First Nations and Metis Resistance to the Formation of Canada – It Was Not All Peaceful
June 21, 2024
June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day
Most Canadians do not think of their country as an imperialist force and hold a belief that Canada came together peacefully without any armed conflict. Of course, there was the War of 1812 between Great Britian and the US however this was before Canadian Confederation in 1867. However, there are a few notable instances of clashes between indigenous people and the Canadian Government as the fledgling country began to reach westward.
Shortly after Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec) joined in a confederation with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to form Canada (1867) the newly established federal government purchased land known as Rupert’s Land and the Northwest Territories from the Hudson’s Bay Company. This land included what today has become Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The vision was to link all of this land by rail and establish a country that would stretch from sea to sea and would be resistant to any expansion of the U.S.A. northward.
Having purchased the land, the federal government believed it had dominion over it and began to provide land grants and/or to sell land to European settlers. This was an essential part of the plan to colonize the west and keep it out of American hands.
In Manitoba this lead to the development of a resistance movement lead by Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont. Riel and his mostly Métis supporters had seized Fort Garry, which served as the Hudson’s Bay administrative centre for the prairie region known as Red River. Riel then formed a provisional government which was able to begin negotiations with the Canadian government over the transfer of the prairie territory to Canada. This included ensuring that the inherent rights of the Metis people in the region were protected.
In late 1869, a man named John Christian Schultz had mustered a group of Ontario settlers to oppose the Metis resistance. Schultz was a Red River physician and belonged to a group called Canada First, a nationalistic political movement that held strong prejudices against indigenous people and French Canadians. This movement tried, unsuccessfully on two occasions, to seize Fort Garry back from Riel and his forces.
Among Shultz’s men was Thomas Scott who, while captured, threatened to kill Riel on sight. For whatever reason Riel overreacted to this threat and had Scott executed by firing squad for treason on March 4, 1870. This death is a pivotal moment in the course of events because the people of Ontario rallied behind Scott’s execution and called for Riel’s head. On the other hand, the people of Quebec were largely supportive of Riel.
Although Riel had been instrumental in bringing Manitoba into the confederation the controversy over Scott’s execution weighed heavily on the Canada’s first Prime Minister, John A. MacDonald. To solve the problem MacDonald essentially offered Riel a bribe: to exile himself to the U.S. This worked out well until the next round of resistance in 1885, known as the Northwest Resistance.
The Canadian federal government had by this time entered into negotiations of what would become known as the numbered treaties. During 1885 a violent, five-month insurgency against the Canadian Government, was fought mainly by Metis and their first Nations’ allies in what is now Saskatchewan and Alberta. It was caused by rising fear and insecurity among the Métis and First Nations peoples as negotiations were not moving in a desired direction and the encroachment of white settlers was already disrupting their traditional livelihoods and use of their land. A series of battles and other outbreaks of violence in 1885 left hundreds of people dead, but the resisters were eventually defeated by federal troops.
By the late 1870s, the Cree, Sissika, Kainai, Piikani and Saulteaux were facing catastrophe. The buffalo herds had been decimated, much of their land had been ceded through rather dubious negotiations with the federal government, they were being encroached upon by white settlers, and the federal government already began to renege on promises made during treaty negotiations. In 1880, Cree chief Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear) and Siksika chief Isapo-muxika (Crowfoot) founded a confederacy to try to work together to bring their people’s grievances to the government. Meanwhile the Metis in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were also suffering because of broken promises and the rapid changes in their economic well-being. Both the First Nations and Metis people of the west depended on the buffalo and on fur trade as central parts of their economy. As the Canadian economy began to transition to an agrarian based model the indigenous people found they had no viable economic place in the future of the country.
The Metis eventually asked Louis Riel to return and provide leadership in the dispute. This lead to a petition called the “Revolutionary Bill of Rights” being sent to Ottawa demanding settlement of the numerous land and rights issues faced by Metis and First Nations people alike. The government, afraid of the potential for an uprising, sent a detachment of Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP, the forerunners of the RCMP) to the area which aggravated matters and lead to an initial battle at Duck Lake, SK in which approximately fifteen people on both sides of the battle were killed.
Subsequently, the Federal government augmented the NWMP detachment by sending a contingent of 5,000 troops into the region. This sparked a reaction from Cree warriors in a settlement called Frog Lake and, on Thursday 2 April 1885 year, war chief Wandering Spirit shot and killed a federal Indian Agent. Other warriors followed this lead and killed two priests, the government farming instructor, an independent trader, a miller and three other men. This escalated tensions and subsequently there were additional battles at Fish Creek and Batoche before ultimately the Metis and First Nations confederates decided to surrender in the face of overwhelming force.
One of the well-known consequences of this resistance movement was the re-capturing of Louis Riel. Though he voluntarily surrendered, his role in this resistance made it difficult for the federal government to ignore. MacDonald could not find a diplomatic solution to appease all. As a result, Riel was tried and found guilty of treason. He was executed on November 16, 1885 in Regina. Today, despite some calls for Riel to be pardoned, his death remains a stain on the history of Canada’s formation.
What is not as often told is that there were subsequent executions of eight First Nations warriors who were hanged on November 27, 1885 for the murders of the nine people at Frog Lake. This execution took place within the stockade at Fort Battleford, SK. It remains the largest public execution in the history of settler societies in what is now Canada. These First Nation warriors names were:
Kapapamahchakwew (Wandering Spirit)
Itka
Wawanitch (Man Without Blood)
Napase (Iron Body)
Manetchus (Bad Arrow)
Pa-pa-mek-sick (Round the Sky)
Kitiemakyin (Miserable Man)
Little Bear (Apistask)
This raises a point of important semantics1. The Red River Resistance and the subsequent Northwest Resistance were at one time labelled as “rebellions”. Today we use the term “resistance”, for good reason. A rebellion is an uprising of citizens against their government. Resistance occurs when the people of a sovereign nation or entity defend themselves against the incursion of another sovereign entity by force.
It is difficult for some who are not familiar with the nuances of law or who may have been influenced by the past telling of history to fully comprehend that Riel should not have been held accountable or found guilty under Canadian law nor should the eight warriors have been executed for their roles at Frog Lake nor have been tried under Canadian criminal statutes. The application of Canadian law was an act of subjugation that remains part of our subtle yet real denial of the true sovereignty of Canada’s indigenous people.
It is a good thing we have gone to some efforts when teaching Canadian history, to remember Louis Riel and his part in helping to form Canada. We should also remember the eight First Nations warriors who also were wrongfully executed. Accepting this, while it may be perhaps difficult fact to accept, is part of how Canada came into being.