IIGS™ Newsletter - November 1998
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IIGS™ Newsletter - November 1998
"When Louis Riel died on the gallows in 1885, it is said that the Métis nation died with him (Harrison 10)."Louis Riel and the people he led, the Métis, attempted to gain recognition as a distinct group, neither Indian nor white, but a mixture of both cultures.
"Historically the term Métis is applied to those individuals, frequently of mixed Indian, western European and other ancestry, who arose in the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes trading system, including its extensions to the Pacific and Arctic coasts. They saw themselves in various collectivities distinct from their Indian neighbours and, in some instances, distinct from members of the 'white' community (Peterson 73)." The Métis saw themselves as a distinct nationality.
"France sought to assimilate Amerindians by trying to use racial intermixing as an instrument of empire (Peterson 19)." Samuel de Champlain reportedly said on two occasions, "Our young men will marry your daughters, and we shall be one people (Peterson 21)." France sought to survive in harmony with the natives in the new land by mixing with the natives and by eventually assimilating them into white society. The French fur traders, or coureur de bois, were the instruments of intermingling. "They were literally the offspring of the fur trade (Driben 19)." The experiment was a dismal failure. Many who went to live with the Indians stayed because they preferred the Indian lifestyle. The experiment, then, merely established a new race, neither French nor Indian. "France unwittingly helped to prepare the way for a phenomenon among the Métis of the Canadian Northwest, of the sense of a separate identity, the spirit of the 'New Nation' (Peterson 19)." The Métis settled the northern Great Plains, reaching as far as present day Chicago.
The white people of the region viewed the Métis as troublesome. A white settler in Edmonton noted "if the whites do not come in and take the place of these degenerate half-breeds, in fifty years the map of the North West will be sprinkled with black dots, represent(ing) the absence of all progress in those localities. The half-breeds must be absorbed by the whites or leave the place; there is no other alternative. (D'Artigue 143)"
The Edmonton settler's view was not shared by all. "Many of the North West Mounted Police had a good word to say for the half-breeds as a class (Haydon 125)."
With the apparent prevalent view of the Edmonton settler, it seemed inevitable that conflicts would arise between the two groups of people, particularly when attempts were made to settle the North West.
"On 23 September 1811, the Edward and Ann disembarked the first group who had been sent to prepare on the banks of the Red River for the arrival of the families of settlers who were to be sent there in the following year (Giraud 359)." Upon the arrival of Lord Selkirk's settlers, trouble ensued between the settlers and the Métis. The troubles continued for years, the Métis often spurred on by the North West Company, Hudson Bay Company's competitor for fur trade in the region. No serious outbreaks were recorded, however, until rebellions later in the century.
Louis Riel was born on the twenty-second or twenty-third of October 1844. Many historians attribute Riel's willingness to engage in rebellion to his father, also Louis Riel. In what is sometimes called the prelude to the 1849 North-West rebellion, the elder Riel led 500 to 600 armed Métis to a courtroom where a Métis named Guillame Sayer was being tried for illegal trafficking in furs. Although convicted, Sayer received no punishment because of the menacing mob outside the courtroom. The case broke the Hudson Bay Company monopoly and allowed the Métis, to an extent, to legally take their furs south for trade (Flanagan 4). The elder Riel's death in January 1864 greatly affected Riel, who suffered a long period of depression (Flanagan 12).
Young Riel was pious. "Almost the first words Louis learned to say were Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Flanagan 5)." At the time of his father's death, Riel was attending school in Montreal, preparing for the priesthood. His deep religious piety led some to believe he was insane. He later saw himself as the prophet of the New World, the leader of a new religion centered in the west.
Riel's leadership of the Métis was never questioned, but his abilities as a leader have been. "Louis Riel was not a strong personality, nor a natural leader of men (Haydon 122)." Other historians disagree. "Politics was his (Riel's) natural metier (Flanagan 31)."
The 1869-1870 rebellion began with the sale to Canada of the Northwest territory by the Hudson Bay Company. The transaction was, at best, undiplomatic. No effort was made to consult the inhabitants, namely the Métis. The sale agitated them. "The Métis were particularly worried about becoming part of Canada because they feared that the religious and linguistic balance of the colony would be upset by massive immigration from Ontario (Flanagan 28)." Alarmed, the Métis put forth their grievances. "The French half-breeds believed themselves about to be deprived forcibly of their lands; we may grant that they had a fairly just grievance (Haydon 7)."
Feeling compelled to act, the Métis, on 2 November 1869, seized Fort Garry, in order "to protect it" from a danger they declined to specify (Morton 123). McDougall issued a proclamation on 1 December 1869 declaring the transfer of the land complete. Riel and the Métis answered by forming a provisional government of which Riel would become the leader (Flanagan 29).
Events moved rapidly. There were two armed attempts to put down the provisional government, both were failures. However, they planted the seeds of Louis Riel's and the provisional government's demise. Thomas Scott, involved in both incidents, was captured and jailed by the Métis after each revolt. After his second arrest he became difficult and, under pressure from advisors, Riel set up a court martial which sentenced Scott to death. On 4 March Scott was shot before the walls of Fort Garry (Morton 124). That day Riel tightened his totalitarian grip and put the Fort under martial law. "On March 4, following the execution of Thomas Scott, Riel insisted on approving the report to appear in the press (Peel 37)."
Shortly afterward an agreement was reached and Canadian troops marched into Manitoba. Riel fled to North Dakota, and the provisional government and martial law collapsed. As one source put it, "On August 24, the Riel regime came to an end (Peel 41)."
The execution of Thomas Scott is one of the great mysteries of the first rebellion because Riel had earlier pardoned Major Boulton, the leader of the second one. "The execution of Scott was unnecessary even on grounds of political necessity. The Provisional government was well established by then, while the Canadian party was in disarray (Flanagan 30)."
Because of the execution, called wanton murder by some, amnesty was not granted Riel and other Métis leaders. Almost all other demands made by the Métis were met.
Riel later returned to Canada and was considered a shoe-in for election to parliament. However, at the request of the governor of the province he withdrew from the election in favor of a candidate of whom both parties approved. He ran again in 1873 and was elected but could not take his seat in parliament because he feared arrest. Instead, he removed himself from the political scene for about twenty years.
Riel spent much of his time during those years in the United States. He also spent a number of months in an insane asylum in Canada and he underwent emotional rehabilitation with a priest in New England. During this time he married and had children. He also taught a mission school in Montana.
On Sunday, 4 June 1884, Gabriel Dumont interrupted Riel during church services. He asked Riel to return to Canada to help the Métis, who were having trouble obtaining and retaining their land. "The enslaved people had sent again for David (Howard 358)." Riel had taken to comparing himself to the Biblical David. Riel accepted the invitation to return and is reported to have said, "Father I see a gallows on top of that hill, and I am swinging from it (Howard 362)." Riel re-entered the Canadian political scene on 2 July 1884. On 18 March 1885 Riel and Dumont raided the store of George Kerr and took ammunition and hostages in an attempt to get the government to yield. On the following day a new provisional government was set up with Riel as its leader. On 26 March, the Métis, led by Dumont, fought a battle at Duck Lake and won. A week later Big Bear's Cree massacred settlers at Frog Lake. The rebellion culminated in the Battle at Batoche, May 9-12. Although the battle began well for the Dumont-led Métis, they were defeated by the Canadians under Middleton. The short but bloody North-West rebellion of 1884-1885 ended.
"Many Indians of different tribes were on their way to join the Frenchmen (Métis) but the war ended before they could join it (J.H. Howard 42)."
Three days after the Battle at Batoche, Riel surrendered, assured of a fair trial (D. Morton 285). The trial began 28 July 1885. Riel's attorneys pleaded that he was innocent because he was insane, but Riel insisted he wasn't insane. Upon hearing a guilty verdict, Riel actually seemed pleased. "Should I be executed I would not be executed as an insane man (Howard 539)." On the morning of 16 November 1885, "Louis Riel's mission was over" as he died on the gallows (Flanagan 177).
Bibliography
D'Artigue, Jean. Six Years in the Canadian North-West. Ontario Mika Publishing, 1973.
Driben, Paul. We Are Métis. New York AMS Press, 1985.
Flanagan, Thomas. Louis 'David' Riel 'Prophet of the New World.' Toronto University of Toronto Press, 1979.
Giraud, Marcel. The Métis in the Canadian West. Lincoln University of Nebraska Press, 1986.
Harrison, Julia D. Métis.
Haydon, A.L. The Riders of the Plains. London A.C. McClurg, 1910.
Howard, James H. The Canadian Sioux. Lincoln University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
Howard, Joseph K. Strange Empire. New York William Morrow, 1957.
Morris, Alexander. The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. Toronto Bedfords, Clark, and Co. 1880.
Morton, Desmond. Telegrams of the North-West Campaign. Toronto The Champlain Society, 1972.
Morton, W.L. Manitoba-A History. Toronto University of Toronto Press, 1967.
Peterson, Jacqueline and Jennifer Brown, ed. The New Peoples. Lincoln University of Nebraska Press, 1985.
Pritchett, John. The Red River Valley. New Haven Yale University Press, 1942.
For more information on the Métis