Adam Dollard des Ormeaux

Adam Dollard-des-Ormeaux, (1635-1660), usually known simply as Dollard-des-Ormeaux, was a colonist of New France who, as garrison commander, led his companions from the fort of the newly founded town of Ville Marie (also known as Montreal) in 1660 to ambush a larger force of Iroquois.

At the time, Ville Marie (which would later become Montreal), had a population of about 600. Through the Indian allies of the colonists, rumours were heard that the Iroquois would soon come in force from the west to exterminate the new settlement.

Nothing is known of Dollard’s activities prior to his arrival in Canada. Having come to Montreal as a volunteer, very probably in 1658, he continued his military career there. In 1659 and 1660 he was described as an officer or garrison commander of the fort of Ville-Marie, a title that he shared with Pierre Picoté de Belestre. It is not known what his particular responsibility was. Dollard was perhaps contemplating becoming a settler. At the end of 1659 Chomedy de Maisonneuve gave him a piece of land comprising 30 arpents. In 1661 the sum that Dollard had devoted “to having work done on the aforementioned grant” was calculated at 79 livres, 10 sols, “for 53 days’ labour.” Although first-hand evidence is rare, Dollard had an excellent reputation in Montreal.

Against the advice of seasoned Indian fighters, Dollard got the support of the governor of Montreal, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, to organize an expedition west. The group comprised about 16 volunteers who had little or no experience of Indian warfare. After a 10-day canoe trip up the Saint Lawrence and the Ottawa River, they set up camp not far from Long Sault, in a former stockade. They were soon surrounded by about 700 Iroquois, and after a siege lasting several days, were all killed or captured and massacred. For reasons unknown, the Iroquois did not continue east to capture Montreal. The events were witnessed by about 40 Huron allies who at times had joined the colonists in the stockade and at other times had harried the Iroquois from outside.

The deaths of Dollard-des-Ormeaux and his men were recounted by Catholic nuns and entered into official Church history. For over a century Dollard-des-Ormeaux became a heroic figure in New France, and then in Quebec, who exemplified selfless personal sacrifice, who had been martyrs for the church, and for the colony.

But, there were other versions of the story, even then, that raised questions about his intentions and actions. For one, many historians now believe that Dollard and his men went down the Ottawa River for other reasons and did not even know of the approaching Iroquois. Nevertheless, Dollard did indeed divert the Iroquois army temporarily from its objective in 1660, thereby allowing the settlers to harvest their crop and escape famine.

During the First World War the government of Canada tried to use the myth of Dollard to entice French Canada into joining up to fight overseas against Germany, (just as Dollard and his companions had gone away to confront the enemy instead of waiting for them to arrive). The government did not understand that a martyr is not the same as a hero, and this attempt turned against the myth of Dollard instead of helping the war effort. The misunderstandings around this and other elements led to the Conscription Crisis of 1917 which set some French Canadians to start thinking of themselves as Quebecers, and not Canadians.

During World War II, Canada used Dollard-des-Ormeaux as a poster boy for conscription. It was during this time that his French Canadian constituents abandoned him. Whatever remained of the myth of Dollard faded away in the 1960s as church attendance and religiosity declined in Quebec, and as a new generation of Quebec historians worked at debunking all myths, as part of the spirit of total change that came with the Quiet Revolution. There is a suburb of Montreal, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, named after the man.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online