|
A New Nation |
Nova Scotia Balks |
The Northwest Territories |
Manitoba & Riel |
Federal Provincial Relations |
British Columbia |
Prince Edward Island |
The Washington Treaty |
Scandal |
Liberal Interlude |
The National Policy |
The Railroad |
Immigration |
Rebellion
| Transition
The explosion of growth in Winnipeg and
Manitoba in general brought many settlers in from
Ontario, Britain and some from the United States. They
quickly began buying up land, laying out farms in the
countryside and businesses in the cities and
establishing law and order throughout the Province.
The Métis, who lived
by trapping, some farming, and mainly by hunting buffalo
were slowly leaving Manitoba and migrating west to
Saskatchewan where Canada had not asserted its authority
and they could live the free lifestyle they were
accustomed to. The native people along the Saskatchewan
River also lived off of the buffalo and readily accepted
the Métis as people of their own type.
As the railway pushed
west it had to feed the vast army of workers that were
building the railway, the support system, the new towns,
and all of the other industries that were spring up
along the route. The easiest way to feed these workers
was to hire buffalo hunters to track and hunt the mighty
buffalo herds of the northwest and kill quarter and
deliver the buffalo meat to designated CPR locations for
processing and distribution. This began to impact the
balance of nature to aboriginal hunter as the herds were
devastated by the buffalo hunters. The same process was
taking place south of the boarder in the United States.
By 1883 the once great
buffalo herds had been reduced to such small numbers
that many of the natives and Métis were having
problems getting enough food to last through the winter.
The Canadian government through the Northwest Mounted
Police had been encouraging the native bands to sign
treaties which handed over the lands they inhabited in
exchange for government support and recognized
reservation lands. The support from the government,
however, did not supply the natives with enough to
survive the harsh winters in a decent manner. Unrest
spread among the natives and the Métis and their
thoughts turned to the legendary Louis Riel.
Riel had stood up
against the Canadian government and the British Empire
once before and won concessions and rights. He had even
been elected to Parliament but dared not take his seat
for fear of his life. He was now living in Montana and
had spent a few years in an asylum in the interlude. The
Métis and natives of the northwest cared little about
his life after the Red River and sent a delegation to
persuade him to return to Canada and lead them in the
Northwest to a better deal with Canada. He reacted
quickly and positively to their request and by July of
1884 was in Batoche Saskatchewan.
Riel repeated his
successful actins of 1870 and sent a list of grievances
to Ottawa for redress. Ottawa failed to answer these
ultimatums and in March 1885 Riel established a
provisional Government for the Métis and natives but in
the process lost the support of many of the white
settlers. He chose the famed buffalo hunter Gabriel
Dumont as his military commander and began to organize
for military action. This time the results were
different. Dumont and some of his men ran into a NWMP
detachment at Duck Lake who were retrieving supplies and
ammunition and the clash resulted in 10 dead NWMP
officers. This action ignited many more by the natives
and Chief Poundmaker attacked Battleford and some of
Chief Big Bear's men attacked Frog Lake killing and
burning down Fort Pitt.
Macdonald now reacted
quickly and dispatched General Middleton with over 5,000
troops to put down the Northwest Rebellion, and he
launched a three pronged attacked at Batoche,
Battleford, and Frog Lake. All succeeded and the
Rebellion was crushed. The main feature of the action
was that they had been rushed to Saskatchewan over the
newly completed parts of the railway.
Riel and others was captured and put on
trial. Eight natives were found guilty of rebellion and
hung. Riel was found guilty also but his execution was
delayed while the Federal Government pondered what
action they might take. Macdoanld and his colleagues
decided against over ruling the conviction and on
November 16th, 1885 Riel was hung in Regina and thus
began one of the bad splits between French and English
in many parts of the country.
The Rebellion had been defeated, the
railway had proved it's worth, the west lay open for
farmers to immigrate and fulfil the promises of the
National Policy
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