The History of the Pembina Metis Cemetery: Inter-Ethnic Perspectives on a Sacred Site

Abstract

In 1818, FatherS. Dumoulin established a Roman Catholic mission at Pembina, Red River Settlement, to provide religious and educational support to Metis families and to convert the Ojibwe. In the 1870s, the Assomption Catholic Church moved into the village onto land donated by Mme. Angelique Rolette, and a new non-denominational cemetery was established on the periphery. In 1893, State Senator Judson Lamoure sponsored an appropriation bill for $500 through the North Dakota State Legislature to purchase and maintain the site. Unfortunately, it was never implemented and the site fell into the hands of a private landowner. Although originally respecting the cultivation line around the site, this private owner later farmed over the site and, despite objections from local residents from the 1930s to the 1990s, the family refused to recognize it as a sacred site. The paper summarizes the attempts to protect the site, the research done to identify the location and the unresolved inter-ethnic conflicts that have arisen over it. Because the Metis are not recognized as Aboriginal in the U.S.A., local descendants and their supporters were largely ignored by state officials. They invited Canadians to support their efforts since the Metis were recognized in the Canadian Constitution of 1982 and are welt known in Canadian history.