HIST 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Public Campaign, North-West Rebellion, Indian Act
Lecture 2 – May 2nd
Canadian Expansion and Western Resistance
Film Critique
• 3-4 pages
• Knowing what our thoughts are about the film, no true answer
• Kind of like a book review in an academic journal
• Present the work for an audience that hasn’t seen it, narrow down what the key
points of the documentary are
• Explore what we believe the intentions are of the filmmaker and what his intensions
are
o Primary sources
• What are the primary sources that he uses, who are the people that he includes in
the documentary?
Study Questions
• Why do some scholars choose to refer to a Métis Resistance while others choose to
identify the events as a Métis Rebellion?
o Random: Capital M – identity in the west, lowercase m – mixed race people
• )s Louis Riel a Father of Confederation?
o What is a father of confederation and why do we want to use that term to
refer to Louis Riel?
• Explain what is meant by the sentence We are all treaty people.
The Transfer of Rupert’s Land, 1869
• Canada and the (udson Bay’s company came to the transfer of Rupert’s Land
• Red River Colony
o Community emerged through the (udson’s Bay Company’s (BC wide
trading and commercial network
o Métis population consisted of the descendants of former fur traders (Scots
and French-Canadians) and their indigenous wives
o By 1869, Red River had a population of 12000
▪ 80% were Métis
▪ More than 50% of the settlement was French-speaking and Roman
Catholic
• MacDougal – didn’t speak French and had never stepped foot in the West
• Feared the government and the loss of their land and farms
Louis Riel (1844-1885)
• Born in Red River Settlement
• Father led a successful Métis protest against the HBC in 1849
• Educated in Montreal (spoke English and French)
o Studied to become a Priest but never became one
• Political leader of the Métis people
• Led two resistance movements against the Canadian government
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