St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-04-14
RIEL'S RACKET.
Some History about the Rebel - The
TroublesOntc Indian.

some History A0ONe the heOet - INe
Troubleson,c Indian.
Gath in Gin. Enquirer.
LOUIS REL
is the Indian and Frenchman, with certain
cowboy independence acquired from the cos
mopolitan associations of the plains. He
did not begin anybody's war; he merely was
the natural man, with more force of charac-
ter and probably more intelligence than
those surrounding people who have gone up
into Manitoba to head off the United States
in old Lord Selkirk's cranky Uranium. He
drove the surveyors out, and, when soon
after Scotchman came along with a privy
council, usher Of the Black Rod, grand
chamberlain, equerries, etc., or what con-
stitutes the most desirable kind OF govern
ment for this continent, Riel sent him to the
right about. In conflict which happened
at the outset some people were killed, and
one of the prisoners, Scotchman, was shot
by Rlel's government for instruction. This
government of Riel was as truly de facto as
any government in the Confederate states
was the de facto government while the United
States had suspended the exercise of its
rights 1t was more, because there never
people in the Northwest had been called
upon to take part in making it. They had a
right to conclude that the concern which
marched in on them, not in the queens
name, but in the name of Canadian Do
minion, was itself an insurrectionary gov
eminent
A little army was sent up to Winnipeg,
and By explanation the people were at last
made to come and give their adhesion to the
Dominion But Riel was elected to the Do
minion parliament, and when he went to
Ottawa and took the oath, as one-third of the
American congress do all the time, itself
having been concerned in an enormous in
surrection, the factional government and
people insulted the half-breed, and he was
expelled from the parliament merely for
having expressed the public opinion of the
men among whom he was a native. He did
no act whatever contrary to anybody's Or
ganization at Ottawa, but he had insisted
TIE DOMINION PIzARRos,
and one man had been made an example of,
and therefore there was no peace nor pro-
lection for him in the great Dominion. So
the man went back among bis fellow-citi-
zens.
The big Canadian Pacific railroad scheme
was pushed along through the stone-heaps
and bonds, and financially it struck the In
dians proper. They saw surveyors coming,
too, and beheld their domains given away by
the thousands of square miles to strangers.
They went to half-breed friends like Riel to
ask what Il meant. An old grievance shook
hands with a new one. II had been the
great boast Of the English that they we're far
superior in dealing with the Indian problem
to the Yankees. The Yankees, it was
said, had recognized the Indians rights of
the soil from nature, and had treated with
the Indian on his national understar ding,
and consequently the Indian went to war IS
a nation whenever he considered that treaties
had been broken. II was said that the Briton
in Canada merely regarded the individual
Indian as a ward, and respected bis national
condition, and, therefore, the Indian was
punished as refractory individual and pro-
tected as an obedient individual.
THE INDIAN IS THERE,
and may add that in every nation, no mat
ter how you treat with it, the Indian is there,
too. The most civilized powers on the globe
have solemn treaties, and yet a savage public
opinion springs Up in moment, just az
among the Indian tribes, anu great war
comes on. The great point among Ameri-
can intercourse with the Indians has been
the existence Of an honest and swelling back
ground of sympathy with the natural man.
That comes from the democratic sense.
When men are accustomed to respect each
other as full equals, each man being one Of
the soyereigDs Of bis land, and his vote equal
TO any other mans, there must ensue in
course Of time consideration for women and
children, and even for sayages- The virtues
we miss in q republican society do not
come republican society, but from dis
LOYALTY from It. Now, in Canada there has
| never been any distinct recognition of indi-
viduaI liberty and equality. except what has
been sowu there by the more reactionary
colonists who went from Us to Canada dur
| ing the Revolutionary war, but who were al
together bigber-toned race than the Scotch
and Irish who have since poured into Can ada
direct from the old country.