Riel, Louis (1844–1885)

French-Canadian rebel, born at St Boniface, Manitoba, a champion of the Métis (an Indian-French people). He established a provisional government in Winnipeg in an unsuccessful revolt 1869–70 and was hanged for treason after leading a second revolt in Saskatchewan in 1885.

The 1869 rebellion arose out of the hostility of the settlers at Red River to the transfer of the Northwest Territories from the Hudson's Bay Company to Canadian administration. The one group who had not been consulted were the settlers already in the north-west, they numbered about 10,000, of which the majority were Métis. The next year the dispute was compromised in the Manitoba Act, which granted a provincial government at Red River and recognized the right of the French-speaking settlers to their language and schools. Riel escaped, and in 1873 was elected to the Dominion Parliament, but was expelled and outlawed.