This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan.
The Story of Louis Riel
The Rebel Chief
by Joseph Edmond Collins
Toronto, 1885
Along the banks of the Red River, over those fruitfulplains brightened with wild flowers in summer, and sweptwith fierce storms in the winter-time, is written thelife story of Louis Riel. Chance was not blind when shegave as a field to this man's ambition the plains whereonvengeful Chippewas and ferocious Sioux had waged theirbattles for so many centuries; a country dyed so oftenwith blood that at last Red River came to be its name.But while our task is to present the career of thisapostle of insurrection and unrest; stirred as we may beto feelings of horror for the misery, the tumult, theterror and the blood of which he has been the author, wemust not neglect to do him, even him, the justice whichis his right.
He is not, as so many suppose, a half-breed, moved bythe vengeful, irresponsible, savage blood in his veins.Mr. Edward Jack, [Footnote: I cannot make out what Mr.Jack's views are respecting Riel. When I asked him, hesimply turned his face toward the sky and made some remarkabout the weather, I know that he has strong Frenchproclivities, though the blood of a Scottish bailie isin his veins.] of New Brunswick, who is well informed onall Canadian matters, hands me some passages which hehas translated from M. Tasse's book on Canadians in theNorth West; and from these I learn that Riel's father,whose name also was Louis, was born at the island ofLa Crosse, in the North-West Territories. This parent wasthe son of Jean Baptiste Riel, who was a French Canadianand a native of Berthier (en haut). His mother, thatis the rebel's grandmother, was a Franco-MontagnaiseMetis. From this it will be seen that instead of beinga "half breed," Louis Riel is only one-eighth Indian, oris, if we might use the phrase employed in describing amixture of Ethiopian and Caucasian blood, an Octoroon.
Nay, more than this, we have it shown that our rebel canlay claim to no small share of respectability, as thatword goes. During the summer of 1822, Riel's father, thenin his fifth year, was brought to Canada by his parents,who caused the ceremony of baptism to be performed withmuch show at Berthier. In 1838 M. Riel pere enteredthe service of the Hudson Bay Company, and left LowerCanada, where he had been attending school, for theNorth-West. He was stationed at Rainy Lake, but did notcare for his occupation. He returned, therefore, tocivilization and entered as a novice in the community ofthe Oblat Fathers, where he remained for two years. Therewas a strong yearning for the free, wild life of theboundless prairies in this man, and Red River, with itsherds of roaming buffalo, its myriads of duck, and geeseand prairie hens, began to beckon him home again. Hefollowed his impulse and departed; joining the Metishunters in their great biennial campaigns against theherds, over the rolling prairie. Many a buffalo fell uponthe plain with Louis Riel's arrow quivering in his flank;many a feast was held around the giant pot at which nohunter received honours so marked as stolid male, andolive-skinned, bright-eyed, supple female, accorded him.Surfeited for the time of the luxury of the limitlessplain, Riel took rest; and then a girl with the lustrouseyes of Normandy began to smile upon him, and to besiegehis heart with all her mysterious force of coquetry. Hewas not proof; and the hunter soon lay entangled in themeshes of the brown girl of the plains. In the autumn of1843 he married her. Her name was Julie de Lagimodiere,a daughter of Jean B