The Scorched-Wood People by Rudy Wiebe

First published: 1977

Type of work: Historical chronicle

Time of work: The years between December, 1869, and November, 1885

Locale: Manitoba, the northeastern United States, Montreal, Montana, and Saskatchewan

Principal Characters:

• Louis Riel, the protagonist, the religious and political leader of the Metis
• Gabriel Dumont, a friend to Riel and military leader of the Metis
• Pierre Falcon, the narrator, a Metis poet-singer

The Novel

The action opens on December 8, 1869, in Fort Garry (near Winnipeg), Manitoba. Louis Riel is dressing himself carefully for a ceremony in which he will publicly declare the Metis National Committee the new Provisional Government of the North-West. The Metis, a proud people of mixed Indian-French descent, have long suffered at the hands of the grasping, omnipotent Hudson’s Bay Company and the English and Scottish settlers who regard them as savages. Like the Indians, the Metis have been stripped of their lands, wasted by the White Man’s diseases, cheated of their due as hunters and fur traders, and forced to follow a nomadic life in order to keep up with the dwindling herds of buffalo on which they rely for food and clothing. For this, too, the White Man is responsible: Not only has he slaughtered the huge animals heedlessly, but he has also kept them on the run because of the railroad he so obsessively stretches across the land. Riel, one of the few educated Metis, leads his people to take over the fort from the Hudson’s Bay Company. As the action opens, he is about to substitute the Metis flag for the Company standard.

It is the ubiquitous Pierre Falcon, singer-poet for the Metis, who both narrates and participates in the struggle of Riel and his followers for autonomy for their people. Falcon claims to have been born in 1793, yet he makes reference to past and future events that he could not possibly know about. Rudy Wiebe takes great liberty with the convention of narrator; Falcon penetrates the innermost thoughts of everyone, including the Prime Minister of Canada. He witnesses events that take place all over Canada and the United States and provides a running commentary on them. His value as narrator lies not only in his ability to be everywhere and know everything but also in his talent for making sense of and putting into historical perspective what transpires. Falcon’s is dual vision: From the beginning, he invokes the end, so that Riel’s meticulous dressing for the 1869 ceremony is presented in the light of another, more solemn dressing almost sixteen years later to the day, when Riel prepares to meet his end. Thus, events taking place in the present are always played out against the enormous fact of their inevitable, tragic future. As a result, Falcon undermines suspense as a necessary ingredient to plot and also maintains a somber mood.

Moving fluidly among past, present, and future tenses in his narrative, Falcon eventually supplies all the pertinent details about Riel’s life and death. Born in the Canadian northwest in 1844, Riel is noted for his cleverness at a young age and goes to Montreal to be educated by priests. He masters English and Latin and seriously considers becoming a priest but senses that God has something else in mind for him. He vows to devote the next ten years of his life to trying to better the lot of his people, and so, he returns to the West. The Metis are poor, uneducated, bewildered about the changes in their lives, and in need of leadership. The Roman Catholic priests they look to for guidance seem to want to keep them in ignorance, so Riel organizes them and gives voice to their cause. His fame spreads farther west, where the big, burly buffalo hunter Gabriel Dumont and his men hear of him. They travel to Fort Garry to lend their strength, and a deep friendship develops between the two leaders: Riel supplies the planning and inspiration for their movement, Dumont the emotional and military support.

The novel comprises four parts. The first, “Riel’s Province,” outlines the background to the creation of Manitoba and the ensuing difficulties of the Metis in holding on to it. The Canadian government under Prime Minister John A. Macdonald proves to be treacherous and self-serving in the extreme. Despite the fact that Riel is the elected Member of Parliament for his people, a price is put on his head, making it too dangerous for him to carry out the duties of his office. Riel escapes to the United States, and part 2, “Wilderness,” details his exile there. On December 8, 1875, while in Washington, D.C., he experiences a transcendental vision and thereafter believes himself a prophet. It is the turning point in his life: He even adopts the name David in emulation of the Israelite prophet-king. Eventually, Riel ends up in Montana, married to Marguerite, father of two children, and devoted to teaching the Metis. When Dumont comes looking for him with tales about the worsening lot of their people in Canada, Riel agrees to return as leader. Part 3, “Gabriel’s Army,” brings the story to its tragic climax. The Canadian army, larger and better equipped than the Metis, defeats them at Batoche in Saskatchewan. Dumont escapes, but Riel gives himself up and is tried and then hanged on November 16, 1885. The bois-briles (scorched-wood people) scatter and live out empty lives of abject poverty; part 4, only a short epilogue, finds the once-proud Gabriel Dumont in New York in 1886 as part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

The Characters

Pierre Falcon’s is a decidedly biased view of the characters he sketches. The English and Scottish Canadians are unfailingly depicted as stiff, dry, and deceitful; the Metis, by contrast, prove uncomplicated, emotional, and full of vitality. As a result, it is the Metis who stand out as fully fleshed characters. The ultimate challenge to Falcon’s skill as narrator, though, lies in bringing Louis Riel to life. The Metis leader is a complex man, given to introspection in the form of visions and prayers: In his essential solitude and pious habits, Riel seems unlike the rest of his race. From time to time, however, he does blaze forth in impassioned speeches that mesmerize his listeners—or so Falcon says. It is supremely difficult to convey the charisma of a man such as Riel in words: Falcon acknowledges this but tries to do so anyway by focusing on those around Riel for their reaction to him. Characters such as Dumont, himself not given to religious devotion and therefore puzzled by it in Riel, nevertheless implicitly believe with Riel that their mission is God-ordained. There are those who profess throughout the work that one has only to gaze into Riel’s eyes or spend time in his presence to be totally under his spell. Wherever he goes, Riel commands attention and respect, even among his detractors.

Falcon’s binary vision ultimately succeeds in bringing the enigma that is Riel to life. He reproduces letters to and from Riel, as well as some of his visionary writings, and also includes some of Riel’s speeches. The external trappings of the man are perhaps easiest to re-create: Riel is physically small with dark hair and big eyes, and, because poor and often on the run, he is obliged to rely on other people’s beneficence almost all of his life. Riel’s incredible strength and conviction Falcon conveys by delving inside him: Debates with himself and with God, and his boundless love for his sister Sara, his wife, and his children, are movingly rendered.

Because Falcon is accustomed to acting as poet-singer for his people, much of the text gives the impression of having been delivered orally. Hence, Falcon’s diction is mostly colloquial, even witty and profane when he is recounting events from an objective point of view. The fact that he creates a fully rounded character such as Riel is a result of his practice of presenting Riel’s visions from inside the man, using Riel’s own words. Falcon employs the same techniques to devastating effect when he reproduces the devious thoughts of politicians and priests who feel threatened by Riel’s plans. As a result, the novel contains several different styles of writing, such as English-Canadian officialese, ecstatic, devotional prayers, and colorful Indian and Metis idioms.

Still, there remain many questions that even Falcon never answers about Riel and his claim of having seen visions and heard voices. Although he has implicit faith in the Metis leader, Falcon also recognizes some of his mistakes and attributes certain Metis defeats to Riel’s growing passivity. Doubts about Riel’s sanctity and about his sanity are never fully resolved, nor can they be. Falcon himself falls back on nebulous notions such as destiny to explain what happened in the light of what might have been: “Let me tell you immediately, Louis Riel was a giant. If God had willed it, he could have ruled the world. No, no, hear me out, and you will believe it too.” Falcon’s narrative does indeed fulfill his promise.

Critical Context

Much of Wiebe’s fiction focuses on the history and mythology of the Canadian west. The novel which preceded The Scorched-Wood People, The Temptations of Big Bear (1973), won Canada’s highest literary honor: the Governor-General’s Award for fiction. It movingly re-creates the life of Big Bear, one of the greatest Prairie Indian chiefs, who, with his people, suffers a fate similar to that of the Metis. The novel which follows The Scorched-Wood People, The Mad Trapper (1980), is a reconstruction of the myth of the mad trapper of Rat River, who kills a policeman and then leads his pursuers on a wild trek across Canada’s northern wilderness. As always, Wiebe uses a historical perspective in order to demonstrate how people can derive a national identity by coming to terms with their past.

The Scorched-Wood People lends a voice to what Wiebe perceives as unresolved racial and cultural differences between people who inhabit the same land. His insistence upon the importance of unearthing history and myth has encouraged the growth of the historical novel as genre in Canadian literature. His work has also supplied impetus to literary interest in minority cultures. Wiebe’s Mennonite heritage makes him sensitive to the difficulties of living differently from the mode of the majority of people, but he uses his special status to advantage. The Scorched-Wood People remains a milestone in Canadian literature because it restores the possibility of a living past: Canadian identity is to be found in its people, the land, and their collective history.

Bibliography

Bilan, R. P. Review in University of Toronto Quarterly. ILVII (Summer, 1978), pp. 335-338.

Keith, W. J., ed. A Voice in the Land: Essays by and About Rudy Wiebe, 1981.

Moss, John, ed. The Canadian Noel: Here and Now, 1978.

Solecki, Sam. Review in Fiddlehead. No. 117 (Spring, 1978), pp. 117-120.

Woodcock, George. “Riel and Dumont,” in Canadian Literature. No. 77 (Summer, 1978), pp. 98-100.