The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-07
REL AND HIS REBELLION.
The Causes for the Half Breeds Revolt
Against the Canadian Government.
A Personal Acquaintance of Louis Riel Gives
an Outline Of the Character of the Leader
of the Manitoba Rebellion.

Rev Myron ". Reed, in his appeal to Caesar"
spoke of Louis Riel, the half breed, as a glori-
GUS martyr, one who could be compared in his
resistance to tyranny, to 'the embattled farm
ers," etc.
The reporter, in conversation with ]. Book
walter. of st. Vicent, Kittson county, Mimi,
recently collector of customs at that point, a
gentleman who has travelled over the Northwest
Territory, the scene eff Riels rebellion, and
knew Riel personally, encountered a different
opinion.
$50 far as Riel himself is concerned" said
Mr.. ~Bookwalter, she had little merit, and was.
certainly not of the stuff of which heroes are
made. He was q bigot, a boaster and a coward.
circumstances made him appear a much greater
man-at a distance-than he really was. He led
among the French half breeds, not because of
his superior intelligence but rather on account
OF their supreme ignorance. His prestige came
through his having been reared by Bishop
Tache, the Catholic Bishop of the Northwest
country, who lives at Winnipeg. The half-breeds
have great respect for the Bishop, and he is a
power among them. 1t was the Bishop who ne
gotiated the terms of peace between the half
breeds and the Canadian government, in the
half-breed rebellion in which Riel figured fifteen
years ago. Bishop Tache was the religious leader
and Hiel the political leader. Bishop Tache, at
at the outbreak of that rebellion, was in Rome
attending the ecumenical council, and, at the
request of the government, came back, and in
duced the half-breeds to lay down their arms.
"The recent rebellion, as you know, grew out
of the unadjusted differences of that rebellion.
The French half-breeds of Manitoba always
want to settle along streams-forty rods wide
on a river and two miles back. Their object is
to get the benefit of fish, fur and timber and
also to live close together. They so settled
along the Red river from the boundary to
Lake Winnipeg and along the Assiniboine
where it empties into the Red river. When the
merits of that country as a wheat-producing re-
gion brought in white settlers, the government
made its regular survey and proposed to ignore
the lines used by the half breeds and to open up
the lands to settlement as surveyed"
And this made troubles"
O course; the survey lines did not agree
with the lines used by the half-breeds, and the
lands along the rivers being best were naturally
taken by the whites. This caused a conflict,
and the first rebellion was for the purpose of
ejecting the whites from these lands. In the
treaty in settlement of the differences it was
agreed that these old half breed lines should be
observed, and that scrip should be issued to the
half breeds to the amount of 240 acres for each
person born in the province previous to the
tNAAA W SAts DSAAAS 1hAo Wal wac " "
laid upon these lands in the form the half breeds
had marked out.
"The government issued scrip to perhaps one
fourth Of the half-breeds and then stopped. The
half breeds asked time and again to have the
scrip that was due them. No attention was
paid to their request. Many of them emigrated
to the Saskatchewan river, and there squatted
upon lands in the same manner as they had
upon the Red river, and remained there until
the Canadian Pacific railroad was completed to
the Rocky mountains, and that land also became
valuable, and the government surveyed it and
white settlers went upon the land, as had been
done before on the Red river. That was about
two years ago. Appeal after appeal was made
to the local officers of the government. They
paid no attention, and then delegation after del
egation was sent to the general government at
Ottawa. Every time the half breeds failed to
get a hearing.
"At this time Riel was in charge of a Catholic
school in Montana, teaching half-breed Indians
there. Messengers were sent to him from the
half-breeds on the Saskatchewan, to come and
be their leader in an effort to secure their rights.
He refused time and again. saying that
he had once led them and they had
failed, and that the government would again
fail to carry out its contract with them. But
they persisted, and at last he went to be their
leader. After they were all in arms, the gov
eminent was fully advised Of the intention of the
half breeds. After the Frog lake massacre
General Middleton was sent to the front. Be-
fore he had yet reached the scene of action. a
VA AhA ~ OOaN ~ WIN wv ~ ~
issue the scrip that had been promised the half
breeds fifteen years before. and failure to do
which had brought about this second rebellion"
"The Canadian government" interposed a by
Stander, treats its Indians on the same plan we
do ours, only the fighting Indians get decent
consideration"
Mr.. Bookwalter continued: "From that time
until now that commission has been issuing
scrip. in accordance with the treaty or 1870, to
such persons as were born in
the province previous to that time.
Not less than a thousand persons, with a greater
or less amount of Indian blood in their veins,
born in Manitoba, but now residingin Minnesota
and d. kota, have gone to Winnipeg and re-
ceived their 240 acres on scrip.
A the bloodshed occasioned by this rebellion
was brought about by the negligence of the gov
eminent and the knavery of its agents, who
failed to carry out the treaty of 1870 in its letter
and spirit. There is no denying the justice of
the cause of the half-breeds and of Riel thus far.
After the rebellion began Riel proposed terms of
settlement to the government. He asked that
it should issue the scrip it is now issuing. He
also asked the government to found and endow
Catholic schools for the education of the half
breed children. There were some things asked
by Riel that were not only unreasonable, but
absurd.
'Riel was not a hero, but he felt that the half
breeds had been wronged, and that he could be
their leader. He was more than an ordinary
half-breed, for an ordinary half breed stands
rather low in the scale of intelligence. He was
d craven CoWaru-dlraIu 10 meeG an enemy,
afraid to die. lie lacked the integrity that Char
acterizes the average white man. In the first
rebellion he murdered in cold blood a young
Scotchman who he feared might share a little
glory with him. The people of the Northwest
Territory, who are familiar with these circum-
stances, ~construe the fact that the government
is now granting what was claimed by the half
breeds before the rebellion as an acknowledg
ment that the half breed cause was just, and
that they were justified in resorting to the ex-
traordinary measures they did to secure their
rights"
Sheriff Carriers Position.
There is a possibility of the differences between
the County Commissioners and Sheriff Carter,
regarding prisoners whom the former want at