Louis Riel Day is November 16 across the Métis homeland. He was born on October 22, 1844, in Saint-Boniface of the Red River Colony. I stumbled upon his grandmother’s story in Women of Red River written by W J Healy in 1923 during my personal research. The opening line was “The first white woman in the West of whom there was record …” Healy was interested in the stories of white women rather than the history of women in the Red River Settlement, but I’ll leave that argument for another day.
The second white woman, Healy wrote, was Marie Anne Lagimoniere, her surname incorrect. She and her husband Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiere came from Trois-Rivière in Quebec. In 1807, with a brigade of canoes, they travelled 2000 miles to the headquarters of the buffalo hunters at the mouth of the Pembina River. She gave birth to a daughter on 6 January of 1808. In the spring, they headed out to the Saskatchewan River with three of the French-Canadians they wintered with, all of whom were married to Cree women. Marie Anne carried her infant in a moss bag as they travelled west.
Each spring when winter trapping was over, Anne Marie accompanied her husband to the plains. She was riding a horse trained for running buffalo and when they came in sight of a herd, the horse took off in pursuit, with her child in one of the saddle bags. Her husband was able to stop the horse. Within a few hours, she gave birth to her second child, a son. Anne Marie’s seventh child, Julie, born 1820, grew up to be the mother of Louis Riel.
Louis Riel’s life story is filled with controversy and differing assessments of his life, depending on who is telling the story. His father Jean-Louis Riel worked at the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) post in Rainy River for three years beginning in 1838. He settled in the Red River Colony in 1843 and married Julie Lagimodiere. Their first born was Louis Riel. Jean-Louis gathered hundreds of armed Metis to support Metis defendants on trial for free trading furs in 1849, which successfully broke the HBC monopoly of the fur trade. Jean-Louis was a champion of French and Métis rights and greatly influenced his son.
The young Riel was headed for the priesthood when the death of his father in 1864 altered his plans. Louis was away from the colony from the age of fourteen in 1858 and didn’t return until 1868, finding things had changed. Dislike between the religious groups had intensified. The Métis had a distinctive culture. The colony’s population had grown to almost 12,000. The British North America Act of 1867 set Canada’s plan for expansion across the land. At that time, Canada consisted of Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The United States was threatening to annex Canada. John A Macdonald was negotiating with the HBC for the transfer of Rupert’s Land, while ignoring the Métis sense of nationality. Conflict between the Métis and Canada was just heating up when Riel returned. In 1869, the HBC agreed to sell the territory to Canada. Surveying began before the land was officially transferred. Riel and 18 Métis stopped the survey, marking an act of resistance and establishing Riel as champion of Métis rights.
Riel took the position that the west had the right to negotiate on its own regarding entry into Confederation. Riel formed a provisional government in the winter of 1869-1870, replacing the Council of Assiniboia. The official transfer of land to Canada was to be 1 December 1869. John A Macdonald postponed payments to HBC due to the unrest. On Dec 1st, the Proclamation was read, transferring land to Canada and due to non-payment, Riel’s Provisional Government was legally recognized. Riel proposed a committee of 20 English-speaking and 20 French-speaking representatives to decide on the list of Métis Rights. Riel said, “When the Government of Canada presented itself at our doors it found us at peace. It found that the Métis people of the North-West could not only live well without it . . . but that it had a government of its own, free, peaceful, well-functioning, contributing to the work of civilization . . . It was a government with an organized constitution, whose jurisdiction was all the more legitimate and worthy of respect, because it was exercised over a country that belonged to it.” (from Manitoba Metis Federation)
May 12, 1870, the Manitoba Act with Métis List of Rights was passed in Parliament which protected Métis lands, allowed for their freedom of religion and use of their language. According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “When the federal government arranged for the acquisition of Rupert’s Land in 1870, it also procured, by an amendment of the British North America Act, full and unlimited power to create any form of local government that it chose, uninhibited by section 92 of the Act. The boundaries given to Manitoba were deliberately restricted to limit the political power of the Métis.”
While fighting to protect his people, Riel was charged with treason and hanged for his role in the 1885 resistance to Canadian encroachment on Métis lands. “I have nothing but my heart, I have given it long ago to my country,” were his last words.
wendistewart@live.ca
