Louis Riel Day: Home

The nineteenth-century Métis politician and mystic Louis Riel has emerged as one of the most popular - and elusive - figures in Canadian culture. Since his hanging for treason in 1885, the self-declared David of the New World has been depicted variously as a traitor to Confederation; a French-Canadian and Catholic martyr; a bloodthirsty rebel; a pan-American liberator; a pawn of shadowy white forces; a Prairie political maverick; a First Nations hero; an alienated intellectual; a victim of Western industrial progress; and even a Father of Confederation. Albert Braz synthesizes the available material by and about Riel, including film, sculpture, and cartoons, as well as literature in French and English, and analyzes how an historical figure could be portrayed in such contradictory ways. In light of the fact that most aesthetic representations of Riel bear little resemblance not only to one another but also to their purported model, Braz suggests that they reveal less about Riel than they do about their authors and the society to which they belong. The most comprehensive treatment of the representations of Louis Riel in Canadian literature, The False Traitor will be a seminal work in the study of this popular Canadian figure.

Louis Riel believed that on 8 December 1875 he received a divine commission authorizing him to save the mTtis and reform the Catholic Church. He was a prophet, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the mTtis were the new chosen people. A new branch of the Catholic Church would be founded in North America, with its first Holy See in Montreal, and its second in Riel's birthplace of St. Vital.When Riel expressed these views in 1876, he was committed to a lunatic asylum. After his release, he suppressed his ideas for several years, only to reveal them again to his mTtis followers during the North-West Rebellion. The Rebellion thus became as much a religious as a political movement; Riel believed himself a prophet to the end of his life, and he went to his death thinking that he, like Christ, would be resurrected on the third day.Earlier writers about Louis Riel have noted his religious beliefs but have not taken them seriously. They have usually dismissed Riel's attempt to found a new religion as the symptom of a deranged mind. Thomas Flanagan takes Riel's religion seriously and analyses it using categories developed in the literature about millenarian movements. He shows that Riel's religion, far from being simply individual madness, is typical of the nativistic and millenarian movements described by one author as the 'religions of the oppressed.'This is also a biography, tracing Riel's thinking on religious subjects from his childhood to the end of his life and paying particular attention to events in his life that influenced his thinking. This developmental approach is necessary because Riel's ideas changed frequently; he never arrived at a fixed 'system.'The research is based on primary sources throughout. Much new documentation has become available over the past thirty years and in the sixteen years since this volume was initially published. In particular, new information is presented about Riel's youth in Montreal, his time in insane asylums, his years in Montana, and the North-West Rebellion. Flanagan also re-interprets well-known documents. While this revised edition does not alter the fundamentals of his interpretation, it improves the historical backdrop against which it is presented through use of a wealth of new primary sources. Flanagan has updated his citings of Riel's manuscripts to current sources.

Louis Riel devoted his life to the Metis cause. A fiery activist, he struggled against injustice as he saw it. He was a pioneer in the field of Aboriginal rights and land claims but was branded an outlaw in his own time. In 1885, he was executed for treason. In 1992, the House of Commons declared Riel a founder of Manitoba. November 16 is now designated Louis Riel Day in Canada.

"A really interesting read." Keith Carlson, author of The Power of Place, The Problem of Time Born the son of a Wyandot Chief in Kansas in 1849, Irvin Mudeater was one of the last great frontiersmen of the American West. Hired to run wagon trains to Santa Fe, Mudeater fought off "Indian attacks," was caught up in the Civil War, drove a stagecoach, and lived as a plainsman on the lawless frontier. Most of all, he was a buffalo hunter--killing 126 head in just one day. In 1882, Mudeater moved to Canada, adopted the name Robert Armstrong, and portrayed himself as white. Shortly after the fall of Batoche, he played the lead role in bringing the fugitive Metis leader, Louis Riel, into custody. John D. Pihach attempts to resolve the opposing stories of Riel's surrender/capture, scrutinizes the sensational incidents in Armstrong/Mudeater's life, and, with the inclusion of Mudeater's unpublished memoir, allows this consummate storyteller to speak in his own voice.

In 1885, Louis Riel was charged with high treason, found guilty, and consequently executed for his role in Saskatchewan's North-West Rebellion. During his trial, the Métis leader gave two speeches, passionately defending the interests of the Métis in western Canada as well as his own life. Riel's Defence studies these speeches, demonstrating the range of Riel's political and personal concerns. The first and better known of the two speeches addresses the jury, while Riel's second speech - rarely reprinted - addresses the court following his guilty verdict. Both orations have been edited, annotated, and reprinted, and are followed by essays from diverse perspectives including philosophy, law, history, political science, religion, and communication studies. Through the course of their inquiry, contributors come to understand more about Riel's personal character and political thought, as well as his arguments supporting Métis land claims, grievances against the federal government, and his immigration plan for the North-West. Evaluating the rhetorical quality, legal merit, and cultural stakes of his speeches, Riel's Defence reveals the significance of the last public statements made by a man who indelibly shaped Canada's history by combining his personal vision with a national vision.

Although relatively few First Nations joined the 1885 Métis insurgence, the Canadian government reacted punitively, instituting draconian "Indian" policies whose ill-effects continue to resonate today. The Winter Count traces these developments alongside another narrative - the debate over the sanity of Métis leader Louis Riel. Dilys Leman weaves original poems and reconstituted archival texts, including medical reports, diaries, treaties, recipes, even a phrenological analysis, to create a montage that both presents and disrupts official history. Her narrative questions politically expedient myths that First Nations were allies of the Métis, would rise again in greater numbers, and needed to be scrupulously controlled to secure the opening of the West. Leman evokes the voices of historical and imagined characters to convey a political landscape teetering into lunacy and a government obsessed with its own vision of nation-building. We hear a bureaucrat extol the merits of the pass system, a court interpreter's ludicrous translation of treason felony into Cree, and Dr Augustus Jukes agonizing about his role on the secret medical commission tasked with reassessing Riel's sanity, which would determine if he could be executed. The Winter Count is a cautionary tale about moral responsibility. As Leman laments, our failure to be accountable human beings will surely haunt us: "Laudable pus / Political speeches / This water / brought too late / to a boil / Lance and forceps / rattling / their pot"

This critical, definitive edition is composed of five annotated volumes: three of letters, diaries, declarations, and other prose writings, ordered chronologically; one of poetry; and a reference volume. Essential reading for anyone wanting to understand Riel and his influence on the history of Western Canada.

The nineteenth-century Métis politician and mystic Louis Riel has emerged as one of the most popular - and elusive - figures in Canadian culture. Since his hanging for treason in 1885, the self-declared David of the New World has been depicted variously as a traitor to Confederation; a French-Canadian and Catholic martyr; a bloodthirsty rebel; a pan-American liberator; a pawn of shadowy white forces; a Prairie political maverick; a First Nations hero; an alienated intellectual; a victim of Western industrial progress; and even a Father of Confederation. Albert Braz synthesizes the available material by and about Riel, including film, sculpture, and cartoons, as well as literature in French and English, and analyzes how an historical figure could be portrayed in such contradictory ways. In light of the fact that most aesthetic representations of Riel bear little resemblance not only to one another but also to their purported model, Braz suggests that they reveal less about Riel than they do about their authors and the society to which they belong. The most comprehensive treatment of the representations of Louis Riel in Canadian literature, The False Traitor will be a seminal work in the study of this popular Canadian figure.

Martyr or Madman? The Passionate Rebel History Can't Close The Book On. Is this the future of comics? Respectably penning the dowdy pages of history? Don't be fooled. This is one of the hippest comics going and will be a controversial must-have in 2003. Legendary cartoonist Chester Brown reveals in the dusty closet of Canadian history there are some skeletons that won't stop rattling. To some Louis Riel was one of the founding fathers of a nation but to others he was a murderer who nearly tore a country apart. A man so charismatic he was elected to government twice while in exile with a prize on his head--but so impassioned his dramatic behavior cast serious doubts on his sanity. Riel took on the army, the government, the Queen, and even the Church in the name of freedom. Will Riel's visionary democracy ever be enough to defend him from the verdict of history?

Ask any Canadian what "Métis" means, and they will likely say "mixed race." Canadians consider Métis mixed in ways that other Indigenous people are not, and the census and courts have premised their recognition of Métis status on this race-based understanding. Andersen argues that Canada got it wrong. From its roots deep in the colonial past, the idea of Métis as mixed has slowly pervaded the Canadian consciousness until it settled in the realm of common sense. In the process, "Métis" has become a racial category rather than the identity of an Indigenous people with a shared sense of history and culture.

When, in 1983, the first edition of Riel and the Rebellion was published, the scholarly controversy concerning Thomas Flanagan's interpretation of the Rebellion of 1885 escalated to one of national significance. One of the few books that presents a countervailing view to the traditional interpretation of the events of 1885, Riel and the Rebellion contends that the Metis were, to some extent, responsible for the alienation of their lands, and that Riel himself was a more destructive than constructive force in the history of western Canada. After over fifteen years, issues such as land claims and native rights have in fact moved beyond the level of academic debate; Flanagan's work remains timely and the additions to the book in this new edition reflect the continued currency of its content. In the second edition, the author addresses a number of issues, including the cultural mythology surrounding Riel, the recent campaign to pardon Riel (with some discussion of a theory that contends that Riel's trial was unfair), the Manitoba lands question, and new primary research conducted by Flanagan concerning Metis land claims at Laurent. Undoubtedly, this unique work will continue to spark controversy and garner attention because of its relevance to many larger contemporary political debates concerning native rights and land claims.