When word of Scott's execution got out, many infuriated English-speaking Canadians in Ontario called for Riel's head. Prime Minister John Macdonald sent forces west to regain control of the region.
Riel's provisional governmental army was no match for the Canadian troops. Riel fled just hours before the troops reached and re-took Fort Garry. In June , Canadian negotiators reached agreement with Riel's government to establish a new province to be called Manitoba. Settlers were promised the right to retain their land, and and additional 1. When word, however, reached Riel that the amnesty he thought had been promised in the negotiations was not forthcoming, he fled to the Dakota Territory.
The next several years saw Riel go in and out of Canada, and in and out of the Canadian Parliament. For periods of time, he lived in Minnesota and in northern New York, but he remained committed to Metis politics. In October , even with an outstanding warrant for his arrest, Riel won election to the Canadian Parliament. In February , Riel won the seat again, even though he was hiding in Montreal, far from his Red River home, at the time.
Fellow legislators, calling him a "fugitive from justice," voted to expel Riel two months later, but that didn't stop Metis voters from giving him the unclaimed seat back for a third time in September. Tired of dealing with the Riel issue and anxious to put the problems behind them, legislators voted in to grant amnesty for participants in the Red River uprising--but in Riel's case the amnesty was conditioned on his agreeing to a five-year banishment from Canada.
Riel's banishment led to a turning point in his life. Shortly after meeting with President Grant in Washington to discuss the plight of his people in Canada, Riel claimed to have a vision in which God annointed him as his "prophet of the new world.
He was now the voice for a people favored by God, the Metis. Riel's vision raised questions about his mental health. So did many of his other actions. Riel proclaimed to some that he was the Biblical King David. He developed a propensity for ripping his clothes off, explaining that it was beautiful, as Adam and Eve did before the first sin, to be nude.
Friends observed Riel crying and shouting in public. He interrupted a mass to contradict a priest. These and other unusual claims and practices landed Riel in an asylum near Montreal in March At the asylum, Riel's mental condition continued to deteriorate.
On one occasion, he smashed ornaments and candles in the asylum's chapel. Several times orderlies placed Riel in a strait-jacket. Riel remained at the asylum, under an assumed name, until February Meanwhile, Manitoba was undergoing a rapid evolution. The province was becoming more English and less French. It grew more dependent on rail and steamboats, and less dependent on the old Red River carts.
Its hunting and fur-trading economy was giving way to farming. Metis, intent upon preserving their traditional lifestyle looked west. Several thousand Metis migrated from Manitoba to lands near the Saskatchewan River. Eventually, Riel's health improved enough to allow his discharge from the asylum in Montreal. He traveled through the northern U. His experience as a trader made Riel worry about the future of his race.
In his letters, he expressed bitter disappointment with the "half-breed" who "spends most of his earnings on whiskey. By the spring of , Riel was married with two children, and was a new American citizen.
His new job was a teaching position at the Catholic mission of St. Peter's on Montana's Sun River. Riel enjoyed teaching, but the job paid poorly and the work hours were too long to allow him to pursue his true interests in religion, poetry, and politics.
Back in Saskatchewan, things were not going well for the Metis. Following their custom, Metis settlers had claimed long, narrow lots, almost all with river footage. It allowed the Metis to cluster together in homes close to the riverfront. Problems arose when Canadian government surveyors working in the area, redrawing plots on which the Metis had settled. The surveyors employed the English system of square lots, plotted without regard to river access.
When Gabriel Dumont requested the area be resurveyed to conform to Metis notions of workable lots, the Government Lands Office dismissed the idea, citing the great cost of conducting a second survey.
In addition to complaints about the shape of lots, Metis expressed frustration over having to wait three or more years to receive title to land and argued that they were entitled to land grants similar to those provided in the Manitoba Act. Anger among the Metis simmered until the summer of when a delegation, led by Gabriel Dumont, traveled to St.
Peter's Mission, Montana. The reason for the delegation's visit to the United States was to recruit Louis Riel to assist them in their struggle with the Canadian government.
Riel was not surprised when the knock came to his door. A month earlier, he had received a letter from Metis friends that said, "The whole race is calling on you. By March , after having found little success in petitioning Ottawa for a redress of grievances, Riel took the radical step of calling a meeting in a local church where he called for a vote on setting up a provisional government, which Riel called "the Exovedate" from Latin, meaning "out of the flock" , and taking up arms against the Canadian government.
He had another announcement as well. Riel said that he would establish a new church under a new pope, Bishop Bourget of Montreal. He assured followers that God will help the members of his flock as his new chosen people. Riel then performed a ritual in which he breathed the "Holy Spirit" into each person declaring support for his cause. The first violence of the North-West Rebellion erupted on March 26 when a party led by Gabriel Dumont, on a mission to a general store by Duck Lake, encountered two mounties.
The Metis rebels chased the mounties as they raced to rejoin a larger group of CMP. As Dumont and his band fired shots over their heads, the mounties retreated to Fort Carlton. More recruits joined the rebels in time for a second enounter with Mounties near Duck Lake. When the rebels met the mounties, the mounties drew their sleighs into a defensive circle.
Two rebels approached the mounties under a white flag, but fighting erupted and the mounties shot both men. The killing of the two rebels led to a fire fight that left twelve mounties and five rebels dead, with others on both sides seriously wounded. With casualties on both sides, Riel and the rebels had crossed a line. Whatever small hope there might have been to achieve compromise and concessions was gone. When word of the Duck Lake violence reached Prime Minister Macdonald, he ordered that 2, Canadian troops be sent west over the still-uncompleted rail lines of the Canadian Pacific.
In , there were still large gaps in the railroad between Toronto and the Canadian West. Macdonald decided to charge Louis Riel with high treason, based on an obscure British law dating to the year The law carried the death penalty.
Courtesy of the National Archives of Canada. Riels own lawyers argued that their client was insane. And they seemed to have some justification. Riel considered himself a prophet from God sent to help his people. He also advocated moving the seat of the Catholic Church from the Vatican to Canada. I have a mission, I cannot fulfill my mission as long as I am looked upon as an insane being If I am guilty of high treason I say that I am a prophet of the new world.
Despite his pronouncements, Riel impressed the jury as being respectful, entertaining and perfectly sane. It took the jury less than four hours to reach a guilty verdict. They did ask the judge to show mercy and forego the death penalty. On August 3, , the judge ignored their pleas and sentenced Riel to death. Despite several appeals and continuing questions about his sanity, Riel was hanged on November 16, in Regina. Eventually, Riel was seen as a. Louis Riel played a big role in Canada and was fighting for the rights of Metis.
He was captured and executed by Canadian authorities in November 16, in Regina. Louis Riel did not receive a fair trial due that he was fighting for the rights of the Metis and people. It was inappropriate to accuse Riel as a traitor.
He tried to defend the traditional right of Metis and equal people and dedicated his life to help others like Metis, Native Indians and Western settlers. He gained a lot of respect. Little did they know, Louis Riel Jr. The question is, were his actions against the government acts of honor and truth, or deception and lies?
Riel Jr. On November 23, , Riel proposed the formation. The trial of Louis Riel began on July 20 and had much popularity throughout the world. But a question often presented is if the trial was a fair one. The argument being that Sir John A. Others argue that Riel deserved his sentence as he instigated an armed rebellion against the Canadian government. Evidence presented seems to point to the fact that Riel was not innocent but undeserving of the death sentence.
Patriote or Traitor? Louis Riel was born in He was captured and executed by Canadian authorities in November 16,
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