Red River Rebellion – or
Red River Resistance?
http://www-tc.pbs.org/empireofthebay/maps/red_river_big.jpg
Vocabulary Review
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negotiation
rebellion
settlers
agricultural
surveyors
provisional
This is a fight about land, who owns it, and
who gets to make decisions about the land,
and who gets to run the government, and if
ordinary citizens can help make the
decisions that affect them.
Hmm… Good
question.
Who DOES
own it?
Who owns the land around Red
River?
Hudson’s Bay Company?
• Land was given
to them by the
King of England
in 1670
• Legally it is theirs
• (By their own
laws)
• The Métis culture had developed in the area over time, as
traders and First Nations married, had children, and
developed a new way of living on the land
• They certainly believed the land they had lived on, hunted
on, grew crops on, went to church on, belonged to the
Métis community and themselves personally
• In 1811, the HBC had given a portion of Rupert’s Land to
its employees at the juncture between the Red and
Assiniboine Rivers
The Métis?
First Nations of the Prairies?
This is a picture of Big Bear
and Poundmaker, Cree
Chiefs that will go to jail
during the North West
Rebellion of 1885 – part of
the Métis and Native struggle
for land and rights on the
Prairies
http://www.abheritage.ca/alberta/fn_metis/i_bigbear_poundmaker_prison.html
• Cree, Blackfoot, Peigan, Blood, and Salteaux
• They had reached near starvation with the collapse of
the fur trade economy and the extinction of the buffalo
• They, too, were fighting for their rights. We will discuss
the treaties they were forced to sign to try to survive
• Their story is also part of the Métis story
The Settlers?
• Remember that problems between settlers
and the Métis had already occurred
– Settlers from Scotland, who had been kicked off
their land by the English, had come to the
Northwest to start the first agricultural
settlement
– The Métis had fought for their land and rights at
the Battle of Seven Oaks and continued to do
so throughout the 1800s
– After that, the settlement continued to grow, and
was a mixture of Métis, settlers from Scotland
and other parts of Canada and the US
The Dominion of Canada?
• Hudson’s Bay company begins negotiations with
Canada to hand the land over
• Canada will buy the land, and HBC agrees to this
in 1860
• Negotiations take many years
• In the meantime, settlers continue to move into
the area
• The settlers are not friendly to the Métis, and
Canada is negotiating for the sale as if the Métis
don’t exist at all
• Surveyors move in and start to divide up the land
with little or no regard for the Métis
1869 – Canada sends in surveyors
• Surveyors (sent by John
A. MacDonald) came in
to the Red River area to
mark off land for more
settlers
• When they moved onto
Métis land, Louis Riel
and other Métis stopped
them and also prevented
the new governor from
entering the territory
John A. MacDonald,
Canada’s first Prime
Minister
Métis take over Fort Garry
• From here, they plan to run a provisional government
and negotiate with Canada for the protection of their land
rights
• They want to make sure their French language, land and
Catholic religion will be respected
• Remember that the English were mostly Protestant,
English-speaking and moving onto Métis land as if they
owned it
Provisional Government
• They want Red
River to be a
province of
Canada
• Negotiations
begin with
Canada, and
everything seems
to be going well
Louis Riel is the leader – educated,
understands law and English
Peace destroyed
• A group of anti-Métis, Canadian settlers attack
Fort Garry
• One man was killed on either side
• Riel takes several people prisoner
• Remember, he sees himself as the government
• Thomas Scott verbally abuses him, threatens
him - against Métis law
• Riel and a council have him executed
• People from English Canada see this as coldblooded murder
• French-Canadians are more sympathetic to the
Métis – a big split between the English and
French of Canada