Pierre Falcon
Pierre Falcon, also known as Pierriche or Pierre the Rhymer ( born June 4, 1793 in Fort Elbow at Swan River, † October 26, 1876 in St. Francois Xavier, Manitoba ), was a singer and poet, also an employee of the North West Company 1808 to 1821, on the Hudson's Bay Company until 1825. In Grantown, later St François Xavier, he was Justice of the Peace in 1855.
Pierre Falcon was given the same name as his father, who worked for the North - West Company. His mother was probably a member of the Cree. The young Pierre was precisely baptized on 18 June 1798 in Lower Canada, in L' Acadie in St -Jean County. There he learned to read and write. At 15 he went to the Red River colony in Manitoba later.
In 1815 he married Mary, a daughter of the Métis leader Cuthbert Grant, with which he ascended into one of the leading Métisfamilien. The couple had three sons and four daughters. The family followed Cuthbert to Grantown, now St. Francois Xavier. 1838 census recorded its possession to the extent of 30 acre land cultivated. Of this he shared 1838-1849 half to his sons so that he, who had meanwhile been elected justice of the peace, still remained 15 acre.
Falcon brought the events and developments of his home, as the life of the voyageurs in poetry and song form. However, few of his works have survived. Even larger events of historic significance, he translated into song form. One of these is La Bataille des sept chênes ( The Battle of Seven Oaks ), or Le Chanson de la Grenouillère, which originated in 1816 in Winnipeg. In it he described a battle between Métis under Cuthbert Grant Jr. and the Selkirk settlers under Governor Robert Semple. Possible that he also Le Lord Selkirk au Fort William, ou La danse des Bois- Brûlés or simply La Danse des bois- brülés of 1816 from him. The Métis in the French speaking North Americans sometimes referred to as Bois- brülés. 1837 was Le Général Dickson and Dickson The Song. In it he described the history of General Dickson, who left Grantown to establish an Indian kingdom in California. Sometimes he played his own lyrics to familiar melodies, such as Les Tribulations d'un roi malheureux from the year 1869. Therein he describes the trial of William McDougall penetrate into the space occupied by the Métis area. He was held by his friends thereof, nor mitzureiten in old age in order to prevent this.
His songs were accompanied often on the violin or the crincrin. They found wide spread between the St. Lawrence River and the Mackenzie River. Occasionally dip his songs on in a modified form. Thus, it is believed that Agnes developed from a template as a free translation According to her poem The buffalo hunt.
In 1960 Margaret Arnett MacLeod all known Falcon out songs ( Songs of Old Manitoba, Toronto, 1960). After Falcon is named in Manitoba probably the Falcon Lake.
1984, a memorial plaque was erected in honor of him.