Marie-Louise Riel (around 1796-1898)
Marie-Louise Riel, whose Ojibwe name was Chipakijikokwé, had an extraordinary destiny. She led the life of the Métis of the Red River, that of the voyageurs who braved the rivers between Quebec and Saskatchewan, then that of the pioneers of the Outaouais. She alone represents an entire era of our history, a time when the Quebec nation and the Aboriginal nations were still, in many ways, sister nations.
In many families in the Outaouais and Eastern Ontario, Marie-Louise Riel is a mythical figure. She was nicknamed the savage (at that time the word was still positive) or the guardian angel of the Hare. She was a midwife and a renowned healer, who traveled the region, day and night, to care for the inhabitants. She was also a craftswoman, who knew how to make birch bark canoes and who sold moccasins to the merchants of Buckingham. She is said to have skillfully handled the knife, the axe and the traditional bow. It is said that she spoke French, Cree, Chipewyan and English.1.
Part of her fame comes from the fact that she was supposedly the aunt of Louis Riel, Métis leader and founder of Manitoba, hanged by the Canadian government in 1885.2.
Some researchers claim that she was the daughter of the traveler Jean-Baptiste Riel and the Métis Marguerite Boucher, and therefore the sister of Louis Riel Sr. This blood link with Riel has not been proven, even if it resonates very strongly in the oral tradition of the families of his descendants.
The title of “aunt” may have been a case of symbolic kinship, but she was certainly one of Riel’s companions. She was at his side when a price was put on his head by the Canadian government and he had to take refuge in several Outaouais communities (Hull, Angers, Pointe-Gatineau, Val-des-Bois).3She is said to have sailed with him on the Lac des Trente et Un Milles and on the Lac du Poisson Blanc, superb lakes in the Outaouais that could be used to avoid the Outaouais River, which is too close to Ottawa.4.
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
A lake in the Outaouais. The region is full of lakes that canoeists could use in the 19th century.e century to avoid the Ottawa River.
Marie-Louise Riel, the name she chose to use, died in 1898. Several hundred people are said to have attended her funeral. While the year of her death is known, the year of her birth is still debated. The priest who baptized her as an adult, in 1826, gave her age as “about 30 years old.” The priest who buried her in Val-des-Bois believed she was 106. Her age, certainly venerable for the time, adds to her legend. She is my mother’s great-great-grandmother.
Marie-Louise McGregor (1823-1904)
Nicknamed “Mother Valiquette”, Marie-Louise Riel’s daughter is also a character in La Lièvre5. Some researchers believe that her father was a warrior of the Saulteaux nation, first companion of her mother, who died prematurely. She was baptized in Sault-Sainte-Marie by Father Sévère Dumoulin, one of the first two priests to settle in Western Canada, co-founder of the Red River mission in Manitoba.6.
Also a midwife and healer, she was known and respected from Buckingham to Ferme-Neuve.
Her nickname comes from her second marriage to a man named Magloire Valiquette from Saint-Gérard-de-Montarville, a village which is now called Kiamika.7 (and which was cleared in particular by the great Jos Montferrand!).
On September 29, 1904, on the occasion of his death, the newspaper The homeland painted her portrait. “… Night and day, people came in haste to fetch this courageous old mother, in a birch bark canoe, the only way to travel at that time, in impossible weather, dark night, rough waters, angry rapids, cold rain, muddy, slippery portage, entangled with stones, fallen trees, and a thousand other things. The mother would sit either at the back or the front of the canoe, depending on the skill of her companion, an oar in her hands, she would handle the paddle, 5, 10, 15, 20 miles long, until reaching her destination. If her partner became discouraged on the journey, she would say to him: “Don’t be afraid, my little one! The Good Lord will not abandon us.” The journey and the work were always carried out happily, thanks to her skill and prudence. A great number of sick people have been relieved and cured by her care. The mountains and the savannahs provided her with the remedies necessary for her art: she knew the value of medicinal plants and always used them successfully; so patients came to her with confidence. […] The settlers of La Lièvre and the surrounding area, especially the women, have lost in Madame Valiquette a good old friend, a benefactress and a mother whom they will never forget.
Marie-Louise McGregor (1885-1960)
PHOTO ARCHIVES THE PRESS
A lumberjack at work in a Quebec forest in the first half of the 20th centurye century.
Marie-Louise Riel’s great-granddaughter, also called Marie-Louise McGregor (1885-1960), also left her mark on the Lièvre, this time through an intermediary. In fact, she was married to Thomas Bélanger8a union leader assassinated in 1906 by strikebreakers hired by the Maclaren Company during a violent labor dispute. The Maclarens, lumber barons, operated one of the harshest monopolies in Quebec9. At the time of his assassination, Bélanger was 26 years old and had been married for three years. Marie-Louise, 21, was pregnant. Two streets in Gatineau, Buckingham sector, bear their names. A park, the October 8, 1906 Park, recalls the terrible event. The next text in this series will focus on this confrontation.
The three Marie-Louises have each left their mark on the Lièvre and the Outaouais in their own way. These characters from our history deserve a greater place in the collective imagination of Quebec.
1. Consult Violet Lalonde’s manuscript
2. Stéphane Jobin, “Marie-Louise Riel, aunt of Louis Riel?”, in The Outaouais genealogyOutaouais Genealogical Society, vol. XXXV, no 1, Spring-Summer 2003
3. Read “Louis Riel and his Outaouais accomplices”
4. Michel Bouchard, Sébastien Malette and Guillaume Marcotte, The Bois-Brûlés of the Outaouais: an ethnocultural study of the Métis of GatineauLaval University Press, 2019
5. See this status from August 29, 2021 for more details on Mother Valiquette (in English)
6. Visit the Quebec Cultural Heritage Directory website
7. Visit the website of the Commission de toponymie du Québec
8. Visit the Gatineau and Outaouais Heritage Network website
9. Pierre-Louis Lapointe, The Besieged ValleyEditions Vent d’Ouest, 2006. Or Pierre-Louis Lapointe, Buckingham, occupied cityAsticou Editions, 1983