Riel was well-equipped to lead the 1870 provisional government that ultimately resulted in the creation of the province of Manitoba. His mother, Julie LagimodiÅre, was a daughter of the first white woman in the West, and his father was MÄtis. Active in the public life of the Red River colony, his family arranged for Louis to be educated in MontrÄal. This favourable background was enhanced by Riel's personal charisma; his penetrating eyes were remembered by all who met him.
By the time the MÄtis of the Saskatchewan River Valley invited him to lead their protest against the Canadian government's indifference to their grievances, Riel had spent almost two years in insane asylums in QuÄbec and was living as a fugitive in Montana. His profound religious faith and messianic vision affected his actions in ways that are now difficult to comprehend.
On 16 November 1885, at the age of forty-one, Louis Riel was hanged in Regina for treason.
