From Riel to the Métis

From Riel to the M6tis' J.R. MILLER ALTHOUGH MISCEGENATION must have been one of the earliest and most commoneffectsof the expansionof Europe, its consequences have beenrelativelylittlestudiedbyhistorians of Canada.Indeed,oneof the fewgeneralhistories of thewesternmixed-bloodpopulationsuggests - onlyhalf-jokingly,onesuspects - that the Mdtispeopleof Canada werefoundednine monthsafter the landingof the first European.' Perhaps because of traditionalhistoriographical emphases, a limited methodological sophistication, or simplyasa consequence of racist inhibitions on the part of Euro-Canadianhistorians whodominated thefielduntilrecently,thehistoryof the Mdtishasnotreceivedmuch concerted and systematic attentionfrom academic historians. How have the limitationsof our historiography,methodological backwardness, andprejudice accounted forthisscanty treatment? The emphases of the first generations of Canadianhistorians on political themes, such as national consolidation and the achievdment of autonomous status, oroneconomic development drewthose investigatorsto documentsthat were confined to the elitesof early Canadian society. The questions that Canadianhistoriansfirst askedand the materials to whichtheyput thoseinterrogatories werenot suchasto lead investigators to an examinationof the lives of mixed-blood peoples.So long as Canadian historicalmethodologywas of the from-the-top-down variety,the Mdtisremainedinvisibleunlessthey impinged on a GreatMan, suchasSir GeorgeSimpson or SirJohn Macdonald, or unlessone of them was,like Louis Riel, a Great Man in I shouldlike to thank my colleague W.A. Waiserfor numeroushelpful suggestions concerning thispaper. • D.B.Sealey andA.S.Lussier, The Mdtis: Canada's Forgotten People (Winnipeg•975), • Canadian Historical Review,LXIX, 1, 1988 OOO8--3755/88/O3 øo--ooo • $O•.s'5/O¸ University of TorontoPress 2 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW his own right. Finally,the ethnocentric and racistprejudiceand preferences of manyhistorians madethemreluctant, however unconsciously , to acknowledge thepresence, muchlesstheimportance, of Canadians of mixedracialbackground. The Abb6LionelGroulx,with hisstrenuous denialsof miscegenation in New France,wasonlyone example of thiswidespread, raciallyinspiredblindness. 2 Soit wasthat earlystudies of the M•tis treatedthat community within a Eurocentricand historiographically elitist framework.In general, the mixed-blood population onlyreceived serious attention whenitsactivities intersected withEuropeancommercial companies or Canadian politicians. Perhaps owing tothelegacy ofGroulx,therewas littleattentionto the M6tisin the historyof New Franceandtheearly colonial periodof FrenchCanada. Amongeconomic historians, there wassomenoticeof the role that the offspring of unionsbetween Hudson'sBay or North West Companymen and Indian women played, especially in thenineteenth century.Buteventhisperspective, as the later researchof socialhistorianswould point out, wasan extremely limitedone.Onewouldalmost havethought,fromreading Canadian history atleast, thattheM6tisdidnotexistuntiltheybecame enmeshed in therivalriesof MontrealandBaytraders,menaced Lord Selkirk's settlement plans,destroyed the Baymonopolyin •849, or frustrated Macdonald andMcDougall intheRedRiverdistrict in •869. Earlystudies byGeorgeStanley andMarcelGiraudthatdidattempt to examinethe role of the M6tis displayedmany of thesehistoriographical constrictions andmethodological shortcomings. ForG.F.G. Stanley theM6tis,whetherofRedRiverorSaskatchewan, weremerely part of a 'frontier' of hunters and nomadsthat resistedbefore succumbing toanadvancing frontier:'BoththeManitoba insurrection and the Saskatchewan rebellion were the manifestation in Western Canadaof the problem of the frontier, namely the clashbetween primitiveand civilizedpeoples. '• The consequences of viewingthe M6tisthroughtheseTurnerian glasses wereenormous. In the first place, Stanley tendedtosee allthepeople ofmixedbloodinthewest as essentially thesame. Theywere,afterall,justpartof thesame frontier phenomenon. Consequently, TheBirthofWestern Canada discounted differences of denomination and levels of affluence that existed amongtheM6tis,evenwithintheRedRivercolony.Second, Stanley's perspective resulted inablendingofthestories of IndiansandM•tisin the insurrectionof •885. The Indian followersof Poundmakerand 2 B.G.Trigger,Natives andNewcomers: Canada's 'Heroic Age'Reconsidered (Kingston andMontreal •985), 34-5 3 G.F.G.Stanley, TheBirthofWestern Canada: A History oftheRielRebellions, 2nded. (Toronto•96o;firstpublished •936), vii FROM RIEL TO THE MI•TIS 3 BigBearwho'rose'in the springof •885 wereportrayedaspartof a concerted campaignof insurrectionled by Riel. Why the southern Indians, who were even worse off than those in the Saskatchewan country,failed to take up arms;why so few of the more northerly Indiansresorted toviolence; whyleaderssuchasPoundmaker andBig Bearappeared tohaveexertedthemselves tominimizebloodshed; and whytheyultimatelysurrendered- all thesewerediscomfiting questionsthatwerenotaddressed bya treatmentof theevents of •885as theclash of twofrontiers.This distortedperceptionof whatoccurred at RedRiverin •869 and in the Saskatchewan countryunfortunately setthe patternfor mostlater accounts of theseclashes. 4 Another pioneer in M6tis studies,a contemporaryof Stanley's, demonstrated a differenttypeof deficiency in hisviewof thesubject. Marcel Giraud'sLe mdtiscanadien (•945) is usually,and rightly, described asmonumental, aparagon of painstaking research. Giraud's ethnographic studyof theemergence of themixed-blood communities in the westwasbasedon field observations,vastresearchesin Hudson's BayCompanyArchivesin London,and exhaustive readingof every secondary sourceavailableto him. Its appearanceat the end of the Germanoccupation of Francewastestimony to theauthor'sperseverance and energy. But, though the study was monumental and painstaking, it wasnotwithoutitsfaults;andtheseshortcomings were attributable bothto Giraud'sownassumptions and...