Keepin’ It Riel

The Red River Resistance and Northwest Rebellion

The Northwest (Rupert’s Land)

/ 5,700 French-speaking Metis; Catholic
4,000 English speaking Metis ("Country-Born"); Protestant
1,600 Europeans -- consisting of Selkirk settler descendants (colony founded in1813), new settlers, and land speculators.

The new Dominion of Canada bought the Hudson’s Bay Company lands in 1869 for a sum of $1.5 million dollars. The HBC also gained 1/20th of all the land most suitable for farming (this is before the CPR, Pacific Scandal and National Policy). The HBC would eventually sell off those lands for a $120 million profit.

  • Metis and Aboriginal peoples in the Northwest were not included in the Canadian government’s negotiations with the HBC.

The Red River Resistance:

In August of 1869, land surveyors were sent to the Red River colony to divide up the land for a major influx of settlers. The Metis begin blocking surveyors from doing work, building roads, etc.

The Metis were rightly worried that they would lose possession of the lands they had occupied for generations and had claims to. The white Canadians at Red River were well-connected to the government in Ottawa, and many were openly racist and anti-Catholic Orangemen.

It Gets Riel:

  • An armed group of Metis blocked the new Lieutenant Governor of the NWT, William McDougal, from entering the territory.
  • The Metis established a provisional government led by John Bruce and Louis Riel.
  • The Canadians at Red River tried to overthrow the Metis provisional government, but are captured.
  • One of them was Thomas Scott, a particularly racist Orangeman from Ontario who had been employed as a road builder. He tried to incite a revolt in the prison, and successfully got under the skin of the Metis guards.
  • Riel had Scott executed by firing squad in March, 1870.

Meanwhile, the government of Canada agreed to negotiate with the Red River government, and agreed to Metis demands:

  • New Province: Manitoba!
  • Elected legislative assembly
  • Appointed upper house
  • English and French language rights
  • Protestant and Catholic education rights
  • Metis would receive titles for their lands and additional grants for their children

This was a delaying tactic!

  • MacDonald finally got British soldiers sent to Red River, including some who were also Ontario Orangemen. They occupied the new province of Manitoba and began to terrorize the Metis.
  • White settlers poured in, the Metis titles and land grants never came. The Metis moved west into what is now Saskatchewan and founded new communities.
  • Riel fled to the USA and took up farming. He later developed a mental illness and was committed to an insane asylum, but was released after two years. He married and had three children while becoming a teacher in Montana.

Canada: 1870

Canada: 1885

The Northwest Rebellion: 1885

The Metis, Cree and Blackfoot were suffering greatly due to the influx of white settlers, the disappearance of the buffalo, and the treaties that were signed between Ottawa and the First Nations. They were starving, dependant on food handouts from HBC trading posts and government food shipments.

The government, upon hearing that the Plains First Nations were starving, insisted that they go to their reserves, abandon their way of life, and take up farming—on the lands that white settlers did not want.

The Cree under chiefs Big Bear and Poundmaker began organizing their people to better their position in negotiation. By 1884, the Cree began coordinating resistance in small bands. The unrest spread to the Metis in Saskatchewan, who sent a delegation to Montana to ask Louis Riel to come north to lead the Northwest Rebellion.

Riel and the Metis sent a petition to Ottawa which outlined a Metis “Bill of Rights”, but it also was concerned with the treatment of all the residents of the NWT, including whites. These included:

  • Land grants and titles for the Metis
  • Settlers have rights and be treated accordingly by the government
  • Creation of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan with responsible government
  • Better treatment for the First Nations.

This time MacDonald sends troops immediately. (remember: National Policy is in place in 1885)

The Metis and Cree won a few small battles, but the government had hundreds of troops in the territory: The CPR was now able to carry soldiers quickly to the NWT.

The rebellion was crushed and Riel was captured in May 1885. Poundmaker and Big Bear were captured and sentenced to prison. They were eventually released, but died soon after. Eight other native leaders were hanged for treason.

The Fate of Louis Riel:

Was tried for high treason by an all-Protestant English jury.
His defense wanted to try an insanity plea. He refused.

Found guilty, Riel is hanged.

Outcomes:

Ontario: wants revenge for Thomas Scott. Riel was a traitor.

Quebec: Outrage that a Catholic Frenchman was hanged for rebellion, after the government had already reneged on its promises in 1870.

English/Protestant vs. French/Catholic

Riel and Historical Memory: Many things to many groups
Metis and Aboriginal Peoples
English Protestant Ontario
French Catholic Quebec
Western Canadians
Heroic “Father of Confederation” or rebellious traitor? Sane or insane? You be the judge….