What was the Red River Resistance?

The Red River Resistance was an 1869 to 1870 uprising at the Red River Settlement led by Métis leader Louis Riel against the Canadian government's plans to take over the territory without consulting the Métis. The Resistance led directly to the creation of Manitoba as a province on July 15, 1870. Often called the Red River Rebellion in older historical writing, the term Resistance (résistance) is now standard among Métis and many Canadian historians, reflecting the legitimate political grievances of the participants.

The Resistance was prompted by Canada's purchase of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869, finalised by the Rupert's Land Act of 1868 and the Order in Council of June 23, 1870. The HBC sold the territory for 300,000 pounds sterling and other considerations. Canada planned to take possession of the Red River Settlement on December 1, 1869 without consulting the approximately 12,000 residents (about 5,800 French-speaking Métis, 4,000 English-speaking 'Country-Born' Métis, 1,600 Scottish and other settlers, and 600 Indigenous people). Canadian surveyors began mapping the settlement in summer 1869, alarming the Métis who feared their long-lot river-front farms would be reorganised into the Canadian township grid.

Riel led the Métis response. On October 11, 1869 Métis blocked Canadian surveyors. On November 2, 1869 Riel led an armed party that occupied Upper Fort Garry (the HBC headquarters in Winnipeg) without bloodshed. The Métis formed a Comité national on October 16, 1869 and a Provisional Government of Assiniboia on December 8, 1869, with Riel as President. The Provisional Government drew up a List of Rights demanding linguistic, denominational, and political guarantees in any Canadian transfer.

The Resistance turned violent in March 1870 when Riel's government tried and executed Thomas Scott, a Canadian Orange-Protestant who had been arrested for resisting the Provisional Government. Scott's execution by firing squad on March 4, 1870 outraged Anglo-Protestant opinion in Ontario and made Riel a target for the rest of his life. Canada and the Provisional Government negotiated through delegates including Father Noël Ritchot, John Black, and Alfred Scott; the result was the Manitoba Act, passed May 12, 1870 and effective July 15, 1870. The Wolseley Expedition of about 1,200 troops marched overland to Fort Garry, arriving on August 24, 1870. Riel had fled before they arrived; he spent the rest of his life in and out of Canada and was elected three times to the House of Commons (1873, 1874, 1874) without taking his seat. The Resistance is now commemorated by Louis Riel Day, a Manitoba civic holiday on the third Monday of February.