Unpublished article on native rights and the fight against imperialism
by Greg Waters and Sean Purdy
LOUIS RIEL: Resisting Imperialism
The rise of capitalism in the "New World" began with the brutal
expropriation and subjugation of native peoples. When describing
this barbaric process Marx observed that "capital comes into the
world dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and
dirt ..." Though the weapons of conquest varied from warfare and
deliberate starvation to legal sleight of hand, by the late
nineteenth century, the land, resources and ways of life of native
peoples throughout the Americas were thoroughly devastated.
In areas where this process was accomplished the quickest and most
decisively, an economic system built on wage labour and driven by
the pursuit of profit was able to sink deep roots. Thus, by the
1880s, an industrial order centered in what is now the eastern part
of North America had emerged.
In the northern half of the continent, a new ruling class of
British financiers and Canadian industrialists was on the move.
After establishing an industrial base in central Canada, they began
looking to the rich and untapped farmlands of the west.
Opening up and settling the west
was crucial in the competitive scramble for profits with the
burgeoning industrial power to the south, the United States.
What these aggressive capitalists, backed by the Tory government,
were not expecting, however, was massive resistance by the
indigenous peoples of the region. Racist myths maintain that
natives were passive victims of European imperialism. Yet the real
history of native peoples in America is a history not only of
oppression, but also one of militant struggle and rebellion.
The Metis rebellions of 1870 and 1885 stand as particularly
brilliant testimonies to this tradition of native resistance.
Rallying the indigenous peoples of the region, Louis Riel led a
anti-imperialist rebellion which checked the advancement of hungry
land-grabbers ruthlessly pursuing profits and property. Uniting
the oppressed French-speaking population and native peoples, the
Metis rebellions highlighted the necessity of solidarity and mass
struggle from below in the fight for national self-determination.
The Metis people were the French-speaking descendents of French
settlers and aboriginal peoples and comprised a large percentage
of the population of the Canadian west. They were mostly nomadic
buffalo hunters who supplied the sparse agricultural settlements of
the region. Some Metis had set up small farms and others worked as
carters and boatmen for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), the fur
trading enterprise which exercised total political and economic
control of the west. By the 1860s, the Metis were a distinct
native-born group united by the French language and the Catholic
religion.
The traditional fur-trading economy of the west was on its last
legs, however. Declining markets and over-exploitation of natural
resources paved the way for the westward expansion of agricultural
settlement. The Canadian state, newly formed in 1867, was prepared
to do the bidding of its industrialist benefactors. They duly
purchased the huge territory from the HBC, hoping to replace their
rule with federal state control and undertake settlement
programmes. With the stroke of a pen, political freedoms and land
rights were erased. In the words of one historian, "One of the
greatest transfers of territory and sovereignty in history was
conducted as a mere transaction in real estate."
In this context of dispossession and disenfranchisement of native
peoples, Louis Riel emerged to lead a resistance movement.
Riel was born into a family which combined a deep sense of
religious conviction with a unyielding commitment to Metis rights.
At the age of 14, he travelled to the largely francophone province
of Quebec to study. In 1865, Riel was expelled for failing to
conform to the harsh discipline of the conservative Catholic
seminary which he attended.
He moved on to study law with a prominent Quebec nationalist
politician. There he was exposed to the vibrant currents of
nationalist resistance to Confederation--the 1867 constitutional
arrangement that formalized the national oppression of native
peoples and francophones. In response to hardships imposed by
drought and famine for the Metis community and his family he
returned to the west in 1868. The next year the Metis rose in armed
rebellion.
The spark which set off the rebellion was the federal government's
illegal dispatchment of land surveyors into the region to carve up
their newly acquired territory. Under the leadership of Riel the
Metis formed a disciplined military organization structured along
the lines of the traditional buffalo hunt. A National Committee was
struck, and a provisional government was elected. The core of the
resistance movement was comprised of the rank and file of the
community--hunters and boatsmen--not the wealthy Metis traders who
refused to support the actions of the elected National Committee.
On December 5, 1869 the Metis government published a "List of
Rights", proclaiming the necessity of consulting the inhabitants of
any plans to become part of Canada. In addition to seeking
protection for their land, other demands included guarantees for
the French language and Catholic education.
The Tory Prime Minister John A. Macdonald responded by extending a
velvet glove which concealed an iron fist. The area was given
provincial status, the provisional government was recognized, an
amnesty was granted to the insurgents and the Metis were promised
land rights.
Yet all the while Macdonald was preparing to crush the rebellion.
"Should these miserable half-breeds not disband," he fumed, "they
must be put down." In another letter, he wrote: "These impulsive
half-breeds have got spoiled by this disturbance, and must be kept
down by a strong hand until they are swamped by the influx of
settlers." In central Canada, the virulently anti-French and
anti-native Orange Lodge was organizing with the Tories to foment
racial hatred between the white minority and the Metis.
It was not long before Macdonald unleashed thousands of troops to
quell the uprising. Canadian troops raped Metis women, pillaged
and then destroyed many Metis settlements. White racists unleashed
a virtual reign of terror in many towns in revenge for the
uprising.
Riel and the Metis leadership fled to the United States.
Nevertheless his stature as a resistance leader remained. In 1872
he was acclaimed to a seat in the Canadian Parliament, but was
refused by a vote of the House and was officially exiled.
During the next decade and a half the Canadian state committed
itself to a policy of land settlement which was consciously
intended to reduce the Metis population to a small minority. The
existence of the Metis population and their rights as a
French-speaking minority were put in peril by legal trickery,
outright repression, lies, and the massive influx of white settlers
who enjoyed privileged access to the best land and resources. By
the 1880s the Metis had been swindled out of their land rights and
forced to move west to eke out a livelihood.
Riel was well aware of the Metis' dire situation. In a letter
addressed to the citizens of the US he declared that the Metis
"lands of the North West Territory, the possession of which had
been solemnly guaranteed to us by the government fifteen years ago,
have since been torn from us, and given to land grabbers who have
never seen this country." The Metis and native peoples in the
region were in serious danger of mass starvation as they were
deprived of most rights and resources.
After countless petitions and legal wrangling to redress economic
and national grievances were ignored, a delegation of Metis
convinced Riel to return to the Canadian west to lead the struggle
for self-determination.
On March 17, 1885 Riel was declared president of a new provisional
government. Despite a number of brave military battles in which 700
Metis fought off over 5,000 troops, the rebels were crushed. The
Metis determination to fight for national liberation inspired local
native bands--who had been consciously starved and forced into
reserves by the government--to rise spontaneously in armed revolt.
Given their common interests and their willingness to resist, the
tragedy is that there was no coordination of the native and Metis
uprisings.
Vicious savagery against Metis settlements accompanied the military
victory. The Metis and native peoples were soon forced onto
reserves and subject to a pass law system--in operation until
1930--which served as the model for South Africa's racist apartheid
system.
After the defeat of the 1885 rebellion a jury composed of
exclusively white settlers convicted Riel of high treason and
sentenced him to death. A massive, but unsuccessful, campaign was
launched for a pardon of Riel. French-Canadians in the rest of the
country saw Riel and the other Metis as heroic martyrs for the
cause of self-determination. On the occasion of his execution there
was a 50,000 strong protest demonstration in Montreal.
Glimpses of solidarity with the Metis rebellion were evident in the
emerging workers' movement. The Knights of Labour--the mass based
North American union and labour party--wrote articles in support of
the Riel rebellion. One of the key non-Metis supporters of Riel,
his secretary during the rebellion, became an active militant in
the labour movement and travelled throughout the US speaking on the
necessity of solidarity between workers and native peoples.
Despite the attempt by the far right racist Reform Party to
appropriate the memory of Riel for the cause of so-called regional
rights, the real legacy of the Metis rebellions is evident today in
the militant struggles over land claims and aboriginal
self-government.
Over a century later--against overwhelming odds similar to the
balance of forces in 1885--Oka, Quebec witnessed Mohawk warriors
taking up arms to defend ancestral lands which were slated to
become a municipal golf course. For over three months the warriors
withstood a siege by the state's tanks and soldiers. In doing so,
they brought to the fore the issue of native rights and garnered
widespread support across the country.
The battle at Oka proved once again that mass actions from below
and solidarity among the exploited and the oppressed is the only
successful strategy in the fight for indigenous peoples to freely
determine their own futures.
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