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Louis David Riel (October 22, 1844 - November 16, 1885), sometimes called the "Father of Manitoba", was a Canadian politician and leader of the Métis, an ethnic group of mixed Cree, Ojibway, Saulteaux, French Canadian, and British descent. He led a Resistance movement against the Canadian government in the Canadian Northwest which ended in his arrest and execution for treason. He is the subject of controversy to this day.
Early Life
 Jean-Louis and Marie-Angélique Riel, children of Louis Riel The eldest son in a French Canadian-Métis family, Louis David Riel was born in the Red River Settlement (now the area around Winnipeg, Manitoba) in 1844 to Louis Riel Sr. and Julie Lagimodière. His father, Louis Riel Sr. (père) was a prominent member of the Métis community in Red River, who helped organize the group that supported Guillaume Sayer. His mother, Julie, was the daughter of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière and Marie Gaboury, one of the earliest white families to settle in the Red River Settlement in 1806. He married Marguerite Monet dit Bellehumeur in 1881 and had three children: Jean-Louis, Marie-Angélique and a third child who died in infancy.
He was first educated by priests at St. Boniface and at age 13 he won a scholarship to study in Montreal, Quebec to join the priesthood. After a failed romance (the family of his fiancée Marie-Julie Guernon opposed the marriage because he was half-blood) and his father's early death in 1864, Riel lost interest in the priesthood and withdrew from college to work as a law clerk in the Montreal office of Rodolphe Laflamme. He returned to Red River in 1868, after working odd jobs in Chicago, Illinois and St. Paul, Minnesota.
Resistance
The Red River Rebellion
By 1868, he had returned from Montreal to the Red River area, where he became a leader of the Métis in response to the arrival of Canadian surveyors. In 1869, to protect Rupert's Land from takeover by the United States, the British government negotiated its transfer to Canada. In August 1869 Canada sent a survey party headed by J. S. Dennis to the Red River Settlement. The Métis were concerned that they would lose their farms as British land allotment practices replaced theirs, and that their language and religion would be discriminated against. Riel organized a Métis National Committee, with two representatives from each parish, to represent Métis interests.
The Canadian government also appointed the notoriously anti-French William McDougall as lieutenant governor. On October 11, 1869, the Métis National Committee prevented the survey party from continuing its work, and on November 2 it turned back McDougall's party at the American border and seized Fort Garry.
Considerable differences remained at the Red River Settlement over how to negotiate with Canada. McDougall attempted to force the Métis and the settlers to resolve their differences by proclaiming that the Hudson's Bay Company was no longer in control of Rupert's Land and appointing Dennis to impose Canadian authority with a contingent of armed men he was to raise. Riel arrested fifty of Dennis' recruits. It then became known that the transfer to Canada had been postponed indefinitely at the Canadians' request. The Métis National Committee therefore had little choice but to declare a provisional government, which it did on December 10; Riel was elected president two weeks later.
In early 1870 Riel arrested a Canadian armed force of 48 men led by Major Boulton, including a previously escaped prisoner, Thomas Scott. Major Boulton was sentenced to death for interfering with the provisional government, but intercessions on his behalf by Donald Smith, a representative of the Canadian government, and others resulted in his pardon.
Thomas Scott, an Orangeman, was found guilty of defying the authority of the provisional government, fighting with his guards, and insulting the president - crimes not usually considered capital at the time - and sentenced to death. Donald Smith and Major Boulton were among those who asked Riel to commute the sentence, but Donald Smith reported Riel responding to his pleas by saying, "I have done three good things since I have commenced; I have spared Boulton's life at your instance, I pardoned Gaddy, and now I shall shoot Scott." Riel may also have been told by Scott's jailers that they would kill Scott if the committee did not. Scott was executed by a firing squad on March 4, 1870.
The precise details of Scott's execution are not known, but Boulton's memoirs of the North West Rebellions cite John Bruce, a Métis and the first president of Riel's provisional government, as claiming that only two bullets from the firing squad hit Scott; one bullet hit his left shoulder, and the other his upper chest. A man stepped forward and discharged his pistol close to Scott's head, but the bullet penetrated the upper part of the left cheek and came out somewhere near the cartilage of the nose. Still not dead, Scott was placed in a kind of coffin, from which he was later reported to cry, "For God's sake take me out of here or kill me."
The Canadian prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, had decided before the provisional government was established that Canada must negotiate with the Métis. Although the Métis negotiators were briefly jailed after arriving in Ottawa, they were quickly released and Canada and Riel's government soon reached an agreement for the admission of Manitoba to the Canadian confederation. Part of the agreement was that a Canadian military expedition under Colonel Garnet Wolseley would be sent to the Red River to provide a means of exercising Canadian authority.
However, anger over Scott's execution was growing rapidly in Ontario, and many Ontarians looked on the purpose of the Wolseley expedition as suppression of rebellion. Riel fled as the expedition approached the Red River. These events came to be known as the Red River Rebellion.
The North-West Rebellion
In 1875 Riel was formally exiled from Canada for five years. He was elected to the Canadian parliament three times while in exile, but never took his seat. Formally, Riel had to sign a register book at least once upon being elected; he did so under disguise, much to the consternation of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, who was looking for any excuse to relieve Riel of his seat.
Riel became a citizen of the United States in 1883. The following year, he was teaching at a Jesuit mission in St. Paul, Montana. A delegation from the community of Métis from the south branch of the Saskatchewan River asked him to represent them and present their grievances to the Canadian government. He did so, but received no response. By March of 1885, Métis patience was exhausted and a provisional government was declared.
Riel was the political and spiritual leader of the North-West Rebellion, also known as the North-West Resistance. He was increasingly influenced by his belief that he was divinely chosen as leader of the Métis. The Rebellion was a dismal failure for the Métis, with most fleeing or surrendering to General Middleton's troops. On May 15, Riel surrendered to Canadian forces, and was tried for treason.
Execution for treason
 Jury of six of Louis Riel's trial Riel's trial was initially to be held in Winnipeg in a courtroom owned by a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Concerned with the possibility of an ethnically mixed and sympathetic jury, prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald had the trial moved to Regina, where Riel was tried before a jury composed entirely of English and Scottish Protestants.
Riel delivered two lengthy speeches during his trial, defending his own actions and affirming the rights of the Métis people. He rejected his lawyer's attempt to argue that he was not guilty by reason of insanity, asserting,
- "Life, without the dignity of an intelligent being, is not worth having."
The jury found him guilty but recommended mercy; nonetheless, Judge Hugh Richardson sentenced him to death, with the date of his execution set for September 18th, 1885. Fifty years later one of the jurors, Edwin Brooks, said that Riel was tried for treason but hanged for the murder of Thomas Scott.
Prior to his execution, Riel was assigned a spiritual advisor in Father André, and was given writing materials so that he could employ his time in prison to write a book. Boulton writes in his memoires that, as the date of his execution approached, Riel regretted his opposition to the defense of insanity and vainly attempted to provide evidence that he was not sane. After several requests for a retrial and an appeal to the Privy Council in England were denied, Louis Riel was hanged for treason on November 16, 1885.
Boulton writes of Riel's final moments,
- ...Père André, after explaining to Riel that the end was at hand, asked him if he was at peace with men. Riel answered "Yes." The next question was, "Do you forgive all your enemies?" "Yes." Riel then asked him if he might speak. Father André advised him not to do so. He then received the kiss of peace from both the priests, and Father André exclaimed in French, "Alors, allez au ciel!"
- ...[Riel's] last words were to say good-bye to Dr. Jukes and thank him for his kindness, and just before the white cap was pulled over his face he said, "Remerciez, Madame Forget."
- The cap was pulled down, and while he was praying the trap was pulled. Death was instantaneous. His pulse ceased beating four minutes after the trap-door fell. The body was to have been interred inside the gallows' enclosure, and the grave was commenced, but an order came from the Lieutenant-Governor to hand the body over to Sheriff Chapleau which was accordingly done that night. Previously however, to handing it over, Colonel Irvine, in presence of Dr. Jukes, Colonel McLeod and others, had the coffin opened to inspect the body, in consequence of reports which had spread, and which had even got into the papers, that Riel's body had been mutilated. The mutilations consisted in Father McWilliams having cut off a lock of his hair and beard, and in taking off his moccasin. The other moccasin and other locks of his hair had been distributed among some of his friends. Next day he was interred beneath the Roman Catholic Church in Regina. Subsequently his body was removed to his mother's house, near Winnipeg, and there in presence of a large number of people was interred at St. Boniface.
The prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, who was instrumental in upholding Riel's sentence, is famously quoted as saying
- "He shall hang though every dog in Quebec bark in his favour."
Riel's execution caused lasting upset in Quebec.
Legacy
The widespread perception of Louis Riel, outside of the Métis and French Canadians especially, as an insane traitor weakened considerably in the 20th century. Many now view Riel as a hero who stood up for his people in the face of a racist government; some who still question his eventual sanity still view him as an honourable figure.
Canadian Pacific Railway
Ironically, Riel was inadvertently responsible for the successful fulfilment of John A. Macdonald's National Dream, the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. At the time when Riel's second rebellion occurred, the railway was in deep financial trouble and headed for collapse. After the opening of hostilities, the CPR played a critical role in transporting troops to the area in only nine days as opposed to the three-month journey necessary for the Red River Rebellion. This feat garnered sufficient political support to supply funds to complete the line.
Saskatchewan Métis
The Saskatchewan Métis' requested land grants were all provided by the government by the end of 1887, and the government resurveyed the Métis river lots in accorance with their wishes. The Métis did not understand the long term value of their new land, however, and it was soon bought by speculators who later turned huge profits from it.
As J. M. S. Careless has observed, it is possible that Riel was both a murderer and a hero. It is also possible that he was a man whose one foolish action drastically altered the history of his people. For example, shortly after the Red River Rebellion the Canadian government began a program which speculators and other non-Métis exploited to dispossess the Métis of their land; had Scott not been executed, the government might well have supervised the program more rigorously, given the good relations between Canada and the Métis until that time.
Raoul McKay and other Métis scholars have noted that Riel is a more important figure to non-Métis than to Métis (perhaps because he is the only Métis figure most non-Métis are aware of).
In the 1960s, the Quebec terrorist group, the Front de libération du Québec, adopted the Louis Riel name for one of its terrorist cells.
Statues and names
Statue of Louis Riel in Winnipeg, Manitoba A statue of Riel now stands on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Two statues of Louis Riel are located in Winnipeg. The first statue, a depiction of Riel as a naked, tortured figure designed by Marcien Lemay, was unveiled in 1971 and stood on the grounds of the provincial legislature for 23 years. After much outcry (especially from the Métis community) that the statue was an undignified and gross representation of Riel, the statue was removed and placed at the Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface. It was replaced in 1994 with a statue designed by Miguel Joyal showing Riel as a dignified statesman.
In numerous Saskatchewan communities, Riel is remembered in the names of streets, schools, and other buildings. Highway 11, stretching from Regina to just south of Prince Albert, has been named "Louis Riel Trail" by the provincial government; the roadway passes near many of the locations of the 1885 rebellion.
From the late 1960s until the early 1990s, Saskatoon hosted Louis Riel Day, a summer celebration that included a relay race that combined running, backpack carrying, canoeing, hill climbing, and horseback riding, as well as a controversial cabbage roll eating contest. The student centre and campus pub at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon are named after Riel.
Arts and literature
Fictionalized portrayals of Riel's role in the Red River Rebellion include the 1979 CBC television film Riel and Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown's acclaimed 2003 graphic novel .
An opera about Riel entitled "Louis Riel" was comissioned for Canada's centennial celebrations in 1967. It was an opera in three acts, written by Harry Somers, with an English and French libretto by Mavor Moore and Jacques Languirand. The Canadian Opera Company produced and performed the first run of the opera in September and October, 1967.
CBC polls
On October 22, 2003, CBC Newsworld and its French-language equivalent, Réseau de l'information, staged a one-hour simulation of a retrial of Riel, with Canadian viewers invited to vote guilty or not guilty over the Internet. The poll received 10 000 votes with 87 per cent voting not guilty. The results of this straw poll have led to the suggestion that Riel be pardoned by the government.
In The Greatest Canadian project, Riel ranked 11th in the public poll as the Greatest Canadian.
References
Boulton, Charles A. Reminiscences of the North-West Rebellions Toronto, 1886.
Brown, Chester. Louis Riel: A Comic-strip Biography. Montreal : Drawn and Quarterly, 2003.
Flanagan, Thomas Louis Riel. Ottawa, Ont. : Canadian Historical Association, 1992.
Riel, Louis. The collected writings of Louis Riel. George F.G. Stanley, general editor, Edmonton : University of Alberta Press, 1985.
Siggins, Maggie. Riel: a life of revolution. Toronto : HarperCollins, 1994.
Stanley, George F.G. Louis Riel. Toronto : Ryerson Press, 1963.
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