1. Red River Settlement and Insurrection

From Canadian History Portal - HCO

(Redirected from 1. Red River Settlement & Insurrection)

B. All Aboard for the West →→ 1. Red River Settlement and Insurrection → 2. National Policy and the CPR → 3. North West Mounted Police → 4. Aboriginal Treaties → 5. North West Rebellion → 6. British Columbia → 7. A Western Home →→ C. Demand for Change

Red River Settlement & Insurrection - Gallery | Stories & Texts | Web Links | Student Activities | Student Projects

Fort Garry, Manitoba

In March, 1869, in London, England, George-Étienne Cartier and William MacDougall reached an agreement with the British Government and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) for the purchase of Rupert's Land. And on May 11, 1870, Canada's financial agent in London, Sir John Rose, delivered a bank draft for £300,000 (the equivalent of $11 million) to the HBC in full payment for the territory.

With that one acquisition, the young Dominion increased its size by more than six times. The land included all land drained by rivers flowing into Hudson Bay - most of today's Prairie provinces, northern Ontario, northwestern Québec and portions of the Northwest Territories. The HBC retained thousands of hectares around their trading posts, and one twentieth of all the land in the fertile belt of the Prairies (2.8 million hectares).

On June 23, 1870, Queen Victoria proclaimed an Order Admitting Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory into the Union. On July 15, 1870, the North West became part of Canada, and the way was made clear for the "national dream."

Louis Riel, 1870

The purchase of Rupert's Land had everything to do with Canada's "National Dream," and nothing to do with the native people of the North West and their land. Led by a young, Montreal-educated Métis named Louis Riel, the people of the territory forcefully demanded their rights during the transfer. Their demands brought Canada's first new province - Manitoba - into Confederation. But the birth of our fifth province did not come easily.

Prelude to Rebellion

Canada in 1873; note "the postage stamp" size of Manitoba

The first Riel Rebellion - more an insurrection than an armed rebellion - occurred in the Red River area of Manitoba between 1868 and 1870. It grew out of the Canadian government's acquisition of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company. In signing the purchase agreement, no provision or consideration was made for the native Métis population living in the area. (See the 1869 Temporary Government of Rupert's Land Act).

As Riel said of the Métis: "We were bartered away like common cattle."

Most of the twelve thousand inhabitants living in the Red River valley were the offspring of French fur traders and the aboriginal women they married. They had their own distinctive culture and were very concerned about its survival.

The Métis were confronted with numerous challenges: they had no paper title to their land and there was a growing influx of settlers and land dealers from Ontario. The buffalo herds were almost gone and and they were menaced by epidemics of influenza and smallpox. And now, surveying crews from Ontario were entering the territory to divide it up for settlement by easterners. All these developments threatened the Métis culture and way of life.

Scotch Métis Family

At this point in his people's history, onto the pages of Canadian history stepped Louis Riel. On October 11, 1869, at St-Vital, Canadian surveyor Adam Clark Webb and his crew were trying to mark off a long farm field belonging to Métis André Nault, a cousin of Louis Riel; when Nault asked them to leave and they refused. A group of 16 unarmed Métis led by Riel arrived; Riel placed his foot on the surveyor's chain, and told the crew 'You go no further'. This single incident marked the beginning of the Red River Insurrection.

Riel's Council

Next, the Métis prevented the newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor, William McDougall from entering the territory. They argued that he was in advance of the official date of transfer. On November 2, 1869, the Métis captured Upper Fort Garry and a month later, on December 7, 1869, declared themselves a provisional government.

Wanting to negotiate their entrance into Canada, Riel and his government drafted The Métis Bill of Rights, and sent it to Ottawa.

Fort Garry & St-Boniface

Smith & the Murder of Scott

Smith Talks to Red River Settlers

On hearing the news from the West, John A. Macdonald dispatched MP and HBC Chief Factor Donald Smith to negotiate Red River's transfer to Canada. Smith met with the people at public meetings in Fort Garry in the bitterly cold January weather. When Smith assured them of the Canadian government's goodwill, intention to grant representative government, and willingness to concede Métis land claims they set up a convention of forty representatives, split evenly between French- and English-speaking settlers, to consider Smith's instructions, and drafted a new Métis List of Rights on February 3.

Thomas Scott

The name of the province was chosen from the Aboriginal expression "Manitou bah"- "the Great Spirit Speaks" - which referred to a cave on the shore of Lake Manitoba that howls and moans in the wind.

All appeared to be going well as Riel and Smith shook hands on a new representative assembly for the colony. The peace, however, was shattered later in February when some Canadians decided to attack Fort Garry and force the release of the prisoners taken by the Métis back on December 7th, when Riel and his men captured the house of John Schultz, leader of the Canadian party.

John Schultz

The Métis captured forty-eight of the Canadians near the village of Winnipeg. Among them was a fiery, hot-tempered Ontario Orangeman named Thomas Scott.

Scott had a short temper and a loose tongue. His hatred of French-speaking Roman Catholics was well known. Métis guarding him demanded he be tried for insubordination and for hitting one of them. On March 3rd, 1870, he was sentenced to death and the sentence was carried out the next day.

Thomas Scott Executed

Another Version of Scott's Execution

The incident split the country along language and religious lines. Many in Ontario went white with rage as an engraving of the near-dead Scott receiving a final bullet to the head from a Métis guard splashed across the pages of newspapers.

On the other hand, many in Quebec saw the Métis as courageous brothers-in-arms fighting the same struggle for cultural survival.

Cartier's Manitoba Act

Red River Expedition at Kakabeka Falls, 1877

Manitoba Coat of Arms

The Canadian government responded swiftly. George-Étienne Cartier, acting PM while Macdonald recovered from a kidney stone operation, agreed to most of the terms of the Métis List of Rights, and wrote them into his Manitoba Act. Manitoba was brought into Canada as a bilingual, bi-educational, and bicultural province on July 15, 1870.

Map of the Red River Expedition

As Minister of Militia, Cartier quickly ordered Canadian troops led by Garnet Wolseley out to the new province to show the power and resolve of the federal government. Their job was to maintain order between Orangemen and Catholics, and to prevent any Americans and Fenians from taking control of the territory.

Cartier ordered a full amnesty to all who had participated, except three Métis leaders, including Riel, who was given a five-year term of exile. Later he was quietly allowed to return after he promised to keep the peace and persuade his people not to support the Fenians. But the challenge that Riel and Métis rights presented to the Canadian authorities would not disappear. In fact, Louis Riel would once again play a dramatic role on the Canadian stage, fifteen years later.