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Updated: August 6, 2024
Various versions of Pierre Falcon's song have come down to us celebrating the victory of Seven Oaks. We give a simple translation of the bard's effusion: PIERRE FALCON'S SONG. Come listen to this song of truth! A song of the brave Bois-brulés, Who at Frog Plain took three captives, Strangers come to rob our country. When dismounting there to rest us, A cry is raised the English!
Whether the Bois-Brulés, who had lashed their horses into a lather of foam and were cursing out threats in the ominous undertone that precedes a storm-burst, now encroached upon the neutral ground in spite of Grant, or were led gradually forward by the warden as the Hudson's Bay governor's hostility increased, I did not in the excitement of the moment observe.
Letters intercepted by the Governor acquainted him with the fact that an expedition was coming from Fort William in the East to fall upon the devoted Colony; also a letter from Qu'Appelle written by Cuthbert Grant, the young Bois-brulés leader, to John Dugald Cameron, stated that the native horsemen were coming in the spring from the Saskatchewan forts to join those of Qu'Appelle, and says the writer, "It is hoped we shall come off with flying colors, and never to see any of them again in the Colonizing way in Red River."
Throwing himself between the Bois-Brulés and the retreating band, the warden implored his followers to grant truce. As well plead with wild beasts. The half-breeds were deaf to commands, and in vain their leader argued with blows. The shooting had been of a blind sort, and few shots did more than wound; but the natives were venting the pent-up hate of three years and would give no quarter.
By and by, the voices of the feasters began again and we heard Pierre, the rhymester, chanting the song of the buffalo hunt: Now list to the song of the buffalo hunt, Which I, Pierre, the rhymester, chant of the brave! We are Bois-Brulés, Freemen of the plains, We choose our chief! We are no man's slave! Up, riders, up, ere the early mist Ascends to salute the rising sun!
When Portage la Prairie was reached about sixty miles from "The Forks" the Bois-brulés cavalcade was organized. The half-breeds were mounted on their prairie steeds and formed a company of sixty men under command of Cuthbert Grant.
As the confusion and uproar grew in intensity, one after another joined the dancing circle, until it seemed that every brave in the camp was leaping around the fire. Blue-eyed Indians, Bois-Brules, Nakonkirhirinons, they circled and uttered the monotonous "Ah-a, ah-a," and in the light could be seen the white lock on the temple of Bois DesCaut.
But we will drive them away, if the Indian does not, for the 'Nor'-West' Company and the Bois-brulés are one. But the taciturn Indian Chief coldly declined the polite proposal. As the party passed Brandon House Pambrun saw in the North-West Fort near by, tobacco, tools and furs, which had been captured by the Nor'-Westers from the Hudson's Bay Company fort.
From their dusky faces they took the name "Bois-Brulés," or "Charcoal Faces," or referring to their mixed blood, of "Metis," or as exhibiting their importance, they sought to be called "The New Nation." The blend of French and Indian was in many respects a natural one. Both are stalwart, active, muscular; both are excitable, imaginative, ambitious; both are easily amused and devout.
The finishing of Cameron's work on the Red River, was handed over to Alexander Macdonell. The plan was nothing less than that the settlers remaining should be driven by force from the banks of Red River. The party led by Macdonell was made up of Bois-Brulés, under dashing young Cuthbert Grant.
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