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5. North West Rebellion
From Canadian History Portal - HCO
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Métis Grievances
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In the spring of 1884, Gabriel Dumont, a famed Métis hunter and sharp-shooter, rode with three other men more than a thousand kilometers south, from the Saskatchewan River valley to Montana. They were looking for Louis Riel.
After the Red River Rebellion Riel had spent several years in different asylums convinced that he was a prophet of God. Following his release, under the exile imposed by Cartier, he wandered aimlessly around the United States. Then he married, started a family and taught school in Montana. But now the visitors from the north had arrived, and he listened, fascinated and upset with the plight of his people, as Dumont revealed it to him. The call of his people seemed to verify all his fears.
He listened to the grim tale told to him by Dumont and his companions. As he listened, to Riel, it sounded like Red River all over again. The same grievances that occurred in 1870 now were being repeated in the Saskatchewan River valley. That was not altogether surprising in that after Manitoba's entrance into Confederation, many Métis left the settlement traveling westward into present-day Saskatchewan and Alberta. They had been promised their distinctive way of life would be preserved. They soon discovered that it was being dismantled. Escape appeared to be the only option.
The Métis in 1884 were still seeking the nearly extinct buffalo herds and trying to recapture their independent way of life, only to encounter the same problems that they had fifteen years earlier and a few hundred kilometers to the east. Government surveyors were dividing the land for settlement. There was a dispute over ownership of the land. No Métis outside of Manitoba had legal title to their land. And now, in 1884, a new element was added - the transcontinental railway.
Riel to the Fore
The Métis turned to the one man who they believed could save them. Louis Riel had, against great odds, done it before. He had successfully negotiated with George-Étienne Cartier and persuaded him to include most of the terms of the Métis Bill of Rights in the Manitoba Act. Could Riel work his magic again? And so Gabriel Dumont, the proud Métis who now operated a local store and ferry service in Batoche, persuaded Riel to return to take up the challenge and help "his" people in their darkest hour.
Riel thought the problems could be resolved with recourse to the pen rather than the sword. Armed resistance was not his first option. On December 16, he helped the Métis of St. Laurent draw up a petition on their grievances, which was endorsed by a committee of French and English representatives in the Electoral District of Lorne on December 18. The Petition of Rights, containing a list of demands, including provincial status, an elected government, and control over natural resources, was sent to the Secretary of State in Ottawa.
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Riel believed that he could negotiate with the Prime Minister. Macdonald, true to his nickname of "Old Tomorrow", simply replied that the Canadian government would investigate the requests. In the end, however, Ottawa sent no further reply to the Métis over the winter of 1884-85.
The delay and stalling could not continue indefinitely. Finally, with no government policies forthcoming, Riel took action. On March 19, at Batoche, he declared the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan, seized hostages and promised to arm his followers with stolen provisions.
That call to arms was a fateful decision. It lost for Riel the support of the influential Roman Catholic Church. Settlers in the area, after initially supporting Riel and his demands, turned away. They wanted to see changes instituted through legal and peaceful means.
Duck Lake
Riel now had only the backing of the Métis and some of the Aboriginal Nations in the region. Aligned against them were the Canadian government, the Mounted Police, and the railway.
Riel was not one to vacillate. He sent an ultimatum to NWMP Superintendent Crozier demanding that he surrender Fort Carlton, or else it would be attacked. Crozier refused and Riel made good on his threat by attacking and defeating a group of Mounted Police from the Fort at Duck Lake on April 2, 1885.
Dumont, who commanded the Métis forces, although struck by a bullet that split his scalp, wanted to press the attack. Riel held him back. With his religious delusions resurfacing, he rode around the Métis lines brandishing a cross.
Witnessing these early Métis victories, some distressed Aboriginal Nations decided to join the struggle. The followers of Big Bear, led by his son, Wandering Spirit, attacked the village of Frog Lake, killing nine. Poundmaker attacked at Battleford. Their actions, however, were not coordinated with that of the Métis. Most Aboriginal people never took up arms. The government, anticipating the threat, had rushed in supplies of flour, bacon, tea, and even tobacco for them.
Canada Sends Troops
Macdonald was adamant that a second rebellion be crushed. He quickly dispatched Major-General Frederick Dobson Middleton, to go west with five thousand troops. MIddleton's force departed from Toronto by steamer for Port Arthur on March 28, 1885.
Middleton's force completed the 2200 kilometers journey from Toronto in ten days, reaching the end of the CPR on April 2. They then split up; Middleton going north west to the Métis stronghold of Batoche with 1,000 troops, Otter heading for Battleford, and Strange going after Big Bear.
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While Acheson Gosford Irvine withdrew the NWMP force from Fort Carlton to Prince Albert, Middleton was heading west with Superintendent Crozier.
Thirteen kilometers away, they encountered Dumont and the Métis at Fish Creek on April 24th. Dumont was badly outnumbered and had much inferior equipment, but he trapped the government troops in a shallow ravine. The Métis lost only four men, while killing ten and wounding 45 of the soldiers. The Métis had scored another victory, and slowed MIddleton's march to Batoche.
Colonel Otter then arrived from Swift Current with more than 500 additional troops and supplies, including the new state-of-the-art rapid fire Gatling gun. Otter believed it essential that he pursue Poundmaker before he and Big Bear could combine forces and relieve the Métis at Batoche.
Without orders, Otter and his 300 soldiers engaged the Cree in a six hour battle at Cut Knife Hill, near Poundmaker's Reserve, on May 2, 1885. The militia began firing cannons and their Gatling gun at the Cree encampment; but Poundmaker's warriors took up position in the protected wooden valley. When Otter finally realised that the Cree were surrounding his troops, he ordered a rapid retreat with eight dead and 15 wounded. Poundmaker generously commanded his warriors to let the Canadian troops retreat without further attack, otherwise the militia death toll would have been far higher
Métis fortunes appeared to be running high.
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- RESOURCES: North West Rebellion Texts and Documents
Battle at Batoche
On May 9th, the decisive four day battle of Batoche began, with more than 900 soldiers of the North-West Field Force facing Gabriel Dumont and about 250 of his Métis and Cree warriors. Middleton had transformed the Hudson Bay Company steamer, the Northcote, into a gunboat, and planned to move troops upstream behind the village as part of a two pronged land attack. The Northcote scheme failed miserably as the Métis lowered Dumont's steel ferry cable across the river to block progress. It sliced off the Northcote's masts and smokestacks cleanly, taking the Northcote out of the battle entirely. It also silenced the boat's steam whistle, that Middleton intended to use as a signal for the attack,
On May 10 and 11, the battle continued around the village, capital of Louis Riel's provisional government, now empty of women and children. The Métis hid themselves in protected dug out rifle pits carefully hidden in the bushes. Middleton's soldiers, with their artillery and Gatling gun, fought from higher ground where they were easy targets, and the Metis inflicted serious casualties. But Middleton avoided a full out attack, and as he expected, the Métis began to run out of ammunition, and were eventually reduced to firing stones and nails at the soldiers.
Finally, on the morning of May 12, many of the Métis realized the fight was hopeless, and quietly slipped away into the surrounding bush, leaving mostly old men. Later in the day, some troops disobeyed Middleton, stormed the rifle pits and slaughtered the remaining defenders. In all, twenty-three Métis were killed at Batoche, but it would have been worse had not Dumont almost single-handedly held the troops back, allowing many to escape.
The Canadian militia lost eight dead, and 22 were wounded.
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On May 15, 1885, Riel wrote a letter to Middleton surrendering - as long as the Métis were allowed to go free. Riel would not listen to Dumont's request to escape with him to the United States.
Eight days later, on May 23rd, Poundmaker surrendered. Big Bear held out for another month and a half, but he too eventually gave up the fight. It was exactly one hundred days since the fighting first began at Duck Lake.
The Battle of Loon Lake was the last battle of the North West Rebellion, and the last battle fought on Canadian soil. On June 3, Sam Steele led his NWMP detachment against a group of Big Bear's Crees at Loon Lake in northwest Saskatchewan. The Cree band had taken prisoners, and were fleeing with them from the police and military forces; the police scouts tried to convince the Cree that the Rebellion was over, but shots were fired and three of the Cree were killed. Big Bear continued his retreat but gave up the fight a few days later.
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Poundmaker was charged and found guilty of high treason and sentenced to three years in Stoney Mountain Penitentiary. After serving two years, he was released, only to die a few months later.
Exactly the same fate awaited Big Bear. Although he personally had protected prisoners taken at Frog Lake, he received the same sentence as Poundmaker, served the same two years, and also died shortly after his release. Eight other Cree warriors were also sent off to prison for their role in the rebellion.
Riel's Trial and Sentence
It was Riel's trial that caused the major sensation. Held in November 1885 in Regina, the trial created tremendous excitement and interest throughout Canada.
Riel's lawyers advised him to issue a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Riel refused. He believed that a plea of insanity would destroy the very cause for which he had fought. Six jurors, all white males, found him guilty of the charge of high treason after deliberating for less than an hour and a half. However, they recommended mercy. The judge in the case, Justice Hugh Richardson could not decide the sentence. He passed it on to Prime Minister Macdonald.
"Old Tomorrow" debated the decision. Should he pardon Riel as Cartier had done, or let the law take its course? His cabinet, indeed the entire country, was deeply divided. Macdonald knew he would lose votes in Ontario if Riel were pardoned. He refused to do so. Macdonald was quoted as saying; "He shall hang though every dog in Quebec bark in his favour." The decision severely divided Canada along English - French lines. Whether Macdonald actually made this statement was not the issue; passions were already at white-heat intensity.
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On August 1, 1885, Justice Hugh Richardson sentenced Riel to death. On the day before the hanging, Mary Mclean, a reporter from the Regina Leader newspaper, entered the jail in disguise and conducted an interview with Riel, and that night Riel wrote a letter to his wife that is reproduced here.
On November 16th, the execution was carried out.
RESOURCE: Report of Regina Leader.
The political affects of the decision to allow Riel's execution were immense. French Canada erupted in fury. Honoré Mercier, who founded the new provincial Parti National, rode this wave of anger to power, becoming premier of Quebec two years later.
On November 16, 1885, the Montréal newspaper La Presse commented:
- "A patriot has gone to the gallows for a purely political crime for which civilized nations no longer apply the death penalty. A poor crazed man has been delivered to murder because of savage hatred without anyone having taken the pains to assess the condition of his mental health...
- Riel does not only atone for the crime of having claimed the rights of his countrymen; he atones first and foremost for the crime of belonging to our race. Riel's hanging severs all ties that might have been forged in the past. From now on, there are no conservatives, no liberals, no castors. There are only patriots and traitors: the national party and the hangman party."
Wilfred Laurier, largely supported by the Quebec vote, became the first French-Canadian Prime Minister from 1896 to 1911. Laurier had said publicly that he too would have shouldered a musket to protect Métis rights in the North West.
Privately, regarding the hanging of Riel, Laurier wrote to Edward Blake, "It cannot be said that Riel was hanged on account of his opinions. It is equally true that he was not executed for anything connected with the late rebellion. He was hanged for Scott's murder; that is the simple truth of it."
Whatever the truth, the hanging of Riel greatly altered the political landscape of Canada. After Laurier's victory in 1896, it would be over seventy years before a Conservative, the party of Macdonald and Cartier, would win a majority of the federal seats in Quebec.
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