Louis Reil Essay Essay, Research Paper

Louis Riel Essay

Louis Riel is probably the most famous and well-known M?tis that had ever lived. M?tis were people who had aboriginal and French-Canadian parents, M?tis is a French word that means “mixed” or “mixed blood”. Riel was a man of ideas and was a man who was knowledged in the government. He did many important heroics in Canadian History, he was a leader of the M?tis people and was looked up to and respected very much by his people. He got into trouble with the Canadian government many times in his life, but he never changed his beliefs, viewpoint or attitude about what he thought of about and for his M?tis people. He did all he could and all he was capable of doing at his full potential to help the way the M?tis people were living and being treated. Mr. Riel was a very well educated Lawyer in the first years of his career life and then he became a teacher after he was forced to move away from where he was previously living. In the life of Louis Riel Canada was expanding westward and the Canadian government was taking away the M?tis people’s land and their rights were being encroached upon. Many people, such as the Canadian Government and the English people were very racist towards the M?tis and the aboriginal people of North America.

Louis David Riel was born in the year 1844 on January 21st. When he was 10 years old he attended an all boys Catholic school at St. Boniface till he was 14 in 1858. He had studied Latin and he graduated and went on to Collage accompanied by two other M?tis boys. Louis Riel was a very literate person and when he was 20 years old he started a poem book and he entered his first poem. One of those poems was:

My Radiant Native Blood

My veins course with native blood:

And I exalt my ancestors.

You who sang to me the Huron Carol

In exquisite tones.

You felt the pleasure

Of its charm and pride.

And I the poet pledge to you

The homage of my verses.

(From the Yellow Booklet of Louis Riel Essay Material)

Riel did very well in Collage and decides to study law in Montreal, then from 1866 when he was 22 years old to when he was 24 years old he went off to Minnesota and any historian that ever studied him does not know that time in his life. Louis Riel returned back to his homeland St. Boniface a year later and he soon rose to be the leader of the M?tis Movement by organising it and being the secretary of the operation. That same year The Canadian House of Commons gets a temporary government for Rupert’s Land and the North- Western Territory who was William McDougall. The M?tis people who were led by Riel did not like this so they stopped Mr. William McDougall from entering the land and turned him around to go back to where he came from. A little while later at the beginning of the next year in 1870 Louis is said to have an illness called “brain fever” and he was put into mental hospital institutions for his own good, he soon got better after a few months in the mental institution. After he got out of the mental institution he approved the execution of Thomas Scott. Who was an Orangeman from Ontario and had been arrested, and then executed by the M?tis people. Riel has absolutely no legal right to have him shot, but Riel himself never touched a gun for that purpose. He had a firing squad shoot Scott for him. Even though Riel may have ordered that squad to shoot Thomas Scott, those men could have refused the task, no matter how powerful Riel seemed. That same year the Manitoba Act was passed so that meant that the M?tis people could have freedom to their own language and have representation in Parliament in the House of Commons. Riel went to the House Of Commons but was not allowed to sit as a member in the House, he was threatened to be shot by the Government soldiers, but Louis Riel was not afraid of them. In the year 1884 Gabriel Dumont rode to Montana to talk to Louis Riel into coming back to Canada to lead and help the M?tis people once again. Riel did go with Dumont back to Canada, by doing that Riel was risking being captured by the Canadian Government. He had been put into exile and was banned from Canada, so it was illegal for him to return. When he got to Canada he went to Batoche with his M?tis people and his trusty sidekick Gabriel Dumont. Louis Riel led the M?tis people in a fight against Major-General Fredrick Middleton and his army. Sadly the Metis people were defeated and Louis Riel gave himself up to the enemy. Mr. Riel requested to have a court session in the Supreme Court of Canada, but he was denied it and was charged with high treason. He was sentenced to be hanged on September 18th 1885 on August 1st by a Jury of six that found him guilty, but still recommended mercy. They said that he could live if he had a mental examination that proved him insane, and he agreed to be insane. That one thing would have saved his life. The hanging of Louis Riel was postponed, and the day he was hanged was November 16th 1885, and after he was buried in his Hometown of St. Boniface, Manitoba.

The M?tis thought that Louis Riel was a father of Confederation because he represented them because they could not represent themselves. He helped them through many rebels, and wars. He did all he could to help them and the way they were being treated. Riel was a very well educated person and he was a very good leader to the M?tis people. To them he was a prophet, a saint, a hero, an eccentric revolutionary, a leading man, an idol. He was the M?tis messiah. Mr. Riel was treated with great respect, everyone loved and looked up to him, he was the greatest thing that ever lived according to the M?tis people. Louis Riel was praised for his boldness and forcefulness towards the Canadian Government. Riel was honoured for his dedication, commitment and assurance to his people. He saved the Metis people and helped them out all the time. They all thought that he was a father of confederation, and that he did not deserve to be executed in the end. He was called a martyr because he was someone who died for a cause. The Canadian Government and those who were against the M?tis People and Louis Riel thought the exact opposite. They thought that he was a murderer for having Thomas Scott shot and killed. They called him a madman, a brilliant lunatic, a villain, a misguided visionary and a criminal. Those people who called him those names were also racist towards the M?tis and aboriginal people. So most of those names that they called Sir Louis Riel were untrue from the beginning anyway.

I think that Louis Riel should not have been hung because he represented those who were not capable of representing themselves in the right way. Louis Riel was disappointed with the way his M?tis people were, so he took it upon himself to help them out the best way he could. I think that he did a pretty good job, regarding the fact that the opposing side seemed so much stronger, and much more powerful then the M?tis people and Louis Riel. I think that the M?tis people had better ways of life and better thinking and traditions then the Canadian Government that immigrated to Canada. I also think that the Aboriginal and the M?tis people were too nice to the English Immigrants and that they should have laid down some more laws and have been more aggressive about who’s boss.

When Louis Riel was executed by hanging he wrote in his diary that he was keeping on the day he was hung, these words:

I have devoted my life to my country. If it is

necessary for the happiness of my country that I

should now cease to live. I leave it to the

Providence of my God.

Louis Riel

(From the Yellow Booklet of Louis Riel Essay Material)

The statement on his execution was this:

For assisting to alleviate the wrongs of my countrymen I am to be… but I will not say it. For having done all I could to better the condition of the people at large as an aboriginal, as an American and as a prophet will I lose my temporal life.

Louis Riel

(From the Yellow Booklet of Louis Riel Essay Material)

Today Louis Riel is still thought of as a Father Of Confederation by many people, what he did for Canada over 100 years ago is still thought about all the time. People often debate about what happened to him, and if it was right or wrong, or good or bad.