Onésime Dorval (3 August 1845 – 10 December 1932) was the first certified teacher in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. She was a "talented painter and innovative woodworker", and became the "best known and most respected French-language teacher" in settlements throughout the northern plains of Saskatchewan.
She was a pioneer in bilingual education.
Early life
Dorval was born to a Métis family in Sainte-Scholastique, in the Laurentians of the Province of Canada, on 3 August 1845. Her mother Esther Brunette and her carpenter father Ignace Dorval lived on a farm and moved to Saint-Jérôme when she was four years old. The petite girl was frail and in poor health throughout her childhood.
Her formal education began at the age of 10 in a convent school operated by the Sisters of Holy Cross at Sainte-Scholastique. A very good student, by the age of 18 she became a substitute teacher at l'École Modèle in Saint-Jérôme, during which time she would complete her studies and obtain a teaching certificate.
Her increasing devotion to her Roman Catholic faith led her to join the congregation of the Sisters of Holy Cross, who had established a convent school at Saint-Jérôme. Spurned because of her poor health, she travelled to the monastery of the congregation Sisters of the Good Shepherd in New York. There, she learned English. Before taking the final of three vows required to become a nun, she was told by a superior she was too susceptible to illness and may not be able to handle the duties required of her. She was not permitted to take her final vows, and was dismissed from the convent. Disappointed that she would not be a nun, she set to find opportunities for her other passion, teaching.
Missionary teaching
Her health began to improve at this time. In 1876 she met a missionary named Albert Lacombe, who in 1872 had established a mission at Fort Garry to promote the colonization of Manitoba. From him she learned that Vital-Justin Grandin, a bishop of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in St. Albert (then part of the Northwest Territories), was seeking Roman Catholic "women to work as teachers and housekeepers" in missions throughout Western Canada. In 1877, the bishop accepted her request to work in one of the missions in the Northwest Territories, and Dorval embarked on the long trip to the Red River Colony. She crossed Lake Superior by boat from Sault Ste. Marie in the east to Duluth, Minnesota, in the west, from which she travelled by train to the river port Fisher's Landing, then by steamboat along the Red River to Saint Boniface, where she arrived in late August. She arrived with an orphan girl named Marie Giroux she had adopted.
As a result of conflicts in the Prairies and Grandin's impending trip to France to secure funding for his missions, Dorval stopped at Fort Garry (Baie St. Paul). Dorval taught the Métis children there until 1880, then continued her westward trip.
She travelled as part of a company of nineteen Red River carts with Giroux on a gruelling two and a half month trip, beginning on 24 June 1880 and led by Louis Chatelain. She would often walk ahead of the caravan, and once remarked that the environment she observed "had power to charm the saddest of hearts", despite being inhospitable at times with prairie fires, ravenous mosquitoes, dust, as well as the sound of rickety ox carts and the bland food.
On 8 August 1880, the caravan camped at Stobart near a mission at Duck Lake, where Dorval was met by missionary Alexis André. He informed her that Grandin had sent him a letter authorizing Dorval to teach at Duck Lake, but could not produce the letter when requested by Chatelain. Dorval continued westward for another 27 days, stopping briefly at Fort Carlton and Fort Pitt on the way to Fort-des-Prairies. She was to stay with the Grey Nuns, but as there was insufficient housing, she went to Lac Ste. Anne, where Lacombe had operated a mission from 1852 to 1861.
The subsequent spring, Dorval and Giroux partially retraced their steps, arriving at St. Laurent de Grandin. Accompanied by bishop Grandin, they had travelled some of that journey by boat, and the final portion by a loaned buckboard with Grandin driving and Giroux seated on the baggage. They arrived on 26 July 1881, sooner than anticipated by its missionary leader Father Vital Fourmond, who was whitewashing the buildings in preparation and attired accordingly (French: "accoutré pour la circonstance", dressed for the occasion). She described it as a "poor little church" ("une bien pauvre petite église") amidst austere poverty.