Red River Rebellion facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Red River Rebellion Résistance de la rivière Rouge (French)
The Métis provisional government
Date 1869–1870 Location Red River Colony, Rupert's Land, Canada Result Métis political victory Red River Colony enters Canadian Confederation as the Province of Manitoba Canadian military victory The Wolseley Expedition takes control of Fort Garry Louis Riel flees to the United States
Belligerents
Métis Provisional Government	Canada Canadian Party
Commanders and leaders
Louis Riel John Bruce Ambroise-Dydime Lépine	John A. Macdonald William McDougall John Christian Schultz Garnet Wolseley
Casualties and losses
None	1 (Thomas Scott)

The Red River Rebellion was an uprising by the Métis people in modern Manitoba. The national government of Canada bought the area, then known as "Rupert's Land", from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869. The government then ordered surveys to be started of the new territory. The Metis were afraid that they would then lose their lands, since many did not have clear titles. They were also afraid that the Canadian government officials, many of which were Protestants, would not allow the Metis to continue being Catholics.

The Metis then orgainized their own provisional government, with Louis Riel as their leader, in the summer of 1869. They sent a list of demands to the Canadian government, including protection of the French language. After several months of negotiations, the Parliament of Canada passed the Manitoba Act of May 1870. The act admitted Manitoba into the Canadian Confederation and included many of the Metis' demands.

Images for kids

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  Fort Garry c. 1872

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  Louis Riel in 1884

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  Canada after the creation of Manitoba by the Manitoba Act of 1870

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  The Red River Expedition at Kakabeka Falls, by Frances Anne Hopkins, 1877.