Riel Rebellions
The Riel Rebellions refer to two significant uprisings in Canada during the late 19th century, primarily involving the Métis people, who are of mixed Indigenous and European descent. The first, known as the Red River Rebellion (1869-1870), arose when the Canadian government moved to assert control over the Red River region, threatening the land and way of life of the Métis. Louis Riel emerged as a key figure, leading the establishment of a provisional government and advocating for Métis rights, but the conflict escalated after the controversial execution of an Englishman, Thomas Scott, leading to Riel's exile.
The second uprising, called the Northwest Uprising (1885), was fueled by similar grievances, this time uniting the Métis with Indigenous groups such as the Cree and Assiniboine. The participation of these groups highlighted the growing discontent over the loss of traditional livelihoods, particularly due to the decline of the buffalo population. Riel returned to Canada to lead the revolt but was ultimately unsuccessful; the Canadian government swiftly crushed the uprising, resulting in his execution for treason. Both rebellions underscore the struggle of the Métis and Indigenous peoples to assert their rights and preserve their ways of life in the face of expanding Canadian policies and settlement.
Riel Rebellions
Significance: In 1869–1870 and 1885, revolts against the government of Canada led to the dispersal and marginalization of the once-thriving Métis.
Canadian policies that threatened both the Métis and Indian ways of life were at the heart of two separate revolts in Canada’s newly acquired prairie region. (Métis people are of mixed Indian and European descent.) In 1869, the Hudson’s Bay Company relinquished its claim over Rupert’s Land and the Northwest to the recently confederated nation of Canada. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald set out to build a great nation joined from the Atlantic to the Pacific by a rail line. Although the government negotiated treaties that established Indian reserves, it offered the Métis, whom it did not regard as legally Indian, no such consideration. This contributed significantly to the erosion of the Métis economic and social life.
Red River Rebellion, 1869–1870
Preparing to take over the new territories in the fall of 1869, Canada sent survey parties into the Red River region. The Métis of the region had for many years occupied long, narrow farmsteads along the riverbank. Contrary to this practice, the surveyors delineated square township lots. Both fearing the imminent arrival of large numbers of English-speaking Protestants and fearing that their long-established land tenure would be ignored once Canada asserted control over the area, the Métis and a few of the original white settlers declared a provisional government in early November, 1869. Prairie-born but Montreal-educated, Louis Riel was elected secretary and, within a few weeks, president of the government of Assiniboia.
The Red River Rebellion actually involved very few military skirmishes. On November 2, 1869, the Métis seized Upper Fort Garry and arrested fifty Canadians including a militant Orangeman named Thomas Scott. Scott escaped from custody twice but was recaptured each time. He was tried, convicted of treason against the Métis government, and executed in March, 1870. Scott’s execution became a rallying point in English Canada against the mainly French Catholic Métis. Riel, who was president of Assiniboia at the time, was held responsible. He was forced into exile for much of the next fifteen years.
The Métis of Assiniboia had no intention of remaining independent of Canada and issued a declaration of their desire to join the Confederation of Canada as a new province with full representation in Parliament. According to their declaration, the new province would have both English and French as its official languages, control of public lands would remain with the local legislature, and the citizens would retain the property rights they held prior to entering confederation.
In May, 1870, after several months of negotiation between Ottawa and the Métis, the Canadian Parliament passed the Manitoba Act. While the establishment of the new province should have met many of the Métis’ demands, in practice it did not. The province was limited to 100,000 square miles, Parliament rather than the Manitoba Legislature retained control of the public lands, and the conveyance of the Métis’ land titles was delayed so long that many Métis sold their rights to land speculators and moved farther west.
Northwest Uprising, 1885
Many of the same economic concerns that caused the 1869–1870 Red River Rebellion fueled the Northwest Uprising of 1885. This second revolt, however, included Cree and Assiniboine Indians as well as the Métis. Ottawa, fearing a general Indian uprising on the prairies, responded with swift military action rather than negotiation.
Faced with the near extinction of the buffalo and once again with the fear of being uprooted by new settlers, the Métis around Batoche on the Saskatchewan River invited Riel to return from exile to argue their claims with Ottawa. Riel, however, had changed greatly in the intervening decade and a half. He had spent several years in insane asylums in Montreal before settling on a farm in Montana. He was obsessed with the idea that it was his divine mission to establish a French Catholic state in the northwest. He viewed the arrival of four Métis emissaries on June 4, 1884, as divine intervention and returned to Canada to fulfill his mission.
Riel spent much of his time drafting petitions to Ottawa outlining the Métis’ grievances. Finally, reminiscent of events in 1869, the Métis, led by Riel and Gabriel Dumont, seized the parish church at Batoche and declared a provisional government. The army and the Northwest Mounted Police responded promptly, and the entire revolt was crushed within two months. The Métis and the Indians, however, did inflict casualties. The first skirmish occurred near Duck Lake when the Mounted Police arrived to assert Canadian authority. The Métis, joined by a few Indians, killed ten of the police and forced the remainder to retreat.
The Indians, starving as a result of the loss of the buffalo and then Ottawa’s withholding of treaty rations, were encouraged by the Métis victory at Duck Lake. The Cree and Assiniboine were persuaded to join the revolt. Several hundred hungry Indians under the leadership of Poundmaker attacked the fort at Battleford, burning the homes and looting the stores. Other Cree, led by Big Bear, killed nine people, including the Indian agent and two priests in what became known as the Frog Lake massacre. Three others were spared by Big Bear.
The Canadian military response was swift. Eight thousand well-armed troops were dispatched to the region, and the revolt was summarily crushed. Among the leaders of the revolt, Dumont escaped to the United States, where he performed for a time with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Big Bear and Poundmaker each received three years in prison. Riel, who used his trial as a forum for his cause, was found guilty of treason and hanged on November 16, 1885. Many of the Métis and Cree fled to Montana. Others dispersed to the north. Fearing additional Indian uprisings, the Canadian government rushed to complete the Canadian Pacific Railroad and promptly began to settle the West.
Bibliography
Dempsey. Hugh A. Big Bear: The End of Freedom Vancouver: Douglas, 1984. Print.
Flanagan, Thomas. Riel and the Rebellion: 1885 Reconsidered Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie, 1983. Print.
Miller, J. R. “The Northwest Rebellion of 1885,” in Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-White Relations in Canada Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1989. Print.
Purich, Donald. The Métis Toronto: Lorimer, 1988. Print.
Stanley, George F. G. The Birth of Western Canada: A History of the Riel Rebellions 2nd ed. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1992. Print.