Red River Rebellion
The Red River Rebellion was an uprising by the Métis people in modern Manitoba. The national government of Canada bought the area, then known as "Rupert's Land", from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869. The government then ordered surveys to be started of the new territory. The Metis were afraid that they would then lose their lands, since many did not have clear titles. They were also afraid that the Canadian government officials, many of which were Protestants, would not allow the Metis to continue being Catholics.
The Metis then orgainized their own provisional government, with Louis Riel as their leader, in the summer of 1869. They sent a list of demands to the Canadian government, including protection of the French language. After several months of negotiations, the Parliament of Canada passed the Manitoba Act of May 1870. The act admitted Manitoba into the Canadian Confederation and included many of the Metis' demands.
Red River Rebellion Media
Upper Fort Garry in the early en:1870s, circa 1872 / en:Fort Garry, Manitoba*Credit: Topley / en:Library and Archives Canada / PA-011337
Louis Riel, after a carte de visite from 1884.
Métis provisional government
An artist's depiction of the execution of Scott, 1870
Canada after the creation of Manitoba by the Manitoba Act of 1870
The Red River Expedition at Kakabeka Falls, by Frances Anne Hopkins, 1877.
