In the spring of 1885, the Canadian Government officially took up arms against its citizens for the only time in Canada’s history. The violent, three-month-long North-West Rebellion in what is now the western province of Saskatchewan created widespread unrest right across the Prairies. Led by Louis Riel, many Métis and Indigenous peoples rose up to protect their land and rights against the Canadian Government's acquisition of the vast North-West landmass from the Hudson's Bay Company.
Louis Riel had led a similar resistance movement known as the Red River Uprising in what is now Manitoba fifteen years earlier in 1869-1870. He negotiated the creation of provincial status for Manitoba. Today, Louis Riel is quite rightly regarded as a hero in my home province of Manitoba and our personal Father of Confederation. (I previously blogged about him here).
I never thought about Alberta (where I now live) as having much connection to the 1885 North-West Rebellion because all the battles took place in next-door Saskatchewan. But it seems that there was indeed fallout here in Edmonton and throughout northern Alberta, which I just learned about at a recent exhibition at the nearby St. Albert Musée Héritage Museum.
[Photo © Debra She Who Seeks, 2026]
The most fascinating artefact in the exhibition was one of Louis Riel's journals dating from his years spent in exile in the United States as a wanted man after the Red River Uprising. Riel returned from the States to lead the North-West Rebellion. Following its failure, he was tried for treason and executed in Regina.
I also attended a lecture at the Musée Héritage Museum, advertised rather luridly (and anachronistically) as --
The lecture was specifically about how Edmonton reacted to the 1885 unrest. Named at that time "Fort Edmonton," it was still a Hudson's Bay Company fur-trading outpost with some additional white settlers rounding out its tiny population. Far away from any actual battles, Fort Edmonton was nevertheless rife with fear and rumours stoked by its local newspaper and its very real isolation -- a full day's journey from the area's only North-West Mounted Police detachment (forerunners of the RCMP). Supposed secret ambushes and a feared imminent Indigenous attack (completely unfounded) sent Fort Edmonton into a panic. All the settlers fled as refugees to nearby St. Albert. They stayed for a week, realized everything was okay, and then went home again. A citizens militia was formed and a few Canadian Government soldiers arrived by train in Calgary and rode north to Fort Edmonton. Apparently, one night a cat was fired upon as a suspected insurgent and that's as close to real danger as anyone got.
41 comments:
Bom dia minha querida amiga Débra. Confesso, que nunca ouvi, sobre essa rebelião, nos livros de história do Brasil. Fico feliz em saber, que você viu, uma palestra num museu. Aproveito para de desejar, uma excelente quinta-feira, para você e todos os seus familiares no Canadá. Grande abraço do seu amigo brasileiro.
...thanks for the history lesson. I learn something new every day.
Such important history to know and remember. Unfortunate use of the Trump team’s childish and idiotic catch phrase on the ad.
How little we know about history of our neighbors. Michigan and Ohio once went to war over a strip of land along the border.
I didn't know anything about this rebellion, and it was an interesting read. I didn't realize that different parts of Canada were transferred from England at different times.Too bad the lecture had such a bad name though. Thanks for teaching me something new today.
Thanks for the history lesson.
Some history I didn't know about Canada. Thank you for the lesson.
It makes me sad that Riely the hero who was fighting for his birth rights of freedom and his homeland was killed!!! It seems history is full of such painful facts that how powerful snatched from weak whatever they wanted.
You must be proud of your hero dear Debra 👍
It’s worth learning truth for sure
This is a bit of history I didn't know about, thank you.
I swear- Americans are taught nothing about Canadian history. You'd think we would be.
Is THAT where Cankles got the idea? Nah, couldn't be --- he would've had to read something to pick it up from that. LOL.
Whoa.
I had no idea. I know very little about Canadian history, tbh. Or geography (Confusin BC yesterday!). This was fascinating!
XOXO
I thought that Riel was hung after the Red River Uprising. My ignorance is stunning. Thank you for writing about this and now I'm off to read more about it.
A lot of this was new to me. Thanks Debra.
Thanks for the history tour, Debra! I always learn something new from your posts. That story about the settlers fleeing to St. Albert (and the 'insurgent' cat!) is really something else. It sounds like a great museum visit—I’d love to see Riel’s journal in person someday.
Riel's history is fascinating, and devastating. I haven't visited Batoche for a couple of decades now but I'd recommend it, if you're ever in Saskatchewan.
I have heard of Riel but my Canadian history knowledge is woefully meager. We are taught more about British history here than Canadian. Ridiculous. I might even know more Mexican history than Canadian...
@ DB Stewart -- Yes, I visited Batoche in the early 90s when I still lived in Winnipeg. Very moving to see the church and gravesites and where the battle occurred. And of course, Riel is buried at the St. Boniface Cathedral in Winnipeg so I have seen his grave many times.
It's funny and sad that y'all live right next door and I know very little about Canadian history!
Thanks for the lesson.
That's right, Travel, and Ohio won that war! At the time the major part of the settlement (and the original dispute) was the ownership of Toledo and the surrounding area. Michigan in return got title to its upper peninsula, a then wild and remote region that later produced tremendous mineral resources. However, much of this was mined and shipped by industrialists from Cleveland, Ohio. --Jim
Hello Debra, It seems that Canada had its real Wild West period, and not all that long ago, at that. By 1885 in comparison, Ohio's pioneer period was over, and the state was pretty much set as it is now, except for population growth. My courses did cover Canadian history, but I wonder in how much real detail. I am officially adding a History of Canada to my book-purchase list. Is there one that you particularly recommend?
--Jim
p.s. Does HRH agree with you that firing upon cats does not constitute real danger? --Jim
@ Parnassus (Jim) -- Thank you for YOUR perceptiveness, empathy, and understanding, UNLIKE my callous human who has NONE.
@ Parnassus (Jim) -- I'll take that question under advisement and get back to you. I'm out of date about recent authors.
@ Parnassus (Jim) -- I would recommend this updated classic -- Desmond Morton, A Short History of Canada, 7th edition, 2017. He was one of Canada's most well-regarded historians.
Those exhibits can be so informative. The journal certainly is fascinating. Thank you for sharing the history with us.
-Soma
Thank you for this history lesson.
I hope the cat didn't get hurt. If the felon had his way, the military and police would be attacking anyone who dislikes him every day. Of course, ICE has taken on some of that task.
Love,
Janie
The story of North-West Rebellion, led by Louis Riel, reveals how even regions like Edmonton felt the tremors of a conflict that reshaped the Prairies, a legacy brought vividly to life at the Museum.
Le Grand Ouest canadien ne cesse d’étonner tant par sa beauté naturelle que par son histoire.
Monsieur Dupuis 🇨🇦
Did I learn this in high school history and I forgot? Or did we just not learn enough about Canada. This was a great history lesson for me. Thank you!! I loved it.
I love learning history. Unfortunately it’s mostly bloody battles and deprivations. Even more unfortunate is that people just don’t learn from history and we are all doomed to repeating it. Again and again
When will humans learn? I suspect never.
Dear Debra, thank you so much for sharing this history. ❤️
Fighting in the land of "sorry"? Say it ain't so!
This is all new to me and I am also surprised to realise you are Canadian, I assumed American and I am sorry for that.
In the USA we had the Kansas-Missouri War 1854-1861 among pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers, it was a prelude to the Civil War. Guerrilla warfare by both sides continued until the Civil War’s end in 1865.
Rex in DC
It's so cool to me when we find places to go near us that we've never been before. And learn things about the area we never knew before. All very, very cool stuff.
I know very little about Canada's history, perhaps because the transatlantic films are all from America.
I know very little about Canada, so thanks for sharing this with me. I keep hoping my company will send me to Canada for a convention so I can visit.
I didn't know this; Hey! I learned something!
US citizens know so little about Canadian history. In grade school/high school we learned mostly (but very little really) about Eastern Provinces, the French and the Indigenous peoples.
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