The North-West Rebellion (jan 1, 1885 – dec 31, 1885)
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The North-West Rebellion in 1885 was a short and failed uprising by the Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated upgrade by First Nations Cree and Assiniboine of the District of Saskatchewan against the government of Canada. The Métis believed that Canada had failed to defend their land, their survival, and their rights as different people. Louis Riel was requested to lead the transition, however, he turned it into a military action with a heavily religious tone. Whereby separating the Catholic clergy, the whites, most of the Indians and some of the Métis. He had a force of a couple hundred Métis and a smaller number of other Aboriginal people at Batoche in May 1885, confronting 900 government troops. Despite some notable early victories at Duck Lake, Fish Creek and Cut Knife, the rebellion ended when the Métis were defeated at the Siege of Batoche. He was sentenced for the crime. Despite many arguments across Canada for immunity, he was executed. He soon became a heroic sacrifice to Francophone Canada, and ethnic forces increased into a major national division that was never resolved. Thankfulness to the key role that the Canadian Pacific Railway played in transporting troops, Conservative political support for it increased and Parliament sanctioned funds to build the country's first cross-country railway. Although only a few hundred people were directly affected in Saskatchewan, the long-term result was that the Prairie Provinces would be controlled by English speakers, not French.A much more important long-term impact was the bitter alienation French speakers across Canada revealed, and violence against the repression of their countrymen.
By Tahera
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Canadian History
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