Because the Northwest Rebellion fascinated Canadians in 1885, much was written and published by participants in and contemporaries of the event. Many of these accounts are still available in public libraries; even in newer works the thrust of old arguments often reappears.
The reports of General Middleton and other commanders were published in Sessional Papers, 1886, No. 6a. Extra copies were also released as Report upon the Suppression of the Rebellion in the North-West Territories and Matters in Connection Therewith in 1885. Despite the formidable title, the reports are readable, full of information, and carry the excitement of authentic historical documents. Middleton's reflections eight years later were published with an introduction by George H. Needler, another participant, as Suppression of the Rebellion in the North West Territories of Canada, 1885 (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1948).
Among the contemporary accounts, the best is Major C.A. Boulton, Reminiscences of the NorthWest Rebellions (Toronto: Grip, 1886). Almost shot by Riel in 1870, he led Middleton's scouts in 1885. In Gunner Jingo's Jubilee (London: J. Macqueen, 1896), General T.B. Strange portrays himself as a larger than life character with his prejudices utterly unconcealed. Gabriel Dumont's explanation was recorded by B.A.T. de Montigny, and was later translated by G.F.G. Stanley in Gabriel Dumont's Account of the North-West Rebellion, 1885, Canadian Historical Review 30, No. 3 (September, 1949).
The most interesting recent book is Thomas Flanagan, Riel and the Rebellion: 1885 Reconsidered (Saskatoon: Western Producer, 1983). It is a controversial puncturing of many myths about Riel. The book appeared not long after Flanagan's biography Louis "David" Riel, Prophet of the New World (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1979), a brilliantly informed attempt to make sense of Riel's thoughts and actions.
Having more appreciation for the Indians and MÄtis, G.F.G. Stanley viewed the events in the Northwest rather differently when he published The Birth of Western Canada: A History of the Riel Rebellions (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1960). His biography Louis Riel (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1963) has many competitors but few rivals as a sympathetic, sober treatment of the MÄtis leader and his people.
Desmond Morton has written, in The Last War Drum (Toronto: Hakkert, 1972), a detailed account of the campaign in the Northwest, and he has introduced a transcript of Riel's trial, The Queen vs. Louis Riel (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1974). The trial is discussed by Thomas Flanagan and Neil Watson in "Riel Trial Revisited: Criminal Procedure and the Law in 1885," Saskatchewan History 34 (Spring, 1981).
George Woodcock empathized with his subject in a literary biography, Gabriel Dumont: The MÄtis Chief and His Lost World (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1975), and Alberta author, Rudy Wiebe, has written romantic but persuasive interpretations of the defeated in The Temptations of Big Bear (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973) and The Scorched Wood People (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977).
Books, articles and theses on Riel and the Red River and Northwest Rebellions are listed in A.S. Lussier, ed., Riel and the MÄtis: Riel Mini-Conference Papers (Winnipeg: Manitoba MÄtis Federation, 1979). This bibliography is to be updated in a five-volume publication, G.F.G. Stanley, ed., The Collected Writings of Louis Riel (Edmonton: University of Alberta, 1985). Also scheduled for release on the centennial of the Northwest Rebellion is Marcel Giraud, The Canadian MÄtis, translated by George Woodcock (Edmonton: University of Alberta, 1985), an influential work that was first published in French in 1945. Marcel Giraud has written the foreword to a collection of articles edited by Jacqueline Peterson and Jennifer Brown entitled The New Peoples: Being and Becoming MÄtis in North America (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1984). R.S. Allen's article, "Big Bear," Saskatchewan History 25, No. 1 (Winter, 1972); Donald C. Barnett, Poundmaker (Don Mills: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1976); and Hugh A. Dempsey, Crowfoot: Chief of the Blackfeet (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1972) all offer insights into the various roles of these Indian leaders. Howard Adams, Prison of Grass: Canada from a Native Point of View (Toronto: General Publishing, 1975) interprets the struggle in the Northwest in a manner that challenges more conventional explanations of the events of 1885.
Younger readers may find Jan Truss, A Very Small Rebellion (Edmonton: J.M. Lebel, 1977) an entertaining introduction to 1885, and there are chapters on both the Red River and Northwest Rebellions in Desmond Morton, Rebellions in Canada (Toronto: Grolier, 1979), a book intended for grades 7 and 8. Suitable for grades 9 and up is The Riel Rebellion, 1885 (Surrey, B.C.: Heritage House Publishing, 1984).
1993 UPDATE
THE NORTHWEST CAMPAIGN, 1885
Desmond Morton
In 1985, the events of a century earlier were described and portrayed in contemporary illustrations. Since then, the status of the protagonists in the northwest campaign has changed almost beyond recognition. The failure of the Meech Lake Accord in 1990 led to the increasing recognition of Canada's aboriginal peoples and Metis in the drafting of a new Canadian constitution. Ottawa and several provincial governments have promised to promote Native self-government and the active resolution of land claims that currently cover much of Canada's territory. To a remarkable degree, the outcome of 1885 is in the process of being reversed.
However, after a flood of reinterpretations in the 1970s, surprisingly little has been published that revises the description of the events of 1885. The most important single publication on Louis Riel, Hathorn and Holland's Images of Louis Riel in Canadian Culture, included literary arguments by Rudy Wiebe and Aritha van Herk that Riel had to be treated as a mythic figure, not as a fallible human being. Others, including the author, insisted that this was self-deception. The most important new work on the 1885 campaign itself emerged from the intense research sponsored by Parks Canada to provide background information supporting Batoche as a national historic site. Hildebrandt's book views General Fred Middleton's actions in May 1885 in the context of other small British campaigns described by one of his younger contemporaries, Major General C.E. Callwell.
Bibliography
Bowsfield, Hartwell. Louis Riel: Selected Readings. Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1988.
Hathorn, Ramon and Patrick Holland, eds. Images of Louis Riel in Canadian Culture. Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992. Especially the articles by Rudy Wiebe and Aritha van Herk.
Hildebrandt, Walter. The Battle of Batoche: British Small Warfare and the Entrenched Metis. Ottawa: Environment Canada, 1989.
