Lepine | Cree, Iroquois Mixed-heritage: Cree | Surname Anchor Post

Index: Indigenous, Metis & Mixed-Heritage Surname Anchor Posts

Each of these posts is dedicated to one surname that is carried by someone connected to indigenous, Metis or mixed-heritage people in Canada. Please be aware that it’s a synthesis of the information I’ve collected in my personal research throughout the years and is by no means complete!

SURNAME NOTES | LEPINE

Regions:
- Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, Saskatchewan
Ethnicity:
- Cree, Iroquois, Mixed-heritage: Cree, French, Scottish
Associated surnames:
- Allary, Atonwentsine, Belanger, Burke / Bourque, Cardinal, Delorme, Desjarlais, Ducharme, Dufresne, Flammand, Fleury, Flett, Gariepy (Upd.2023), Honore / Henry, Houle, Laderoute, Lagimodiere, Larocque, Le-grand-Isle, Lepine, Marion, Martin, Mercredi, Nolin, Page, Parenteau, Piche, Pritchard, Regnier, Savoyard, Short, Teiosnarakwente, Turcotte, Villebrun, Wabichib, Wabikumon.
Misc.:
- 1. Joseph Lepine and Angelique Peterin were two of the original French Canadian Lepines to settle in Red River County. They were French Canadians from St. Jacques L’Achigan, Quebec and arrived in Red River in 1822.
- 2. In 1872/1873, a government survey was undertaken to determine the precise international border between Canada and the U.S.A. Part of the survey was assisted by Metis guides and Chippewa men who were employed as scouts. One of these scouts was Antoine Lepine (son of Jean Baptiste Lepine & Isabelle Parenteau). His wife was Marie Belanger. “His uncles were Maxime Lepine and Ambroise Dydime Lepine. Marie was the daughter of Abraham Belanger and Marie Anne Versailles. Her brother John Belanger was a member of the 49th Rangers. They had six children and later moved to Batoche. During the 1885 Resistance he was a member of Captain Isidore Dumont’s militia company during the 1885 Metis Resistance. Two of his wife’s brothers were also Resistance fighters in 1885 and her father Abraham was a Captain in Dumont’s militia as was his uncle Maxime Lepine.” [Source: The Boundary Commission’s Metis Scouts: The 49th Rangers, Larry Haag & Lawrence Barkwell].
3.
- There were 8 Metis Lepines (or their spouses) involved in the 1885 North-West Resistance (formerly known as The North-West Rebellion). They were: Athanase Lepine (m. Marie Belanger), Celestine Lepine (m. Octave Antoine Regnier), Josephte Lepine (m. Norbert Turcotte), Maxime Lepine (m. Josephte Lavallee), Maxime Lepine Jr. (m. Marie Marguerite Boucher), Patrice Tobie Lepine (m. Lucie Nolin), Rosalie Lepine (m. Charles Nolin) and Virginie Lepine (m. Alexandre Peter McDougall).
The 1885 North-West Resistance included Metis and other indigenous peoples (Cree, Kainai, Piikani, Saulteaux and Siksika) and was in response to broken treaties, starvation and encroachment on their lands by new settlers in what are now Saskatchewan and Alberta. The resistance fighters were defeated and Canada’s federal government asserted its control over the area. [Source: Veterans and Families of the 1885 Northwest Resistance, Lawrence Barkwell, Louis Riel Institute]. See External Links below for more information.