E. The North West Rebellion

From HCO Jr

Part 7. All Aboard for the West → A. Red River Settlement & Insurrection → B. National Policy & the CPR → C. North West Mounted Police → D. Aboriginal Treaties → E. North West Rebellion → F. Rise of British Columbia → G. Making a Western Home

Métis Grievances

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.

Dumont and Wife

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 on Horseback

Riel thought the problems could be resolved with recourse to the pen rather than the sword. Armed resistance was not his first option. He believed that he could negotiate with the Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald. He sent off a petition to Macdonald on behalf of the people of the area asking for provincial status, an elected government, and control over natural resources. Macdonald, true to his nickname of "Old Tomorrow, promised that the Canadian government would investigate the requests.

In the end, however, Ottawa ignored the Métis. The delay and stalling could not continue indefinitely. Finally, with no government policies forthcoming, Riel took action. In March 1885, he declared a provisional government at Batoche and promised to arm his followers with stolen provisions.

NWMP Barracks, Regina, 1885

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.

Duke Lake (fictional)

Riel 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.

Poundmaker and Wife

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.

Battleford

Canada Sends Troops

Macdonald was adamant that a second rebellion be crushed. He quickly dispatched five thousand troops to the west on the newly built CPR.

Map of Troop Movements

They completed the 2200 kilometers journey from Toronto in ten days. Under the command of Major-General Middleton, a thousand troops marched north west to the Métis stronghold of Batoche.

Troops on the Train

En Route to Batoche, Touchwood Hills; note the newly strung telegraph polls

Thirteen kilometers away, Superintendent Crozier 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 fifty of Crozier's soldiers. The Métis had scored another victory.

Fish Creek

Cut Knife Battle

Batoche

Colonel Otter then arrived from Swift Current with more than 500 additional troops and supplies, including the new state-of-the-art Gatling gun. Otter believed it essential that he pursue Poundmaker before he and Big Bear could combine forces and relieve the Métis at Batoche.

Gatling Machine Gun

Otter engaged the Cree at Cut Knife on May 2, 1885 and began firing cannons and his rapid firing Gatling gun at the Cree encampment. The Cree took up position, however, in the protected wooden valley, surrounded the government troops and forced their retreat. Métis fortunes appeared to be running high.

Steamboat Northcote at Batoche

On May 9th, the decisive battle of Batoche took place. Middleton transformed the Hudson Bay Company steamer, the Northcote, into a gunboat. He intended to use it, along with a coordinated land attack, on the Métis positions. The Northcote scheme failed miserably as the Métis discovered the plan and made its whistle, intended to be used as a signal for the beginning of the attack, inoperative.

Battle at Batoche

Métis Dead at Batoche

Poundmaker Surrenders to Middleton

On land, the Métis hid themselves in protected dug out pits and began to fire on the advancing troops. For three days, the Métis held their position, inflicting serious casualties on Middleton's troops. The Métis, however, ran out of ammunition and were reduced in the end to firing stones and nails. 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.

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.

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.

Big Bear (left of jailer) & Poundmaker in Prison

Poundmaker in Ankle Chains

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

Riel Speaking at His Trial

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.

Macdonald in a "Riel Ugly Position"

Riel Receives Last Rites Before Hanging

Riel in Glory (note the severed noose)

On August 1, 1885, Justice Hugh Richardson <a href="7docs/1885rsen.php">sentenced Riel to death</a>. On the day before the hanging, Nicholas Flood Davin of the Regina Leader newspaper conducted an <a href="7docs/1885davi.php">interview with Riel</a>, and that night he wrote a letter to his wife that is reproduced <a href="7docs/1885rlet.php">here</a>.

Nicholas Flood Davin

On November 16th, the execution was carried out.

RESOURCE: <a href="7docs/ 1885rexe.php">Report of Regina Leader</a>.

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:

Riel Riots in Montreal

"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.