What was the Red River rebellion?
Riel Rebellions The period immediately following Confederation was a particularly volatile one on the Canadian Prairies, particularly in the old Red River Settlement region that would soon come to be known as Manitoba. The leader of two major rebellions in the Canadian West was a Métis named Louis Riel, who encouraged his fellow mixed-bloods to stand up for their rights through armed conflict. His tactics would work during one rebellion, but fail miserably in another – leading to both his downfall and, indirectly, the downfall of Aboriginal leaders who sided with him.
“Red River Rebellion (also known as Red River Resistance), a movement of national self-determination by the MÉTIS of the RED RIVER COLONY in what is now Manitoba, 1869-70. The settlement was after 1836 administered by the HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY and populated mainly by people of mixed European and Indian blood. Slightly over half were francophone (Métis), slightly under half anglophone (“country-born”). The inhabitants were continually in conflict with the HBC, particularly over trading privileges. By the 1850s the company’s rule was under attack from Britain, Canada and the US, and by the 1860s it had agreed to surrender its monopoly over the North-West, including the settlement. Arrangements were negotiated to transfer sovereignty to Canada. During the lengthy bargaining period, Canadian and American settlers moved in, and their pretensions led the mixed bloods to fear for the preservation of their land rights and culture.
