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A HANDBOOK OF METIS FACTS, FANCIES & FIGURES SECTION O [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] One Arrow (Kapeyakwaskonam) - "One Arrow" is/was known in French as "Une Fleche." He was the chief of a band of Willow Crees, born (circa) 1815, probably in or near the valley of the South Saskatchewan River. He died on April 25, 1886 at St. Boniface, Manitoba. One Arrow led a band of Willow Crees that, until the disappearance of the buffalo from the Canadian prairies in the late 1870s, traditionally hunted in a region divided by the South Saskatchewan River and stretching from near Duck Lake in the north to Little Manitou Lake and Goose Lake in the southeast and southwest. Following a last desperate journey, in 1879, to the Cypress Hills in search of buffalo, the majority of One Arrow's band settled permanently on the One Arrow Reserve, four miles (7 kms) east of the South Saskatchewan River and the Metis settlement of Batoche. Otipemisiwak - Cree word for the Metis meaning "their own boss" or "the free people." The Metis were always and utterly independent and they were constantly striving to reaffirm that independence in the face of all odds and opposition. They were never a group to be cowed, bullied or manipulated by the powers-that-were or the powers-that-be. Otter, Sir William Dillon (1843-1929) - Canadian soldier, born at Clinton, North West Territories. Otter's soldiering career began as a militiaman engaged against the Fenians in 1866. Otter joined the permanent military force in 1883 and commanded one of the columns of the North West Rebellion. He also led the first Canadian contingent to the Boer War in 1899. Otter directed Internment operations in World War I and attained the rank of general. Ouellette, Moise - Moise Ouellette, along with James Isbister, Michel Dumas, and Gabriel Dumont were the men who travelled to Montana in 1884 to invite Louis Riel to return to the North-West and lead the Metis struggle for democratic and land claim rights (for the first four months Riel and his family stayed with Charles Nolin; after that period of time Riel and his family moved to the house of Moise Ouellette). Moise Ouellette was married to Elizabeth, the sister of Gabriel Dumont. (One of Moise's daughters, Mariya Bremner, was this writer's paternal Great-Grandmother.) According to Diane Payment (Monsieur Batoche, Manuscript Report Series No. 97, Ottawa: Environment Canada Parks, 1978, pg. 9), "About fifty heads of families, among whom Isidore and Jean Dumont, Moise Ouellette, Joseph "Dode" Parenteau, Cuthbert Failhant (Fayant), Cuthbert Gervais and Gilbert Breland (Berland dit Boishue) took up farms in the St. Laurent Settlement or Colony in the early 1870s." The name of Moise Ouellette also appears in the "Hudson's Bay Company Census of Metis Living Near Fort Carlton, December 31, 1871." This appearance may mean that Moise Ouellette was an inhabitant of Petite Ville, the Metis wintering camp which is thought to be the "Mother of Batoche and St. Laurent." During the formation of the Laws of St. Laurent in 1873, Gabriel Dumont was elected president by acclamation, and with him a council of eight including Alexandre Hamelin, Baptiste Gariepy, Pierre Gariepy, Abraham Montour, Isidore Dumont Jr., Jean Dumont Jr., Moise Ouellette (Gabriel Dumont's brother-in-law) and Baptiste Hamelin. Ouimet, Adolphe - Adolphe Ouimet was a Quebec lawyer who played an important role in organizing Gabriel Dumont's tour of French Canada in 1888-89 and who was in attendance when Gabriel Dumont dictated (for he was illiterate) his recollections of the military strategies and operations at Fish Creek and Batoche. These Dumont recollections were published in a book by Ouimet entitled, La Verite sur La Question Metisse du Nord-Ouest (which was published in 1889 not long after he had met and talked with Dumont--see full citation in bibliography attached). |