01/10/2022
Hey Everyone.
Today is National Truth and Reconciliation Day here in Canada, so today’s post will be an unusual one for us.
In honour of today, I thought I’d post my own little Canadian Heritage Minute.
In the photo above you see a group of handcuffed Metis men, all under arrest and about to be tried for their part in the Northwest Rebellion of 1885.
The handsome fella that’s fourth from the left in this photo is my great grandfather, Pierre Gariepy.
Pierre was being tried for “felony treason” against the crown, as were most of his pals. Pierre’s specific crime? He was asked by Louis Riel to become a member of his Exovedate (government in exile) and to bring Riel’s personal papers back into Canada from Montana.
At his trial, a Catholic priest named Father Alexis Andre testified that Pierre was “a giant and gentle man” and while only “one or two degrees above the Indian” was a “leader among the Plain hunters”.
I’ve always appreciated the part about him being gentle and giant and a leader among his people - it makes me feel good and proud to be his grandson. The other part of the testimony, where my grandfather and an entire race of humans are dehumanized, is just not cool. And today is the day we should remember that it happened a lot. For a long, long time in Canada.
Pierre ended up doing 3 years in jail for bringing his friends’ papers across the border and fighting for his people’s right to farm and hunt their own lands.
My thoughts today are with Pierre and the countless Indigenous children, including members of the Gariepy clan, that we lost to residential schools. Let’s be better to one another.
