The First Riel Rebellion, also known as the Red River War, occurred in 1869, two years after the Canadian colonies became independent from Britain and united into a confederation with a centralized government at Ottawa. (Britain had taken control of Canada from the French in 1763.)
The Red River of the North runs from Lake Winnipeg in Canada to the Minnesota River in the United States. (It is not to be confused with Red River of the South, in Texas.) The Metis used to live along the Red River valley in great numbers. Every year, these Red Riverites would lead their ox-drawn carts laden with furs along the valley all the way to St. Paul, Minnesota, to trade with the Americans. It is estimated that 2,000 different Metis caravans made this long trek in some years. The Metis had had to become politically active for this
Metis Red River cart, used to haul furs
Right to cross the border to trade. A man named Louis Riel had led the Courthouse Rebellion of 1849, demonstrating at Winnipeg with a force of men for the release of a fellow Metis arrested by officials for smuggling goods across the border. Twenty years later his son, also named Louis, led the so-called First Riel Rebellion.
The reason for the revolt was not so much freedom of trade as land rights. After confederation, more and more non-Indians were streaming into the Red River region in search of homelands. In protest against landgrabbing by outsiders, Louis Riel, Jr., and the Metis took over Fort Garry at Winnipeg. They also formed the Comite National des Metis (National Committee of Metis) and issued a List of Rights, declaring themselves independent from the rest of Canada. Riel’s right-hand man was Ambroise Lepine, a skilled hunter and tracker. The Metis were such effective fighters that the central government decided to negotiate with them rather than fight. When the Metis agreed to peace, Ottawa passed the Manitoba Act, making the Red River area a province and guaranteeing most of the Metis’ List of Rights.
World History
