Can someone tell me about Louis Riel?

Question

Can someone tell me about Louis Riel?

Answer 1

He was a terrorist and justly executed in the 1800's for treason.

Answer 2

Here`s a clip of his history.

http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/provinci...

Answer 3

Louis Riel (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies.[1] He led two resistance movements against the Canadian government and its first post-Confederation Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. Riel sought to preserve Métis rights and culture as their homelands in the Northwest came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence. He is regarded by many as a Canadian folk hero today.

The first resistance was the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870.[2] The provisional government established by Riel ultimately negotiated the terms under which the modern province of Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation.[3] Riel was forced into exile in the United States as a result of the controversial execution of Thomas Scott during the rebellion.[4] Despite this, he is frequently referred to as the "Father of Manitoba".[5] While a fugitive, he was elected three times to the Canadian House of Commons, although he never assumed his seat. During these years, he was frustrated by having to remain in exile despite his growing belief that he was a divinely chosen leader and prophet, a belief which would later resurface and influence his actions. He married in 1881 while in exile in Montana, and fathered two children.

Riel returned to what is now the province of Saskatchewan to represent Métis grievances to the Canadian government. This resistance escalated into a military confrontation known as the North-West Rebellion of 1885. It ended in his arrest, trial, and execution on a charge of high treason. Riel was viewed sympathetically in francophone regions of Canada, and his execution had a lasting influence on relations between the province of Quebec and English-speaking Canada. Whether seen as a Father of Confederation or a traitor, he remains one of the most complex, controversial, and ultimately tragic figures in the history of Canada.[6]

The Red River Settlement was a community in Rupert's Land nominally administered by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), and largely inhabited by First Nations tribes and the Métis, an ethnic group of mixed Cree, Ojibwa, Saulteaux, French Canadian, Scottish, and English descent.[7] Louis Riel was born there in 1844, near modern Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Louis Riel Sr. and Julie Lagimodière.

Riel was the eldest of eleven children in a locally well-respected French Canadian-Métis family.[8] His father had gained prominence in this community by organizing a group that supported Guillaume Sayer, a Métis imprisoned for challenging the HBC's historical trade monopoly.[9] Sayer's eventual release as a result of agitations by Louis Sr.'s group effectively ended the monopoly, and the name Riel was therefore well known in the Red River area. His mother was the daughter of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière and Marie-Anne Gaboury, one of the earliest white families to settle in the Red River Settlement in 1812. The Riels were noted for their devout Catholicism and strong family ties.[10]

Riel was first educated by Roman Catholic priests at St. Boniface. At age 13 he came to the attention of Alexandre Taché, the suffragan Bishop of St. Boniface, who was eagerly promoting the priesthood for talented young Métis. In 1858 Taché arranged for Riel to attend the Petit Séminaire of the Collège de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec under the direction of the Sulpician order.[11] Descriptions of him at the time indicate that he was a fine scholar of languages, science, and philosophy, but exhibited a frequent and unpredictable moodiness.[12]

Following news of his father's premature death in 1864, Riel lost interest in the priesthood and he withdrew from the college in March 1865. For a time he continued his studies as a day student in the convent of the Grey Nuns, but was soon asked to leave following breaches of discipline. He remained in Montreal over a year, living at the home of his aunt, Lucie Riel. Impoverished by the death of his father, Riel took employment as a law clerk in the Montreal office of Rodolphe Laflamme.[13] During this time he was involved in a failed romance with a young woman named Marie-Julie Guernon.[14] This progressed to the point of Riel having signed a contract of marriage, but his fiancée's family opposed her involvement with a Métis, and the engagement was soon broken. Compounding this disappointment, Riel found legal work unpleasant, and by early 1866 he had resolved to leave Quebec.[15] Some of his friends said later that he worked odd jobs in Chicago, Illinois while staying with poet Louis-Honoré Fréchette, and wrote poems himself in the manner of Lamartine; also that he was then for a time employed as a clerk in St. Paul, Minnesota prior to returning to the Red River Settlement on July 26, 1868.[16]

[edit] Red River Rebellion

Main article: Red River Rebellion

The majority population of the Red River had historically been Métis and First Nation people. But