The Métis and the Red Rebellion

Lesson 2

Topics to be covered

• The Métis people• The Red River Rebellion• Louis Riel• The Saskatchewan Rebellion• Big Bear

Métis

• Métis are the children of an Aboriginal woman and a French male., mainly in Manitoba.

• Often times the men would come over from France to work in the fur trade.

• Being that they built relationships with the native people, they would sometimes marry native women, resulting in their Métis children.

The start of the Red Rebellion

• The Métis who made up most of the Red River settlement were seeing it undergo much change and immigration.

• The territory that had belonged to the Francophone Roman-Catholics was being taken by Protestants from Ontario as well as Americans, both of which were unwelcoming to the Métis culture.

• Initially Red River settlement was part of Rupert’s Land, which was owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company.

• In 1869, Canada bought the territory in order to prevent American expansion, thus the Métis became under the power of the Canadian government.

• The Canadian government wasted no time in changing things in modern day Manitoba.

• As the Métis had no clear claim to their land, the government divided the territory based on the townships system.

Louis Riel

• With the townships system in place the Métis feared losing their farms and way of life.

• The Canadian government then appointed William McDougall as Lieutenant Governor of the territory.

• McDougall was known to be very anti-French, which caused more unrest among the Métis.

• The Métis were not opposed to Canadian rule, they however wanted their terms to be heard and met.

• They stopped McDougall from entering into the territory, forcing him back to Ottawa, leaving them free of Canadian rule.

• They took Fort Garry and set up a provisional government with Louis Riel as secretary and later as President.

• Louis Riel was a French Métis with a good education.

• The rebels remained in control under the power of Riel throughout the winter of 1869-1870, but not without English attempts at seizing Fort Garry.

• In the spring of 1870, negotiators were sent in. They were able to negotiate a deal that lead to the province of Manitoba.

• Riel and his followers fled to the States for refuge. • The Manitoba Act allowed both French and English

to be provincial languages as well as the two different religions.

North-West Rebellion

• Louis Riel was called back to Canada by the Métis in Saskatchewan when they felt threatened by the building of the railroad and influx of English population.

• On top of it the bison population that the Métis’ had depended on for survival was decreasing due to hunting by the Hudson’s Bay Company and the government.

Big Bear

• It just so happened that the Cree’s of the Prairies were also suffering hardships.

• They were also affected by the bison population, they also felt that the government was violating the terms of their treaties.

• It is for this reason Big Bear, Chief of the Plains First Nation, emerged.

• Big Bear embarked on a campaign hoping to renegotiate the terms of the treaties.

• He was against using violence and even apologized and expressed his regrets for it, especially during the Frog Lake Massacre.

• Riel was sentenced to death and hanged, whereas Big Bear was imprisoned after the surrender of both the Cree and Métis.

• Shortly after the first election took place in the North-West Territory, now Saskatchewan.

Homework

• Please research the many battles that occurred during the North-West Rebellion. Write a few sentences about each battle and what the result of them were. It is to be handed in at the beginning of next class for participation marks.