Article on the idea of repatriation as integral to the history of French Canadian community building in the United States. Certain struggles and losses accompanying Canadian repatriation from the United States in the late 19th century, after extended periods of American settlement. Examples of repatriation as considered in two different contexts: New England and the US Midwest. In Worcester, Massachusetts, journalist Ferdinand Gagnon functioning in the French Canadian press as an agent of repatration for Quebec government in 1875; the eventual shift in his political position, a rearticulation of his understandings of cultural allegiance, and his eventual American naturalization. In Michigan, Telesphore St-Pierre as journalist advocate for la survivance during a period of growth of French community and society there. The difficulties of appealing to Canadian repatriation after extended settlement. St-Pierre's eventual appeal for American nationalism and Catholic loyalty as means of retaining heritage. Transformations in the Franco American concept of "la survivance."