"This book tells us about the Métis, who simply wanted the long-standing boundaries of their river-lot farms respected by the government as Ottawa divided up the land to sell it to homesteaders. It tells about the Indians, whose land had been sold by the government and tradition of self-support destroyed, and who were now literally starving while the government broke its promises or tried to tie them to concessions. It tells us about local government officials, who could not agree among themselves whether the Indians should be treated with discipline or with food. It tells us about the frightened settlers and townspeople, caught between the Indians and the Métis they often sympathized with and the government they looked to for support. And it tells about the soldiers, who heroically set out to quell a rebellion, but whose greatest ordeal was the long train journey, on which they were beset by freezing cold and extreme shortages of food."--Book jacket.
Record details
ISBN:9780888302625 :
ISBN:0888302622 :
Physical Description:384 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.
Publisher:Edmonton : Hurtig, c1984.
Content descriptions
General Note:
Includes index.
Bibliography, etc. Note:
Bibliography: p. 367-372.
Formatted Contents Note:
Pt. 1. Waiting for the spark. The Métis and Red River -- Settlers and government -- Agitation: the Métis at the South Branch -- Indians and treaties -- Confrontation 1884 -- The return of Riel -- The eleventh hour -- pt. 2. Conflagration -- The fighting begins: Duck Lake -- Mobilization -- Battleford and Frog Lake: a spring of blood -- The fall of Fort Pitt -- Standoff at Fish Creek -- Cutknife: Otter's reprieve -- Decision at Batoche - Frenchman Butte: the odyssey of General Strange -- pt. 3. Stamping out the embers. The trial of Louis Riel -- The other trials: justice unbalanced -- Dénouement.
