GRANT, CUTHBERT, fur trader, Métis leader, farmer, office
holder, justice of the peace, and politician; b. c. 1793 in Fort
de la Rivière Tremblante (near Kamsack, Sask.), son of Cuthbert
Grant*, fur trader, and a Métis woman, probably of Cree and
French descent; m. according to the custom of the country first
Elizabeth MacKay, secondly Madelaine Desmarais, and perhaps
thirdly an unnamed woman; m. 1823 Marie McGillis in St Boniface
(Man.); he had by these marriages at least three sons and six
daughters; d. 15 July 1854 in White Horse Plain (St François
Xavier, Man.). Cuthbert Grant, effectively bilingual, was the
first educated Métis to wield a profound influence over the fate
of his people. He was largely responsible for implanting in
their minds the concept of a Métis nation that played such a
vital role in the Red River uprising of 1869–70 and the
Northwest rebellion of 1885. Yet Grant was no rebel. Throughout
his career he was a staunch supporter of the authority he knew,
first that of the North West Compa