Metis Leader. A native of Red River, Saskatchewan, he was the leader of the Metis people in Western Canada. He was born to a metis hunter named Isidore Dumont and his wife, Louise Framboise. Although not being able to read or write he could speak six languages, was a skilled horseback rider, and an expert marksman, all by a very young age. By the age of 14, he began to go on large Buffalo hunting trips along the Missouri River with a group of Sioux Indians. During the 1860s, the young hunter began his own group of hunters, and initially made himself leader. In the early 1870s, he opened a ferry service on the South Saskatchewan River in order to bring more Indian hunters to that area. After serving as the leader of the group he became President of the local government, but that was short-lived when the government was abolished in 1873. During the years 1877 and 1878, he started an organization with the help of the Territorial Council in hopes of getting government help to bring farming assistance, land grants, and schools to the area. A few years later he was a member of the delegation that persuaded Louis Riel to return to Canada and plead the Metis case to the government. This decision did not go good for either Dumont or Riel, Riel was hanged on December 12, 1885. Also that year, Dumont became 'Adjutant General of the Metis People' when a provisonal government was declared. On May 12, 1885, he led a small army of men to Duck Lake and Fish Creek, where they fought against government forces, but were quickly overpowered four days later near Batoche, Saskatchewan. Dumont avoided capture for several months and escaped to the United States in 1886. After his arrival he joined Buffalo Bob Cody's Wild West Show, where he showed off his superb marksmanship abilities. After a short stay in the United States he returned to Canada and taught at Montreal, Quebec, and then lived out his last days with his wife and children, at his homestead at Batoche, Saskatchewan, dying in 1906, at the age of 68. The first French language high school in London, Ontario, was renamed Ecole Secondaire Gabriel-Dumont in his honour in 1998.