his forehead.
Another great part from her book is when she tells of being awakened by people talking in her house shortly before Riel was executed in Regina. She says the visitor was a police Sargent who was explaining to her father that the "plan" had been leaked and was called off. Later her father informed her the plan had been to let Riel escape once again to the US. It seems old John A. foresaw the troubles the hanging of Riel by the gov't would cause with the people of Quebec and had police arrange to have metis from the Willow Bunch area of southern Sask cache relays horses between Regina and the US border. The southern metis had not joined the rebellion as they saw the group at Batoche as trouble makers and several of the Willow Bunch and Wood Mountain area metis actually worked as scouts for the gov't side.
I mention the bits about the Bonneau family to show they had inside knowledge of the situation from both sides and to illustrate that contemporary versions of the uprising are one sided, with the gov't side being politically incorrect in todays terms. It has gotten so one sided that a few years ago one caller to a radio talk show claimed she was the great grand daughter of Dumont and was giving her version of how badly her people were treated until the guest on the program reminded her that Dumont never had any kids !!!!
Last edited by Murf; 04/15/08.
