Who is riel

In , the sticky political mess created by Riel's popularity was finally resolved when Parliament granted him an amnesty conditioned on "five years' banishment from Her Majesty's Dominions. December 8, became a turning point in Riel's life.

On that day, after attending a mass in Washington, D. Riel's vision raised obvious questions about his mental health. So did many of his other actions. In , concerned friends secretly took Riel to Quebec.

Within a few months, Riel's uncle decided to place him in a mental institution near Montreal, under the name of Louis R. Riel's mental condition continued to deteriorate. He frequently removed all his clothes, citing the example of Adam and Eve. On one occasion, he smashed ornaments and candles in the asylum's chapel. Several times orderlies were forced to place Riel in a strait-jacket. By , Riel's health improved sufficiently that he was discharged from the Beauport asylum.

Riel traveled to New York, St. Paul, and Pembina, North Dakota in search of employment. Unable to find a satisfying job, he moved on to the Metis community of St. Manitoba, meanwhile, was undergoing a rapid evolution. The province became more English and less French, more dependent on rail and steamboats than the old Red River carts, and its hunting and fur-trading economy gave way to farming.

Metis intent upon preserving their traditional lifestyle looked west to Saskatchewan and began to move there in substantial numbers. Riel left St. Joseph in late and for the next two-plus years worked as a trader, selling goods to Indians and Metis at Fort Benton in the Missouri River country of Montana. The experience made Riel worry for the future of his race. His letters expressed bitter disappointment with the "halfbreed" who "spends most of his earnings on whiskey" and, as a result, finds "poverty drives him away from his little farm.

In March , Riel married Marguerite Monet. Two children soon followed: a son, Jean, and a daughter, Marie Angelique. In the spring of , weeks after becoming an American citizen, Riel accepted a teaching position at the Catholic mission of St.

Peter's on Montana's Sun River. He enjoyed teaching, but the job paid poorly and the hours too long to allow him time to pursue his true interests in religion, poetry, and politics. Riel eventually dropped out of the seminary, and following a stint as a clerk at a Montreal law firm, he made his way back to Red River in The energetic and well-educated Riel soon found himself in a position of leadership for his people, who worried they would be pushed out by an influx of English-speaking Protestants from Canada.

He led a November uprising that took control of Upper Fort Garry, the HBC's headquarters, and oversaw discussions with Canadian commissioners early the following year. The delegation's mission was largely a success, with Canada agreeing to demands for a bilingual provincial government and to reserve 1.

Riel fled upon learning that a military force of Scott's allies was coming for his head, before returning to Red River in to help fend off another uprising. He was elected twice more, with House opponents leading the charge to have him expelled on both occasions. In February , the Canadian government granted amnesty to Riel for his part in the insurrection that killed Scott, conditioned on his acceptance of a five-year banishment from the provinces.

Frightened by his emotional outbursts and claims of holy visions, Riel's friends had him committed to a pair of asylums. Riel eventually settled by the Upper Missouri River in Montana territory, where he joined the Republican party and worked to curb the whiskey trade that was devastating his people. He conferred with both French-and English-speaking settlers and leaders of the Plains Cree tribe and compiled the demands into a petition by the end of the year.

Initially intending to return to Montana, Riel instead was seized by a return of his religious furor, and he rallied his rabid followers into what became the North-West Rebellion of Charged with high treason for leading the North West Rebellion, Riel wanted to use the trial as a platform to vindicate himself.

I surrendered on purpose. I want to be judged on the merits of my actions. From the time of my arrival in Saskatchewan, I worked peacefully We didnt make any aggressive military moves. In Batoche we defended ourselves. It wished to dispose of the man who had led two uprisings in the countrys brief history. Of the six men on the Regina jury - only one spoke French. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald decided to charge Riel with high treason, based on an obscure British law dating to the year This law carried the death the penalty whereas Canadas treason law did not.

Trial began on July 20, It was a sweltering day made more oppressive by the hordes of people wanting to view the spectacle in Regina. The city was packed with officials, lawyers as well as reporters from around the world.