{"id":1432,"date":"2018-12-23T08:05:05","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T08:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centrefrancophonebds.ca\/services\/"},"modified":"2022-11-09T01:48:39","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T01:48:39","slug":"local-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/centrefrancophonebds.ca\/en\/local-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Local History"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Proud of our French & M\u00e9tis heritage<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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OUR ANCESTORS WOULD BE PROUD TO SEE THAT THEIR RICH HISTORY LIVES ON IN THIS DYNAMIC BILINGUAL COMMUNITY.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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A BIT OF HISTORY\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The region comprising the communities of Bellevue, Domremy and St. Louis offers a unique perspective on Francophone immigration to Saskatchewan and the historical links between cultures; all on a territory measuring approximately 60 square kilometers. When we study the rich history of the first French Canadians, French, M\u00e9tis and Acadians who settled on this territory, it becomes apparent that the destinies of the inhabitants are closely linked.<\/p>

The Francophone presence in this corner of the country goes back more than a hundred years, but its history, as Laurier Gareau, a native of Bellevue, testifies, began long before “when First Nations hunters came to the region in search of game, that the M\u00e9tis “fretteurs” traced the first great roads in the region and that young French-Canadian adventurers came to verify the quality of the soil”.<\/p>

Initially, it was the parish of Saint-Antoine de Padoue in Batoche that brought together Franco-Catholics from across the region who got around on foot, on horseback or by boat on the South Saskatchewan River. As is the practice in Quebec, the first M\u00e9tis settlers who cleared their homesteads in Batoche and St. Louis divided their land into river lots. Domremy, for its part, owes its birth to a period marked by the massive immigration of French people of Breton origin. But given the proximity between these neighbouring Franco-Catholic centers, exchanges and alliances weaved the course of this handful of communities like the interwoven strands of a Metis sash.<\/p>

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\"If you had come to visit Bellevue before the 1880s, you would have found lots of tall trees, a bit of prairie, small wild animals, and a few M\u00e9tis families settled in the area. And to the west, you would have arrived on the small colony of Batoche.\"<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Lydia Gaudet<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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BELLEVUE<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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HISTORICAL MILESTONES<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Bellevue was first established around 1875 by M\u00e9tis families from intermarriages between French Canadians and First Nations people who settled in log homes with turf roofs on free land without government permits. Among them, the nephew of the infamous Gabriel Dumont, Alexis Dumont.<\/p>

The first French-Canadian settler to settle in the region is Azarie Gareau, in 1882. A native of Saint-Jacques de l’Achigan, County of Montcalm, a village located northeast of Montreal, Azarie lived in Massachusetts for 12 years before travelling to find his brother Ludger, a carpenter in Batoche. He took a homestead north of Batoche and bought in his wife and two children. It was thanks to Azarie’s recruitment efforts that the first Gaudet families left Quebec in 1894 to settle in Bellevue. The following year, the region welcomed a group of descendants of Acadian exiles from Quebec.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Next came Quebec families from the Eastern Townships and other regions of Quebec as well as several Quebec families recently established in the American state of Minnesota and some families who immigrated from France.<\/p>

The parish of Saint-Isidore de Bellevue was founded in 1902 by Father Pierre-Elz\u00e9ar Myre with Saint Isidore, the saint of farmers, as patron saint.<\/p>

“We weren’t difficult: the school in the Bellevue school district, after being rebuilt and whitewashed, would become the church, and the house would be the presbytery.” (Source: Bellevue History Book)<\/p>

The Bellevue school was built in 1954 and its administration handed over to the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. The current school, \u00c9cole St Isidore School, was built in 1995. In 2002, St-Isidore-de-Bellevue celebrated the centenary of its creation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Unlike many rural villages in Saskatchewan, Bellevue was never relocated to be closer to a rail line. Through its isolation, Bellevue has managed to retain features and a culture distinct from those of its neighboring communities.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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In 1882, a young French Canadian from Quebec, Azarie Gareau, arrived in the region. He had just spent twelve years of his life in the manufacturing towns of the state of Massachusetts and was looking for a better life for his young family. His younger brother, Ludger, had already been settled in Batoche since 1878, where he earned a good living as a carpenter.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Laurier Gareau<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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