Red River Rebellion

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First success of the Métis revolution: the provisional government around Louis Riel (1869)

The Red River Rebellion (English also called "Red River Resistance", dt. "Red River Resistance Movement") describes a sequence of events in 1869 in the central part of Canada , the 1870 to the formation of an independent province, Red River Colony , within the Canadian Federation. It affected the area of ​​the northern Red River (Red River), now part of the Canadian province of Manitoba . At its core, the rebellion was a movement of the mixed people of the Métis living in the Red River area , as well as of old settlers of European descent (like the Métis predominantly Catholic and Francophone) against attacks by the Anglo-Saxon-oriented Canadian central government and Anglo-Saxon new settlers.

background

Fort Garry circa 1872

The Métis are descendants of European fur traders - especially from France , England and Scotland - and women of Indian descent. The majority of them speak Michif or French and are Roman Catholic . Most of the Métis lived in the first half of the 19th century in the Canadian part of the Great Plains , today the southern parts of the provinces of Manitoba , Saskatchewan and Alberta . They operated small-scale agriculture in the old style of the French immigrants, mostly on narrow farms emerging from river banks. The second mainstay of their economy was buffalo hunting and the sale of buffalo meat pemmican to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC).

In 1811, the HBC founded the Red River Colony in the settlement area . At first only a few farmers from Scotland settled here. The few Europeans, Métis and Plains Indians (mainly Cree and Assiniboine ) got along with one another without any significant conflicts. Since the reconstruction of Upper Fort Garry (today Downtown Winnipeg ) in 1836 at the confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers , the trading post became the main base of the HBC and the surrounding Métis settlements became the center of their cultural life.

“Back then, people had learned to get along on the basis of friendship and friendliness; consequently, it was not a difficult endeavor to resolve a dispute between two individuals. The government at the time largely depended on the calm, peaceful and contented character of the people who strictly obeyed the law and the law so that no strict action was required, "

reported the journalist Alexander Begg from Québec .

The HBC performed government-like tasks in the area, employed numerous Métis as a paramilitary organization to protect their catchment area and financially supported the approximately 13,000 settlers in the locust plague in 1869. Unlike in northwestern Canada, the residents did not suffer from strict government regulations and paid relatively low taxes .

In the 1860s, however, new settlers from Protestant and English-speaking Ontario increasingly moved to the northern plains. The Canadian Dominion , founded in 1867, bought Rupert's land from HBC in November 1869 for £ 300,000 . The Red River Colony also belonged to the acquired area. There was increased ethnic and religious hostility, the Métis were increasingly outraged and feared for their future. Alexander Begg did business with HBC and therefore did not describe the situation completely unencumbered:

“If the settlers had been the only company of the Hudson's Bay Company, things could have gone on unchecked; but groups from abroad came to the Red River and sowed discontent among the residents. [...] The Assiniboia government turned out to be weak. [...] Violence seemed inevitable to enforce the holy law; but because the Hudons's Bay Company did not have the ability to gain the upper hand […], one had to rely to a considerable extent on unscrupulous men who caused excitement and turmoil among the peace-loving and calm people of the country . "

The Provisional Government

In July 1869, the Canadian Minister of Public Affairs William McDougall, under Prime Minister John Macdonald, ordered the survey of the Red River Colony. The minister was a Canadian nationalist and promoter of the new settlers. Then as also his appointment was announced to the governor of the newly acquired from the HBC territories on December 1 in September, the Métis stopped under Louis Riel on 11 October, the surveyor and formed a week later the National Committee of the Métis de la Rivière Rouge with John Bruce as President and Riel as Secretary.

As a result, on October 25, Riel was summoned before the council of Assiniboia , the HBC's governing body for the Red River Colony. He stated that his committee would not allow any governors to enter the Red River until the terms of association with Canada were clarified with the Métis and the rest of the area's population. On November 2, McDougall was forced to turn back by armed Métis while attempting to advance to the Red River. On the same day, Riel and 400 men took Upper Fort Garry without resistance and thus took control of the Red River Colony.

Riel then tried to unite the population groups on the Red River, and published a list of conditions for the accession of the Red River to Canada, which was also able to convince large parts of the Protestant population. A group of new settlers under the trader and landowner John Schultz and the head of surveying John Dennis opposed resolutely. They tried on instructions from McDougall, among the English-speaking population to recruit teams for the resistance against Riel, but found little support and Dennis withdrew to Lower Fort Garry on Lake Winnipeg . Schultz, however, remained with a troop of about 50 men on his property at Upper Fort Garry, including Thomas Scott . On December 7th they had to surrender to Riel's men and were arrested.

On December 8th, the Métis established the provisional provincial government with Bruce as president. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Macdonald did not seem to be fully aware of the situation on the Red River, but he supported an amnesty for all rebels who would lay down their arms and sent a delegation consisting of Abbé Jean-Baptiste Thibault and Colonel de Salaberry . Riel took over the presidency on December 27, 1870, and when he met the emissaries on January 6, 1870 , it became clear that they had no legitimacy for agreements with the Canadian government. Thibault was able to convince Riel and the Catholic clergy who supported him of the positions of the Métis.

The HBC representative, Donald Smith , who has meanwhile been sent with greater powers , was less friendly towards the Métis cause. But after he had unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Provisional Government to give up with promises of money and positions, an agreement was reached with him and the Anglo-Métis and the Scottish settlers to send a delegation to Ottawa to negotiate a slightly modified list of demands .

The execution of Scott

In January 1870, Schultz, Scott, and some of his followers escaped captivity at Upper Fort Garry. In Portage la Prairie they pulled the commander Charles Boulton on their side and with him against Upper Fort Garry. While Schultz managed to move towards Ontario, the rest of the Métis were captured again on February 17th. After this second attack on the Provisional Government, Boulton was sentenced to death as its leader. Various sides tried to be lenient with Riel, and when Smith promised to encourage the English-speaking settlers to participate in the new provincial government, the sentence was overturned.

The captured Scott, meanwhile, seemed to interpret this as weakness, rioted unrestrainedly against his guards and threatened to kill Riel after he was freed. After receiving several warnings, a four-person jury chaired by Ambroise-Dydime Lépine sentenced him to death for persistent disobedience. Intervention with Riel resulted in no further overturn or pardon, and on March 4, Scott was executed. While Scott was soon forgotten at the Red River, news of his execution in Ontario sparked an uproar among the population.

Manitoba Act

On March 15, the Canadian government declared the list of claims to be negotiable and telegraphed the Provisional Government to send a delegation to Ottawa to negotiate, which started a week later. All rioters who were still in custody were released following this relenting of Canada.

Schultz, meanwhile, reached Toronto in early April and stirred up public excitement over the "murder of the heroic Scott" with a group called Canada First . The reception of a delegation from the Provisional Government responsible for Scott's fate was, of course, a scandal from this point of view, and so the emissaries were arrested on their arrival in Ottawa, but were released shortly afterwards.

Negotiations began at the end of April and agreement was soon reached on most points, above all on English and French as equal official languages ​​of a new province of Manitoba and on securing the land rights of all residents of the Red River. Only a general amnesty for the rebels could not be achieved because of the public mood in Ontario. It remained with verbal promises to work for an amnesty. On May 12, the agreements were passed by Parliament as the Manitoba Act.

Red River Expedition

After the passage of the Manitoba Act, a military expedition under Colonel Garnet Joseph Wolseley was sent to the Red River in May , the so-called Wolseley Expedition or Red River Expedition . The operation, also known as the "peace mission", was intended to demonstrate Canada's authority in the new province and also to prevent Minnesota's efforts to annex the area .

Wolseley's expedition consisted of a total of 1,400 men: a battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps , two battalions of Canadian militia , the 1st Ontario and the 2nd Quebec Rifles, which were specially formed for this expedition, and some Royal Engineers. To do this, he chose the most skilled British Army officers he knew. These formed the basis of the later " Ashanti ring ".

From Toronto , the troops marched on May 14, 1870 to Georgian Bay and on by ship via Lake Huron and Lake Superior to Fort William . From there, Wolseley took small boats to Lake Shebandewon and continued westward via Fort Frances until, after 1,148 miles , on August 24th, Fort Garry was reached.

The Métis evacuated Upper Fort Garry before Wolseley arrived. An amnesty for the Provisional Government had still not been granted and Wolseley's forces consisted largely of militias from Toronto who were said to be lynching Riel. The Provisional Government dissolved with the withdrawal from Upper Fort Garry and Riel escaped across the southern border into Montana .

Aftermath

In the unrest area, the new province of Manitoba was created in 1870 on the basis of the Manitoba Act, whose legal system secured the interests of English and French speakers, Indians and Métis, Catholics and Protestants. In the years after the Red River Rebellion, the Métis followed the declining buffalo populations west and left the Red River District.

Louis Riel was denied an amnesty. He was therefore never able to take the seat in parliament, to which he was elected several times, remained in exile in the USA and became a US citizen in Montana in 1883 . In 1885, Riel led the northwest rebellion of the Métis, who again sought their own province, but which was quickly defeated militarily with the help of the new transcontinental route . On November 16, 1885, Riel was executed for high treason .

Around 300,000 Métis live in Canada today, but they never found their own political organization again after the two rebellions.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. The Hudson's Bay Company paid £ 6,000 more than the United States and Canadian individuals combined. See Alexander Begg: The Creation of Manitoba, Hunter, Toronto 1871.
  2. Tax on the import of goods 4%; The alcohol tax was also low at 1 shilling per gallon.
  3. ^ Byron Farwell: Queen Victoria's little wars. Norton, New York NY et al. 1973, ISBN 0-7139-0457-7 , p. 181.
  4. Alexander Begg: The Creation of Manitoba, Hunter, Toronto 1871, google books. Translated from English