Angelique Lepine (nee Cadotte) was a Métis woman born in the Upper Great Lakes in the early 1800s. As a young woman, she married Pierre Lepine, a French-Canadian. Soon after, the couple welcomed their first child, Therise, into the world.
However, that world was one of upheaval for Angelique’s Métis community. In 1828, Angelique, her husband, and their baby daughter were among the many Métis families forced to relocate from their homes on Drummond Island after the British ceded it to the United States following the War of 1812.
As late November’s wintery weather set in, Angelique’s family boarded the schooner Hackett alongside soldiers, livestock, military supplies, and their worldly possessions and set sail for Penetanguishene across Georgian Bay’s cold and quickly changing waters.
As the ship rounded the southernmost point of Manitoulin Island, a wintery storm arose. The captain and crew, intoxicated, lost control and abandoned the vessel after it ran aground off “Horse Island.” Mrs. Lepine and her baby daughter were left aboard the floundering ship.
Lewis Solomon, himself Métis who made the voyage from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene in 1828, later recounted what happened next:
“Mrs. Lepine, in the darkness and fury of the storm, wrapped the babe in a blanket, and having tied it on her back, lashed herself securely to the mast, and there clung all night long through a furious storm of wind and drenching rain, from eleven o'clock till daylight, or about six o’clock in the morning, when the maudlin crew, having recovered in a measure from their drunken stupor, rescued her from her perilous position in a yawl boat.”
The remarkable Angelique Lepine and Therise both survived the tragical journey and eventually joined their Métis community in Penetanguishene. There, they would live the rest of their lives, with the heroic Angelique living to the advanced age of 95 years. She is buried at Lafontaine.