Riel: A Life Of Revolution

by Maggie Siggins

Highly acclaimed for its fresh, intimate portrait of one of Canada's most enduring -- and most misunderstood -- legends, Maggie Siggins' Riel: A Life of Revolution has become the reading choice of Canadians everywhere. Rich in texture and detail, illuminating in its revelations of the people and events who molded the charismatic rebel, Riel: A Life of Revolution is a truly remarkable picture of a man and his time.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Canada, Biography Memoir

508 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Leeanne G · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The highly politicized, partisan psychological attacks by establishment historians will diminish [Louis Riel] no more than similar attacks can wipe away the beauty of Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflowers and starry nights, or, embarrass every other soul who loved humanity too much for his/her own good.”
- Douglas Daniels

I don’t remember how my teachers painted Louis Riel. I remember learning that he was a Metis leader who fought against the government and was hung for his rebellious actions. I can’t quite remember whether we were taught he was the villain or the hero. I know most people have been taught that he was the villain. The belief that Louis Riel was an insane religious madman devoted to overthrowing the Canadian government at all costs has been perpetuated by that same government for over a century. We have made some progress towards dismantling this belief but there is still a long way to go. A play I saw at the Stratford Festival this past summer Women of the Fur Trade brought Louis Riel back to my attention. When I learned that the cast and crew read this book to learn about Louis Riel, I knew I had to get my hands on it.

Maggie Siggins does a thorough job of chronicling the life of Louis Riel. She uses a wide range of evidence, including Louis’ own beautiful writings, to piece together this complex man. She keeps every detail firmly rooted in the context of the time, never letting us forget the evidence against the government’s claims that Louis manipulated the Metis to gain power for himself, was insane, and was leading an unjustified rebellion, among others. It’s quite obvious that Maggie is on Louis’ side, but I think she still provides a complete picture of his life, ultimately allowing us to draw our own conclusions. I have firmly concluded that he was not the villain the Canadian public has been made to believe. He was not so simple as that.

My main takeaway from this read is that Louis Riel was an extremely complicated man and that my country's government has used him to discredit Indigenous people, their rights, and their activism. Louis' vision was simple but nothing else about him was. He was a man with intense emotions, big dreams, and unmovable loyalties. He was an all or nothing kind of person. Every moment of his life attests his statement that, “‘I have nothing but my heart and I have given it long ago to my country.’” He may not have made the best decisions every time, but they were always with the goal of improving life for his people and all of their neighbours. The rights of the white settlers and the local Indigenous people were always taken into consideration by Louis. He knew that communal cooperation was the key to the success of the Red River and North-West rebellions.

“‘I wish ardently to procure the glory of God as much as possible. And yet I am considered an eccentric. People scorn me, they laugh at me, they shrug their shoulders when they speak of me…I work without ceasing for the good of society. And the newspapers vilify me. I am put in prison…And for all my deeds I am treated as a public nuisance.’” - Louis Riel

Louis's writings and the writings of his friends, all shared by Maggie in this book, reveal he always did his very best to ensure the fight was fair. He remained a firmly anti-violent man his entire life. He abhorred the idea anyone people being killed, and even hesitated to dispose of his enemies in that manner. His religious upbringing greatly influenced his lifelong belief that he lived to serve his people on behalf of God, and murder did not align with that belief. The execution of Thomas Scott, one of the very few times Louis approved violence, would unfortunately become the main case the Canadian government would use to discredit Louis and his rebellions. The other would be the case of his sanity.

“Thomas Scott became an instant symbol–the up-standing, courageous young British loyalist toiling to civilize the West on behalf of the Canadian people, cut down in his youth by savages.”

So much of this book made me furious with my country. Not that I needed convincing that Sir John A. Macdonald was not a founder to be proud of, but his treatment of Louis Riel and the Western Indigenous people has cemented that belief. Of course, it was not just John A. who did everything in his power to destroy Louis and crush the rebellions. How dare this government grant an 'unconditional pardon' to every member of the Red River Rebellion except Louis! How dare they infringe on the democratic rights of the Manitoban people by forcing Louis Riel out of his fairly earned seat in the House of Commons! If he had tried to take his seat he would have been arrested and tried for treason. How dare they continue to ignore his contributions to modern Canada! He is the founder of the Metis nation, Manitoba, and a significant contributor to the founding of Saskatchewan. Those are the reasons for the backlash and outpouring of rage and grief after Louis' execution.

“There was no doubt in the minds of Francophone journalists that Riel was condemned to hang because he was French-speaking, Catholic, and a Half-breed.” This is one of the many reasons a thick tension between Quebec and the rest of Canada remains today.

He was a powerful advocate for many oppressed groups – the French, Metis, and First Nations. He deserves the same recognition as any of the other founding fathers.

“The little courtroom was, in effect, a national stage where many of the antipathies and hatreds which had bedeviled Canadian society since the British conquest were played out. As the historian George F.G. Stanley put it, it was a drama of ‘east vs. west, Ontario vs Quebec, Organism vs Catholicism, Anglo-Saxon vs French.’ And in the middle of it was one man fighting to save his life.”

[Skot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this biography on the "discard sale" table at our local library, and loved it so much I went back to the library to tell them they'd made a mistake and should keep it (they had another copy on the shelf). This is a deeply compelling and utterly heartbreaking story, like watching a terrible accident in slow motion and being unable to stop it and unable to look away. (O.K., some of the centre section about Riel's long and depressing exile is, well, depressing, and a bit too detailed, but knowing where it was headed kept me going. This is often the nature of biography). Siggins presents a nuanced portrait of Riel, and a detailed examination of a pivotal period in Canadian history, about which I was almost entirely ignorant and woefully misinformed! It was astonishing to see how close the Metis, led by Riel, came to actually realizing their dream of forming a government. It was depressing to see how a movement of Orangemen warped and influenced events so massively, with a virulent wave of imperialist, racist, hyper-Britishness.

To my surprise, I found this book had a strongly contemporary resonance. At the risk of sounding preachy, everyone in Canada with any interest in the future of First Nations people, or in our collective future, should read this important book. And then, they should go to John Ralston Saul's book, A Fair Country, as I have returned to it. He describes the suppression of the Metis and the execution of Riel as "the lowest point in our history", one that we are still recovering from. Until we understand and reach back to our unique history, he argues, our unique destiny has remained obscured and unreachable.

[Ezra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Chester Brown graphic novel is a favourite of mine and I take it that he based much of it on this book. I've always admired Riel for the way he stood against the Canadian state. I learned about him in school, of course, but I've forgotten most of it and it was probably heavily biased against his views anyway. It was surprising to learn that Riel wished for the native peoples to become "civilized" and Christianized through intermarriage with European settlers but I suppose this would have been like creating more Metis like himself. However, they would have still been far better treated than they were and a nation state with a large proportion of Indigenous people could have done a lot to protect those in North America and possibly even in Latin America. If he had allowed Gabriel Dumont to carry out full scale guerrilla warfare then perhaps the outcome would have been very different.

The question of Riel's insanity is discussed in an addendum. I agree with the opinion that Riel was going through an extremely stressful time and mystic visions - interpreted through one's cultural background- are one way of processing this turmoil. I appreciated the outline of this debate in the book.

As others have noted, Siggins has an odd way of describing people's appearance. All men are handsome and all women are strikingly beautiful but when you look at the included photos, they look perfectly normal.

Sir John A Macdonald comes off as an extremely duplicitous and venal person. It's hard to square Riel trying to appeal to him and the Conservative Party. I wonder what would have happened if Riel had been exposed to Marxist or anarchist writings.

I thought it was a good biography and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this part of Canadian history.

[Drillon Kincaid · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am rating this as I read, so rating might change, but...
Several things wrong here: first this is obviously a biased bio. Riel is practically sainted by page 67. While Siggins admits or permits input from those who might disagree, she does that only so she might immediately discredit them. There is always a reason their impression of Riel is wrong. Too, she makes the mistake of biographers who might make better novelists. She speculates, guesses: He must have thought, she must have felt, etc. Siggins, how do you know? You don't. Stop guessing.

In places this reads more like a romance novel than biography: her heroes are handsome, muscular with 'rugged chests.' Her heroines are all 'beautiful' or even 'gorgeous.' Her landscapes are idyllic 'azure' skies and florid fields. Her prose is again overblown, (badly) novelistic. Her research might be thorough (Lord knows she smothers us with peripheral biographies of everyone who passes through), but when it yields information contrary to her sanctification of Riel, she dismisses it offhand. Thus far, not impressed.

That impression was confirmed not altered by further reading...

[George Kettler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about this book. It reads like an old timey collections of fables rather than an academic history book. Siggins freely inputs her own thoughts, opinions and conjectures, also peppering in long winded descriptions of the physical appearance of people. At times it feels more like a who's who of the Red River Colony and other parts of 19th century Canada than a biography of Riel. Siggins seems to be unable to go more than a page or two into the narrative without jumping down a tangent of the backstory of some minor side character. This however, does lend a level of detail to the story and if you sit back and enjoy the ride it can be pretty entertaining. Overall, if you want to get acquainted with 19th century Western Canadian history this is a good place to start, even if the various tangents and anecdotes make it several hundred pages too long.

[Mikey B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louis Riel (1844 -1885) has been a divisive figure in Canadian history. He was hung for treason in Regina, Saskatchewan. He twice led rebellions in Manitoba (1869-70) and Saskatchewan (1885) to fight and protect the rights of the Métis people for the land they had settled on. It was being invaded and taken from them by settlers from Ontario.

The Métis were the offspring of the marriages (or common-law relationships) of French-Canadian men and Indigenous women in what was then called Canada’s Northwest (now the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta). Beginning in the 1700s, these French-Canadian men went West to get beaver belts (that were then a very popular fashion in Europe) and formed marriages and alliances with Indigenous people. Eventually the fur trade in the 1800s was no longer profitable as trends had changed in Europe, so the Métis became buffalo hunters. The buffalo became an endangered species by the 1870s, so once more the Métis had to change their way of life. Many became farmers in Manitoba and settled on the fertile plains of the prairies.

After the 1870s, more and more settlers from Ontario started arriving in the prairies and took land away from the Métis. This caused the first rebellion in 1869 led by Louis Riel. As a result, the province of Manitoba was formed and joined Canada in 1870. Louis Riel was the first provisional leader of Manitoba. Due to the influx of Ontario settlers and the inability of the Canadian government to settle the land disputes between the Métis and the Ontario settlers, many moved to Saskatchewan.

This struggle, exemplified for the era, the contentious issues in Canadian politics – language - French (many Métis were French speaking) and English, the language of the newly arrived settlers from Ontario, religion – Protestant Ontario versus Catholic Métis. The province of Quebec, predominantly French Catholic, sided with the Métis.

The presence of fanatical Orangemen (English Protestants) was very strong in the province of Ontario, and they perceived the Métis as subhuman (and felt the same way towards Indigenous peoples). They felt threatened by the Catholicism of Quebec as well. They saw Louis Riel as an upstart who had no business challenging the Ontario settlers moving to Manitoba.

The author outlines well the parameters of this long struggle and the turbulent life of Louis Riel, who was always on the move with his life under threat in both Manitoba and Ontario. He spent several years in Montana and then in New York state.

I felt the author overlooked or minimized how much Louis Riel was “possessed” by fanatical Catholicism. He saw himself as a prophet with visions of forming a new Métis Empire. This was delusional.

I do agree that the Canadian government was racist and imperialistic in refusing to acknowledge the rights of the Métis to keep their homeland. But John A. Macdonald had many other issues to deal with, such as the ever-expanding Americans who were constantly making land-grabs, they purchased Alaska in 1867. They already had their sights on British Columbia. The U.S. had a population several times larger than Canada – and after the U.S. Civil War, their army could easily have overtaken Canada. The author glosses over the fact that Louis Riel was seeking aid from the U.S. government to support the Métis rebellion.

She tries to discount the growing mental instability of Louis Riel. He was institutionalized occasionally in Quebec because he was incapable of living civilly in the homes of those trying to shelter and protect him.

In general, I found this biography hagiographic, overlooking the faults of Louis Riel. It became tiring to read over and over again of his Catholic aspirations and his dedication to religious life. He wanted the Métis to live in a Catholic theocracy, much like Quebec.

[Bigmac McCarthy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plenty of information to be taken from this book, but it ended up being largely a personal rather than political history. Plenty about Riel's character and thoughts on politics and religion, but so many pages given up to tidbits and introductions that mattered so little and failed to establish any sort of narrative (my man was not even born until 30 pages into his own biography).

I will credit this book with giving me a new perspective on a period of history i knew not much about, but good lord was it a slog to get through.

[Kim Shay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very accessible bio of Riel. It also includes a lot of the background to the political situation in Canada at the time of Confederation and when Manitoba became a province.

Over the years there has been a lot of discussion about Riel’s “insanity.” One has to wonder, given his exile from the home he loved, if the man wasn’t simply a victim of anxiety and PTSD. He was most certainly eccentric, but he was not the demon that the British-influenced government of Canada purported him to be.

[Julian Haigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Riel had an incredibly interesting and pained life which is mirrored in my appreciation for this book. The first chapters up to about 1870 are the most important for Canadian history, after which Riel had a pretty rough time of it as he chose to represent and work with the more down-and-out from Montana to Saskatchewan.

He was part French, part Native, and born on the edge of what was 'civilization' at the time. This was both his strength and weakness as he could never develop broad enough coalition to have any hope. That he developed hope from such despair required a religious road that may appear incomprehensible to the modern reader but he dealt with many religious arguments from hundreds of years previous.

The book gets really boring when the author starts quoting Riel's poetry. To be clear: Riel was not a poet. Siggins is such an irrational apologist for Riel that at one point she suggests he merely acted insane when he went to an asylum, but later says he would never just act insane in explaining why he didn't go along with his defense in his traitor trial.

There is no question that Riel was treated poorly by a nation that could not stop to even consider the validity of his arguments. He rarely had a chance, but through his action in the Red River rebellion he did secure some space and recognition of the Metis heritage that may otherwise have been lost to history. He is a man to look up to for the sacrifice of his own good for what he considered the common, and the measurable good he did for those he represented.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start by saying I was really excited to read this. My previous knowledge of Riel was pretty limited. It essentially consisted of elementary school social studies class and John Coulter's "The Trial of Louis Riel" play. So I was basically starting out under the assumption that the guy was a (probably) mentally unstable rebellion leader.
I love the depth that Siggins' gave both Riel and the political & social landscape. This was a fascinating read and might have even gotten 5 stars. What I didn't love though, and what I felt detracted from her otherwise very authoritative work, was the way she dismissed people who made disparaging remarks about Riel's mental state. True that such remarks written 20 years after his hanging might have been marred by memory, the trial & public opinion, but she presented positive remarks written long after the fact as unquestionably legitimate. It also bothered me that she made such a blatant mistake as referring to the Mormons as protestants. These inconsistencies seemed out of step with the painstaking research that obviously went into other aspects of the story.
That being said, I really enjoyed the book, and agree with other reviewers that it is well worth the read. I'd recommend it to any & all Canadians.

[Tim Weakley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall this was a fairly balanced telling of the facts of his life and the two conflicts that define it. The period of exile in the US was interesting to me as it was the least known aspect of the story. I thought that the trial was glossed over but I wasn't especially worried as the next book I have to read covers the trial itself.

A decent read. Glad I picked it up.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a saga. A bit too long for me, but still I marvel at the research in, and writing of, this remarkable story.