The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1926-10-15

v e their virgin
fields, these curious people gathered,
creating their own special mode of
life and battle for existence. They
have been called the ''free people, of
Canada-"the gypsies of the north"
"a race that was born of the fur
trade and in whose veins the blood
of French, Orkney Islanders and Eng
lish mingled with that of the native
North American Indian.
White men-Officials of the fur
companies, who were no longer in the
active service, often married to In
dian or half-breed women, and these,
too, had settled in the Red River val
ley. AS a result there arose this pc
culiar race. And, there has been, per-
haps, no other section of the CONT
nent, outside of Spanish America,
where a people Of mixed white and
Indian blood grew great enough in
proportion to establish themselves as
a distinct race of people in ann
and character.
An ignorant, superstitious, pleas
ure loving, and for the most part in
dOlent people, they pass before US, a
race whose consciousness of race
AA6ASb aAu al AA0A6CAOu0 pAdCOg ILL.,
ed them to a futile, yet tragic effort
to become a nation.
The ''JOhn Brown of the Metis''
1t was out of this aggressive move
ment that emerged a man whose life
was a drama unsurpassed in romance.
Louis Riel, himself one of the Metis,
and in whose mind had been conceiv-
ed a plan for a "half-breed republic, .
became the John Brown of the Me-
It's" And, when, in the eighties, his
mind crowded with religious phan-
tasms, he established himself al
Batouch as 1.-THE L~iberator," the In
evitable end of the tragic effort
brought to him the same fate that
befell the man Of Harper's Ferry.
Louis Riel
Louis Riel was a singular compos
tie in his ancestry. His father was
a full-blOOded Scandinavian, and hi
mother was partly Irish and partly
Indian, while remote ~progenitors con
tributed strains of Scotch and French
blood. He was born at St. Boniface
a small village near Winnipeg.
Destined for the priesthood from
his earliest childhood, after attend
ing school at his native town, he wa
SEM to the Jesuit college at Mon
treal. At this institution he becamt
noted for his diligence and his ex
ceptiOnal proficiency in his studies
He was master of Latin, French an
English, and later learned to speal
four Indian languages.
Riel was returned to the Red Riv
or country without taking orders an
took up the life of a farmer at 81
Vidal. A natural talent for lead
ership, which is said to have bee
manifested even in his schoolbo
days, speedily asserted itself and b
promptly gained a great influenC
with the Metis of the Red River va,
ley.
Source of the Trouble
In 1869, at the time the Hudson
Bay company surrendered Manitot
and the Northwest territory to ii
Dominion of Canada, this a C {
h~alf-breeds tor Metis) were loud an
aggressive in their disapproval
such action. Roberts says in his a.
mirable work, History Of Canada
they objected that they were beiI
thrust into the ignoble position of
a colony of a colony. The mo-
practical objection that they voice
was that they had no assurance tn
they would be protected in the 20
session of the farms which they hs
redeemed from the wilderness an
according to historians, therein,
least, their aus was unquestionab
founded in justice.
Riel Provisional President
It was not long following the edi
of the government, that these Me