Pierre Falcon (1793 - 1876) is the earliest known Métis singer/songwriter. From his account of the Métis victory at Seven Oaks in “La chanson des Bois-Brûlés,” to his gentle mocking of Lord Selkirk and William McDougall in his songs titled “Li Lord Selkirk au Fort William” and “Lii tribulations d’un roi malheureux,” his compositions provided—and indeed provide—a means to remember and share Métis history, and to strengthen Métis national unity.
The popularity of Falcon’s songs among his own people is attested to by historian Joseph Tassé who in 1882 noted that they were sung throughout the northwest. Fifty-six years later, historian Margaret Complin wrote that some consider his earliest and most renowned song, “La chanson des Bois-Brûlés,” to be the Métis national anthem.
Although little is known about Falcon, and some of what is written about him is contradictory (e.g., the ancestry of his parents and whether he was literate), he has been the subject of numerous works of fiction and non-fiction. (As a side note, some of the supposedly non-fictional accounts are written with the flair of fiction--i.e., without too much attention to factual accuracy.) The earliest published reference to his work dates back to 1863 when “La chanson des Bois-Brûlés” (referred to as “La gloire des Bois-Brûlés”) was included in F.A.H. LaRue’s book Le Foyer Canadien.
However, it is a second reference to this song, published in 1871 in J.J. Hargrave’s book titled Red River, that I want to discuss here. This reference is particularly interesting because it’s included as part of Hargrave’s more detailed discussion of the Battle of Seven Oaks, an event that took place in 1816 and that has often been used to mark the emergence of the Métis Nation. As Hargrave notes, he was “fortunate enough to secure from the lips of its author [i.e., Pierre Falcon] a metrical account of this battle, composed on horseback while on his way home from the scene of its occurrence.” The song was therefore included as a way to detail the history of the event.
It’s important to note that Hargrave adopts some of the prejudicial attitudes many held (and still hold) towards Métis people. Hargrave notes, for example, that Falcon’s biases undoubtedly “interfered with the accuracy of his description of the battle.” (Maybe, but didn't his own biases, and those of other settlers, also shape their writing of history? This, of course, is not acknowledged.) And in Hargrave's appendix that includes the lyrics to Falcon’s song, he takes seeming delight in republishing Alexander Ross’s (inaccurate) account of the battle and the “amusingly horrible” fate—the violent and sudden deaths—of the men who took part in the Battle of Seven Oaks in support of the Métis.
Hargrave nonetheless notes in this same appendix that he has no doubt that the song is “a truthful description of the light in which the author, along with doubtless the majority of his comrades, regarded the appearance and intentions of Governor Semple and his followers.” In other words, Hargrave acknowledged that this song tells a Métis version of events that took place at Seven Oaks, even as he assumes that this version is a biased account of the events.
What we do know is that the song conforms to evidence in William Coltman’s report—a report commissioned in 1818 by the governor in Lower Canada to investigate what happened at Seven Oaks—and challenges the account penned by Alexander Ross whose writing about Seven Oaks was eagerly accepted by post-1870 historians even though there was little evidence to support his version of the battle.
This song is therefore not only an important corrective, it’s also an example of the power of Métis oral/song traditions. Although there are numerous versions of the song today (as is typically the case with oral music traditional), they all present the same basic details of the skirmish, pointing to the value of the oral Métis song tradition in maintaining an accurate account of key aspects of historical events. The version of “La chanson des Bois-Brûles” below is taken directly from Hargrave’s book Red River.
Chanson Écrite Par Pierre Falcon
Voulez-vous écouter chanter une chanson de vérité!
Le dix-neuf de juin les “Bois-brûlés” sont arrivés
Comme des braves guerriers.
En arrivant à la Grenouillière
Nous avons fait trois prisonniers
Des Oroanais! Ils sont ici pour piller notre pays.
Etant sur le point de débarquer
Deux de nos gens se sont écriés
Voilà l’anglais qui vient nous attaquer!
Tous aussitôt nous nous sommes devirés
Pour aller les rencontrer.
J’avons cerné la bande de Grenadiers,
Ils sont immobiles! Ils sont démontés!
J’avons agi comme des gens d’honneur
Nous envoyâmes un ambassadeur.
Gouverneur! Voulez-vous arrêter un p’tit moment!
Nous voulons vous parler.
Le gouverneur qui est enrage,
Il dit à ses soldats—Tirez!
Le premier coup l’Anglais le tire.
L’ambassadeur a presque manqué d’être tué.
Le gouverneur se croyant l’Empereur
Il agit avec rigueur.
Le gouverneur se croyant l’Empereur
A son malheur agit avec trop de rigueur.
Ayant vu passer les Bois-brûlés
Il a parti pour nous épouvanter,
Il s’est trompé; il s’est bien fait tué.
Quantité de ses grenadiers.
J’avons tué Presque toute son armée.
De la bande quatre ou cinq se sont sauvés.
Si vous aviez vu les Anglais
Et tous les Bois-brûlés après!
De butte en butte les Anglais culbutaient.
Les Bois- Brûlés jetaient des cris de joie!
Qui en a compose la chanson?
C’est Pierre Falcon! Le bon garcon!
Elle a été faite et composée
Sur la Victoire que nous avons gagnés!
Elle a été faite et composée
Chantons la gloire de tous ces Bois-brûlés!
Further reading:
Giroux, Monique. 2015. “Singing for Frog Plain: Representing Canadian/Metis Relations through Falcon’s Songs.” Ethnologies 37(1): 43–64.
Hargrave, Joseph James. 1871. Red River. Montreal: Printed for the author by John Lovell.