Louis Riel (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first prime minister John A. Macdonald. Riel fought to defend Métis rights and identity as the Northwest Territories came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence.
The Red River community resists
The majority population of the Red River had historically been Métis and First Nations people. Upon his return, Riel found that religious, nationalistic, and racial tensions were exacerbated by an influx of Anglophone Protestant settlers from Ontario. The political situation was also uncertain, as ongoing negotiations for the transfer of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company to Canada had not addressed the political terms of transfer. Bishop Taché and the HBC governor William Mactavish both warned the Macdonald government that the lack of consultation and consideration of Métis views would precipitate unrest. Finally, the Canadian minister of public works, William McDougall, ordered a survey of the area.
The arrival of a survey party on 20 August 1869 increased anxiety among the Métis as the survey was being carried out as a grid system of townships (an American system) that cut across existing Métis river lots. Hearing of the unrest, Ottawa sent three emissaries to the Red River, including HBC representative Donald Alexander Smith. While they were en route, the Métis National Committee declared a provisional government on 8 December, with Riel becoming its president on 27 December. Meetings between Riel and the Ottawa delegation took place on 5 and 6 January 1870. When these proved fruitless, Smith chose to present his case in a public forum.
After large meetings on 19 and 20 January, Riel suggested the formation of a new convention split evenly between Francophone and Anglophone settlers to consider Smith's proposals. On 7 February, a new list of rights was presented to the Ottawa delegation, and Smith and Riel agreed to send representatives to Ottawa to engage in direct negotiations on that basis.
Negotiating the creation of Manitoba
The delegates representing the provisional government arrived in Ottawa in April 1870. Although they initially met with legal difficulties arising from the execution of Thomas Scott, an opponent of the provisional government, they soon entered into direct talks with Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier. The parties agreed on several of the demands in the list of rights, including language, religious, and land rights (excepting ownership of public lands). This agreement formed the basis for the Manitoba Act, which formally admitted Manitoba into the Canadian confederation; the Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia unanimously supported joining.
The 1870 negotiations did not secure a general amnesty for the provisional government; Cartier held that this was a question for the British government. A military expedition under Colonel Garnet Wolseley was sent to Red River to establish Canadian authority. Riel feared that members of the approaching force would lynch him over Scott's execution and fled to the United States in August 1870. The Manitoba settlement and Riel's exile concluded this first resistance; the next crisis occurred fifteen years later, in Saskatchewan.
Return, rebellion, and trial
In 1884, a delegation led by Gabriel Dumont, a respected buffalo hunter and leader of the Saint-Laurent Métis, asked Riel to return from Montana and help the Saskatchewan Métis press their grievances. James Isbister was the delegation's Anglo-Métis member. Riel returned and initially advocated moderation and negotiation. When efforts to obtain a settlement failed, a new provisional government was declared at Batoche on 19 March 1885. This was the second resistance, involving communities farther west than the Red River settlement of 1869–1870.
During the 1885 resistance, Riel acted as political and spiritual leader while Dumont directed military affairs. Riel formed a council called the Exovedate. On 21 March 1885, his emissaries demanded that North-West Mounted Police officer Leif Crozier surrender Fort Carlton. Five days later, Dumont's force encountered a party from the fort near Duck Lake, where fighting broke out. Canadian forces defeated the Métis resistance at Batoche in May 1885. Riel was then taken into custody, and preparations began for his treason trial. Several people close to the government requested that the trial take place in Winnipeg.
Some historians contend that the trial was moved to Regina because of concerns with the possibility of an ethnically mixed and sympathetic jury. Prime Minister Macdonald ordered the trial to be convened in Regina, where Riel was tried before a jury of six Anglophone Protestants. The trial began on 20 July 1885. Riel delivered two long speeches during his trial, defending his own actions and affirming the rights of the Métis people.