The Red River Rebellion, also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by Métis leader Louis Riel and his followers at the Red River Colony, in the early stages of establishing today's Canadian province of Manitoba. It had earlier been a territory called Rupert's Land and been under control of the Hudson's Bay Company before it was sold.
The Métis provisional government
Fort Garry c. 1872
Louis Riel in 1884
Métis provisional government
Louis Riel was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first prime minister John A. Macdonald. Riel sought to defend Métis rights and identity as the Northwest Territories came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence.
Louis Riel
The Métis provisional government
This fictionalized depiction of Scott's execution in the Canadian Illustrated News was "conceived in the context of heightened partisanship" and "helped inflame anti-Métis sentiment".
Louis Riel circa 1875