And a book like this can’t go to press without the great minds of people like John Ralston Saul, who also offered invaluable insight; Diane Turbide at Penguin, who has shepherded this amazing series; and my copy editor, Scott Steedman, who spent countless hours poring over the manuscript.
Finally, chi meegwetch, Amanda. I’m a lucky, lucky man.
CHRONOLOGY
Louis Riel
1670
English King Charles II grants the Hudson’s Bay Company a charter giving it a trading monopoly over “Rupert’s Land,” defined as all territory whose rivers and streams flow into Hudson Bay. The Company now owns 1.5 million square miles of North America, including more than a third of modern Canada.
1811
Scottish noble Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, establishes the Red River Colony on land granted to him by the Hudson’s Bay Company. It covers most of present-day Manitoba plus a large swath of the northern U.S.A.
1844
Louis Riel is born in the Red River Settlement, near present-day Winnipeg, Manitoba.
1858
Archbishop Taché sends the fourteen-year-old Riel to Montreal to study for the priesthood.
1861–65
American Civil War.
1864–66
Upon the sudden death of his father in 1864, Riel drops out of university and finds work as a law clerk to help support his family.
1866–68
Riel moves to the United States, to Chicago and then Saint Paul, Minnesota, in pursuit of work.
1867
On July 1 Canada becomes a nation. John A. Macdonald becomes the first prime minister.
1868
Riel returns to the Red River Settlement.
1869
In July Canada’s minister of public works, William McDougall, orders a survey of the Red River Settlement.
In August Riel gives his first great public address, on the steps of Saint-Boniface Cathedral, warning of the dangers of the government-ordered survey of Métis land.
In September William McDougall is promoted to lieutenant governor of the North-West Territories.
On October 11 Riel, along with Métis supporters, stops surveyors from continuing their work on Métis land.
In mid-October the Métis National Committee is formed.
On November 2 Métis horsemen refuse Lieutenant Governor McDougall entry to their land and he is forced to retreat to the U.S.
On December 1 Riel presents his List of Rights to a convention of representatives of the North-West Territories.
On December 8 the Métis National Committee declares a provisional government.
On December 27 Riel is made president of the provisional government.
1870
On February 17 Riel’s horsemen capture and arrest forty-eight men bent on toppling the provisional government, near Upper Fort Garry.
In mid-February one of the forty-eight, Charles Boulton, a militiaman and surveyor, is condemned to death for trying to overthrow the new government. Soon after, Riel pardons him and he is released.
On March 4 Thomas Scott is executed by the provisional government. Riel refuses to intervene. Scott’s execution inflames Orangemen in Ontario and will haunt Riel for the rest of his life.
On May 12 the Manitoba Act is passed and Manitoba becomes a province of Canada. Riel is twenty-five.
In June the government of Canada acquires both Rupert’s Land and the North-West Territories from the Hudson’s Bay Company.
On August 24 the Wolseley Expedition arrives in Red River. Riel, fearing he will be arrested and charged with the murder of Scott, flees to the U.S.
1871–77
Canada concludes seven treaties with all Aboriginal people from Lake of Woods to the Rocky Mountains (taken directly from Rudy Wiebe’s Big Bear)
1871
On June 25–26 American Sioux and Northern Cheyenne defeat General Custer at Little Bighorn, Montana.
On July 20 British Columbia joins the Canadian confederation.
1873
In May the North West Mounted Police Canadian prime minister John A. Macdonald. (NWMP) are created by Queen Victoria, on advice of Canadian prime minister John A. Macdonald.
In October, while in exile, Riel is elected to Parliament, but he’s unable to take his seat for fear of being arrested for murder or, worse, being assassinated.
In November the Pacific Scandal forces John A. Macdonald to resign as prime minister.
1874
In February Riel is re-elected to Parliament, but is expelled before taking his seat.
In September he is re-elected a third time and once again expelled.
In October Riel, along with his friend Ambrose Lépine, is convicted of the murder of Thomas Scott.
1875
In January Riel’s death penalty is commuted to two years’ imprisonment.
In February he is granted amnesty on the condition that he remain in exile for five years.
1876
In February Riel is spirited illegally back into Canada by friends and family worried about his mental health.
On March 6 Riel is committed to the Hospice of St. Jean de Dieu, an asylum in Quebec City, against his will.
On May 19, for fear that he will be discovered by his enemies, Riel is moved to a different asylum, St. Michel-Archange in Beauport, Quebec.
1878
On January 29 Riel is released from the Beauport asylum and whisked back to the U.S.
In October John A. Macdonald is re-elected as prime minister; he will remain in power until his death in 1891.
1879
Riel takes up residence in Montana.
1881
Riel marries Marguerite Monet.
1883
Riel becomes an American citizen.
1884
In late June Gabriel Dumont visits Riel and asks him to return to Canada to once again defend the Métis.
In early July Riel arrives in Batoche, in present-day Saskatchewan, to great excitement.
On July 19 Riel speaks convincingly to a large crowd of settlers and Métis in Prince Albert.
On July 28 Riel’s secretary, William Jackson (later Honoré Jaxon), issues a manifesto of the grievances and objectives of both settlers and Métis.
On December 16 Riel sends a petition to the Secretary of State outlining Métis complaints and demands.
1885
In late January John A. Macdonald creates a threeman commission to look into Métis grievances.
In early February Edgar Dewdney, lieutenant governor of the North-West Territories, receives the weak federal response to Métis petitions and, fearing an uprising, passes along a re-imagined version of the telegram.
On March 5 Riel and other prominent Métis, including Gabriel Dumont, hold a secret meeting and sign an oath in which they engage to take up arms if necessary to protect themselves from a “wicked government.”
On March 13 the superintendent of the NWMP sends an urgent telegram to Ottawa, warning: “Halfbreed rebellion likely to break out at any moment. If half-breeds rise, Indians will join them.”
On March 18 Hudson’s Bay Company factor Lawrence Clarke tells a group of Métis horsemen that five hundred soldiers are on their way to arrest Riel and Dumont and that “they … will answer your petition with bullets.”
On March 19 the Métis announce a provisional government, with Riel as president and Dumont as adjutant-general.
On March 26 Métis engage a much larger NWMP force at Duck Lake after the police fire upon them first. By battle’s end, twelve policemen and five Métis are dead, with many wounded, Gabriel Dumont among them.
On April 2 Cree warriors from Big Bear’s band kill nine settlers at Frog Lake.
On April 24 Métis forces, greatly outnumbered, ambush General Middleton’s army at Fish Creek and deal a painful blow to his green army.
On April 30 the priests at Batoche excommunicate Riel from the Catholic Church.
On May 9 General Middl
eton attacks Métis forces in the Battle of Batoche; his army overruns the town on May 12.
On May 15 Riel surrenders to General Middleton.
On July 6 Riel is officially charged with high treason.
On July 20 his trial in Regina begins but is adjourned to allow time for the defence’s preparation.
On July 28 Riel’s trial resumes.
On August 1 Riel is found guilty of high treason and ordered hanged, despite the jury’s recommendation for clemency.
On September 25 Big Bear is sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of treasonfelony.
On November 16 Riel is hanged at Regina.
On December 12 he is buried at Saint-Boniface in Winnipeg.
1905
On September 1 Saskatchewan becomes a province of Canada.
1992
On March 10 the Canadian parliament passes a unanimous resolution calling Louis Riel the founder of Manitoba and praising “his contribution in the development of Confederation.”
2008
On February 18 Manitoba celebrates first annual Louis Riel Day.
Gabriel Dumont
1837
Dumont is born in Saint-Boniface, Manitoba.
1840
Dumont is taken along on his first buffalo hunt.
1847
Dumont breaks his first horse.
1851
Between July 13 and 15, at the age of fourteen, Dumont is involved in his first military action at Grand Coteau. A Métis buffalo hunting party is attacked by a much larger force of Yankton Sioux, and Dumont helps in the defence, reportedly killing his first men.
1858
Dumont marries Madeleine Wilkie.
1863
Dumont is elected leader of the Saskatchewan Métis buffalo hunt. He is twenty-five.
1868
Batoche becomes a permanent Métis settlement.
1872
Dumont opens a ferry service called “Gabriel’s Crossing” near Batoche on the South Saskatchewan River, on the Carlton Trail trade route.
1873
Dumont builds his home there.
Dumont is elected leader of the Saint-Laurent Council, a self-governing institution that sets laws and regulations for the Métis living in Saskatchewan.
1874
Hudson’s Bay Company factor Lawrence Clarke claims that the Métis, under Dumont’s guidance, are in open revolt. The NWMP investigates and find the accusation false, but forces the Saint-Laurent Council to disband regardless.
1877–78
Dumont petitions the federal government for Métis representation on the North-West Territories Council. The Saint-Laurent Métis also petition the government for farming assistance, schools, and new land grants. Their petitions are ignored.
1880
Dumont leads a successful protest against paying a fee on wood cut on Crown land.
1884
On March 22, frustrated by years of silence from the federal government, Dumont and a group of concerned Métis, along with local white settlers, decide to invite Louis Riel to Batoche.
On May 19 Dumont and a small group head to Saint Peter’s Mission in Montana to find Riel and ask him to come to Saskatchewan.
On July 5 the party returns to Batoche, along with Riel and his family.
1885
On March 5 Dumont, Riel, and others hold their secret meeting to take up arms if necessary.
On March 19 Dumont becomes the adjutant-general of the Métis provisional government.
On March 26 Dumont and his forces defeat a much larger NWMP force at Duck Lake. Dumont is wounded in the head and loses a brother and a cousin in the battle.
On April 24 Dumont and his small force rout General Middleton’s much larger army at Fish Creek.
From May 9 to May 12 Dumont leads his men in the Battle of Batoche.
On May 16 Dumont escapes from Batoche and begins his ride to Montana.
On May 27 Dumont crosses into the U.S. and begins his exile.
On November 16 Louis Riel is hanged for treason in Regina.
On November 27 Wandering Spirit and ten of his warriors are hanged near Battleford, Saskatchewan, for their involvement in the Frog Lake Massacre.
1886
In May Dumont’s wife, Madeleine, dies.
In June Dumont joins Buffalo Bill’s “Wild West” show.
In July the Canadian government offers amnesty to Dumont and the rest of the Métis involved in the Saskatchewan uprising.
In September Dumont finishes his contract with Buffalo Bill.
1887
Dumont gives a number of well-attended lectures in the American northeast.
1888
Dumont returns to Canada, to Montreal, at the request of French Canadian nationalists. He gives speeches, but these go over poorly because of his criticism of the Catholic clergy and their lack of support during the North-West Rebellion.
1891
A lone attacker attempts to murder Dumont while he sleeps in his tent in a hunting camp in the Dakotas.
1893
Dumont returns to Batoche for good.
1902
The federal government finally gives Dumont title to his homestead at Gabriel’s Crossing, thirty years after his initial request.
1906
On May 19 Dumont dies of heart failure at a friend’s home near Batoche.
1923
Batoche, site of the Métis’ last battle and Dumont’s grave marker, is declared a National Historic Site.
1980
The Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research opens in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; it later opens further campuses in Regina and Saskatoon.
Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont Page 14
