Red River Rebellion
The Red River Rebellion, also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by Métis leader Louis Riel and his followers at the Red River Colony, in the early stages of establishing today's Canadian province of Manitoba. It had earlier been a territory called Rupert's Land and been under control of the Hudson's Bay Company before it was sold.
The event was the first crisis the new federal government faced after Canadian Confederation in 1867. The Government of Canada had bought Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869 and appointed an English-speaking governor, William McDougall. He was opposed by the French-speaking mostly-Métis inhabitants of the settlement. Before the land was officially transferred to Canada, McDougall had sent out surveyors to plot the land according to the square township system used in the Public Land Survey System. The Métis, led by Riel, prevented McDougall from entering the territory. McDougall declared that the Hudson's Bay Company was no longer in control of the territory and that Canada had asked for the transfer of sovereignty to be postponed. The Métis created a provisional government to which they invited an equal number of Anglophone representatives. Riel negotiated directly with the Canadian government to establish Manitoba as a Canadian province.
Meanwhile, Riel's men arrested members of a pro-Canadian faction who resisted the provisional government. The arrested included an Orangeman, Thomas Scott. Riel's government tried Scott for insubordination, convicted him and then executed him. Canada and the Assiniboia provisional government soon negotiated an agreement. In 1870, the Parliament of Canada passed the Manitoba Act, 1870, allowing the Red River Colony to enter Confederation as the province of Manitoba. The act also incorporated some of Riel's demands, such as the provision of separate French schools for Métis children and the protection of Catholicism.
After reaching an agreement, Canada sent a military expedition to Manitoba to enforce federal authority. Now known as the Wolseley expedition, or the Red River Expedition, it consisted of Canadian militia and British regular soldiers, led by Colonel Garnet Wolseley. Outrage grew in Ontario over Scott's execution, and many there wanted Wolseley's expedition to arrest Riel for murder and to suppress what they considered to be rebellion.
Riel peacefully withdrew from Fort Garry before the troops could arrive in August 1870. Warned by many that the soldiers would harm him and denied amnesty for his political leadership of the rebellion, Riel fled to the United States. The arrival of troops marked the end of the incident. In 1885 Louis Riel would lead another rebellion, the North-West Rebellion, ending with his capture and execution.
Background
In the late 1860s, the Red River Colony of Rupert's Land was changing rapidly. It had developed under the aegis of the Hudson's Bay Company, which had a continent-wide trading and commercial network. It had been confirmed on the territory by Queen Anne, who had evicted King Louis XIV and his subjects from it by the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Further notice was given in 1763, when King George III dispossessed King Louis XV of nearly all his colonies of North America at the Treaty of Paris.Historically, the population was mainly francophone Métis, who developed a mixed ethnicity descended of First Nations and French descent and a unique culture during the decades of the fur trade. In the 18th and the 19th centuries, they intermarried; established a tradition of men working as trappers, guides, and interpreters to fur traders; and developed farms. Métis women also were sometimes active in the trade, and among several influential families in Sault Ste. Marie in the early 19th century, the husbands were European. The Métis culture was based on the French language and Roman Catholic religion.
In the late 18th century, English and Scottish men entered the fur trade and also married into the Ojibwe people and other First Nations in this region. Their mixed-race descendants generally spoke English and were sometimes known as the "country born". The third group of settlers to the region was a small number of Presbyterian Scottish settlers. More anglophone Protestants began to settle there from Ontario in the 19th century.
The newer settlers were generally insensitive to Métis culture and hostile to Roman Catholicism, and many advocated Canadian expansionism. Meanwhile, many Americans migrated there, some of whom favouring annexation of the territory by the United States. Against the backdrop of religious, nationalistic, and ethnic tensions, political uncertainty was high. To forestall US expansionism and to bring law and order to the wild, the British and Canadian governments had been for some time negotiating the transfer of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company to Canada. The British Rupert's Land Act 1868 authorized the transfer. On December 1, 1869, Canada purchased the territory.
In anticipation of the transfer, Public Works Minister William McDougall, who with George-Étienne Cartier had been instrumental in securing Rupert's Land for Canada, ordered a survey party to the Red River Colony. A Catholic bishop, Alexandre-Antonin Taché; the Anglican bishop of Rupert's Land, Robert Machray; and the HBC governor of Assiniboia, William Mactavish, all warned the federal government that such surveys would precipitate unrest.
Headed by Colonel John Stoughton Dennis, the survey party arrived at Fort Garry on August 20, 1869. The Métis were anxious about the survey since they did not possess clear title to their lands but held a tenuous right of occupancy. In addition, the lots had been laid out according to the French seigneurial colonial system, with long narrow lots fronting the river, rather than the square lots that were preferred by the English. The Métis considered the survey to be a forerunner of increased Canadian migration to the territory, which they perceived as a threat to their way of life. More specifically, they feared
a possible confiscation of their farmland by the Canadian government. The Métis were also concerned that Canadian immigrants would not care for their culture and so the Métis wanted to ensure that they could preserve their religious and political rights. Their concerns were motivated in part by the Canadian government's behaviour, as the negotiations that took place had carried out as if the territory were uninhabited.
Emergence of Riel as leader
The Canadian government appointed a notorious francophobe, McDougall, as the designate of the Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories on September 28, 1869, in anticipation of a formal transfer to take effect on December 1. That increased tensions among the Métis, who, in July 1869, had become more suspicious after McDougall ordered a survey of the settlement. Emerging as a leader, Louis Riel, who had been formally educated in European-style schools, denounced the survey in a speech delivered in late August from the steps of St. Boniface Cathedral. His lifestyle was very different from those of buffalo-hunting Métis. When Riel returned to the West, it was apparent that MacDonald feared that the United States was negotiating with HBC for the transfer of Rupert's Land without consulting the Red River population and the Council of Assiniboia. On October 11, 1869, Riel and other Métis disrupted the survey's work. On October 16 the group organized the "Métis National Committee" to represent Métis interests. Riel was elected secretary, John Bruce as president, and two representatives were elected from each parish.There were originally two resistance groups in Red River. One was led by Riel, and the other was led by a Métis named William Dease, who expressed Métis values in his opposition. For a long time they were locked in a power struggle on a symbolic level, both sides offering different perspectives on Métis unity. Riel finally defeated Dease for the leadership of the resistance and consolidated his support system within the French Métis community. He then felt strong enough to initiate the breach of October 1869.
Because the Hudson's Bay Company's Council of Assiniboia still had authority over the area, its representatives summoned Riel on October 25 to explain the actions of the committee. On October 30, McDougall had reached the border despite the written order from Riel, who declared that any attempt by McDougall to enter the Red River Colony would be blocked unless the Canadians had first negotiated terms with the Métis and with the general population of the settlement.
On November 2, under the command of Ambroise-Dydime Lépine, the Métis turned back McDougall's party near the US border and forced it to retreat to Pembina, Dakota Territory. On the same day Riel led roughly 400 men recruited from fur-brigades recently returned to the settlement for the season to seize Fort Garry without bloodshed. That would come to be known as one of Riel's most brilliant moves, as control of the fort symbolized control of all access to the settlement and the Northwest.
Residents of the Red River Colony disagreed on how to negotiate with Canada. In particular, the French- and English-speaking inhabitants did not agree on how to proceed. In a conciliatory gesture, Riel on November 6 asked the anglophones to select delegates from each of their parishes to attend a convention with the Métis representatives. After little was accomplished at the first meeting, James Ross expressed displeasure at Riel's treatment of McDougall. Riel angrily denied that and stated that he had no intentions of invoking American interventions. Instead, throughout the entire resistance, he insisted that he and the Métis were loyal subjects of Queen Victoria.
On November 16, the Council of Assiniboia made a final attempt to assert its authority when Governor Mactavish issued a proclamation ordering the Métis to lay down their arms. Instead, on November 23, Riel proposed the formation of a provisional government to replace the Council of Assiniboia to enter into direct negotiations with Canada. The anglophone delegates requested an adjournment to discuss matters. They neither succeeded in rallying the English-speaking parishes behind that move nor originally approved of the "List of Rights," which was presented to the convention on December 1. Despite his Métis sympathies, Governor Mactavish did not do enough to end the conflict and was imprisoned by Riel shortly afterward.
Also on December 1, McDougall had proclaimed that the HBC was no longer in control of Rupert's Land and that he was the new lieutenant-governor. The proclamation was to later prove problematic, as it effectively ended the authority of the council but failed to establish Canadian authority. McDougall did not know that the transfer had been postponed once news of the unrest had reached Ottawa.
Around mid-December 1869, Riel presented the convention with a list of 14 rights as a condition of union. They included representation in Parliament, a bilingual legislature and chief justice, and recognition of certain land claims. The convention did not adopt the list at the time, but once the list of rights was generally known, most anglophones accepted the majority of the demands as reasonable.
Much of the settlement was moving toward the Métis point of view, but a passionately-pro-Canadian minority became more resistant. It was loosely organized as the Canadian Party and was led by Dr. John Christian Schultz and Charles Mair. Colonel Dennis and Major Charles Boulton also supported it. McDougall appointed Dennis to raise a militia to arrest the Métis, who were occupying Upper Fort Garry. The anglophone settlers largely ignored the call to arms, and Dennis withdrew to Lower Fort Garry. Schultz, however, was emboldened to fortify his house and his store and attracted around 50 recruits.
Riel took the threat seriously and ordered for Schultz's home to be surrounded. The resisters surrendered on December 7 and were imprisoned in Fort Garry.