The Red River Rebellion
- began 1869-70 in what is now Manitoba (Rupert’s Land)
- after 1836 area was administrated by HBC
- settlers primarily mixed-blood: Métis – francophone, or “country-born” – Anglophone; conflicts over trading privileges
- 1860s – HBC relinquished its monopoly on the North-West to government of Canada
- during lengthy negotiating period, many white settlers moved from the east and up from US; previous settlers felt their rights were threatened, and government did little to have them believe otherwise
- Canada attempted to re-survey the land, defied existing occupancy; hired William McDougall, annexationist, as first lieutenant-governor of the territory
- late 1869 – Riel emerged as Métis spokesperson; realised his people had to work with the Anglophone mixed-bloods for this to work; prevented McDougall from entering the territory
- HBC remained neutral; Métis opposition caused Can. gov’t to refuse to take over Rupert’s Land on Dec.1 1869 as promised – this encouraged Riel’s team – they seized Upper Ft. Garry
- representatives summoned to an election convention, created a provisional gov’t (still in Dec of that year), and in Jan. 1870 Riel gained support of the country-born in a second convention – representative provisional government planned to negotiate with Canadian government terms of Confederation
- armed conflict continued, but Riel seemed to be in control until he made the mistake of court-martialling and executing Thomas Scott, and Orangeman from Ontario – this turned popular opinion in Ontario against Riel, and though the gov’t was still willing to work with him, it later became the reason they would refuse him unconditional amnesty
- Mar. 1870 – legislative assembly of provisional gov’t organized territory of Assiniboia, enacted law code in Apr. 1870
- new province Manitoba was created by the Manitoba Act, but its territory was limited by boundaries of old settlement, and Canadian gov’t still had ownership of the rest of the North-West; even within MB, pubic lands were controlled by the gov’t
- although mixed-blood land titles were guaranteed and 607,000 ha were reserved for children of mixed-blood families, these arrangements were mismanaged by subsequent gov’ts and the Métis did not flourish after 1870.
- no amnesty for Riel and his lieutenants; they fled to the US just before arrival of British and Can/ troops in Apr. 1870
- Métis found themselves very disadvantaged in MB and moved west where they would again attempt to assert themselves in the North-West Rebellion of 1885
