Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont Read Online Free PDF

of existing on an equal basis with people who are not only French and Indian but Catholic is a ludicrous notion.
    A number of this minority, all of them English, led by Dr. John Christian Schultz and Charles Mair, call themselves the Canadian Party and try to rally others living in and around Red River, but most ignore their call. Dr. Schultz manages to raise about four dozen recruits, whom he uses to guard his house and store. He’s a well-to-do merchant in town, after all, and he’s been one of the most vocal opponents of Riel and the Métis.
    Riel understands that he cannot allow such a threat to continue and orders Schultz’s house surrounded. Schultz and company surrender on December 7 and are imprisoned in Fort Garry. Included in the group is a particularly belligerent and angry Orangeman named Thomas Scott who takes great pleasure, it seems, in tormenting his captors.
    On December 8, riding the groundswell of success and support, Riel achieves his goal of forming a provisional government. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s Assiniboia Council demands that it should represent Métis and settler grievances, but Riel has no reason to believe that this council is best for the Métis, and it is agreed that his new government will enter direct negotiations with Canada.
    Just over a week before, on December 1, McDougall had foolishly declared himself the lieutenant governor of the North-West in absentia, not knowing that the Canadians had postponed the idea of taking over Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company when news of Métis unrest had reached Ottawa. McDougall, looking the fool, retreats to Ontario, and the vacuum of power is quickly filled by Riel and the provisional government. The Hudson’s Bay Company, John A. Macdonald, and the English Protestants who oppose the Métis are all left reeling, asking themselves how this could have happened. John A. must realize that he will now be forced to enter into discussion with the Métis, and hopefully cut any early losses.
    Over the course of the rest of December and well into January, the situation between Red River and Ottawa remains tense. John A. allows Governor General Lord Lisgar to declare an amnesty for any Red River Métis who will lay down their arms, but this goes basically ignored. John A. then sends the French Canadians Abbé Jean-Baptiste Thibault and Charles-René d’Irumberry de Salaberry to speak with the Métis, but the two men have little power to negotiate anything of importance. Eventually Hudson’s Bay representative Donald Alexander Smith is appointed by Ottawa with more authority to negotiate.
    Riel is elected president of the provisional government shortly after Christmas, and on January 19 and 20 he makes headway in negotiations when Smith promises Red River inhabitants, who are all now firmly behind Riel, that they will be fairly represented, that concessions to land claims will be extended, and that the Canadian government acts in good faith. Understanding the importance of this, Riel continues to make strides in his efforts to represent both French and English fairly, forming a convention of forty representatives, twenty from each language group, to discuss Smith’s promises and agree on a response. The representatives create a new list of rights, and a delegation is chosen that will head to Ottawa and enter into direct negotiations with Canada. Riel is pleased. His careful planning is working out, and the deaf ears of John A. appear to be opening.
    While the Métis prove themselves quite adept at political negotiations, their jailing skills leave something to be desired. Twice in the month of January, big breakouts occur, freeing basically all the leaders of the Canadian Party who so bitterly oppose Riel, including Dr. Schultz, Charles Mair, and the belligerent Thomas Scott. These men ride out in different directions and once again attempt to raise a militia that can violently oppose the actions of the vast majority of Red River, French