Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau
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Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau (May 11, 1848 – November 17, 1923) was a self-taught naturalist and Canadian government official. The city of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, is named after him,[1] as well as this city's history museum building.[2]
He was born in Les Îlets-Jérémie (located in the municipality of Colombier), not far from Betsiamites on the North Shore of the Saint Lawrence River. He was the eldest of eleven children.[3] His father, Antoine-Alexandre Comeau, was an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. His mother, Mary Luce Hall-Bedard, was of Irish origin. Napoleon-Alexandre Comeau spent his childhood in the woods in Labrador, at North-West River and the Mingan Islands, along with the Innu and Inuit, who taught him to hunt, fish and navigate.[4]
As a teenager, he spoke fluent French, Montagnais, Naskapi and Inuktitut.[5] In 1859 he was sent to an English school in Trois-Rivières, where he learned to read, write and speak English.