Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1885 — LOUIS RIEL. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LOUIS RIEL.

Leader of the Half-Breed Rebellion Against the Canadian Government.

Louis Kiel -was first heard of In 1869, the year in which the Canadian Government bought the greater part of the lands owned bv the Hudson’s Bay Company. Boon after the Northwest became a part of the Canadian- Confederation, and the Government undertook to survey the whole country with the view of making allotments of land to settlers. Surveyors were then employed in laying out the country in “sections " of square miles, to be subdivided among the settlers. These rectangles are measured off apparently without regard either to the natural features of the country or to the habitations or claims of the settlers, mainly half-breeds, who are already in possession. Even when the half-breed has not established a habitation he has staked out a “claim,” and has “located” it, as a matter of course, with the greatest possible frontage upon one of the rivers, which are the only highways of the wilderness. No record existing anywhere of these c’dlms, the Government at Ottawa has disposed of many of them Jo persons who had acquired no rights hy settlement, but who had complied, as the half-breeds in possession had failed to comply, with the requirements of the law: One day as a surveyor and his men were surveying a base line through some property Kiel, who was followed bv a party of unarmed half-breeds, put his foot on the ch> in, being used and ordered the surveyor and his men to leave work. They did so. Subsequently, in-the fall of 1869, he took possession of Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, and armed his followers'with UOO Enfield rifles found in the stores qf the Hudson Bay Company. He issued a bill of rights from Fort Garry and continued the insurrection until the following spring, when he was driven across the border into the United States by the forces under Col., now Gen. Lord Woieeley. Five years later he returned to Manitoba and was elected to the House of Commons, but did not take his seat. Riel was born in 184+, within five miles of Fort Garry. He was educated for the priesthood in Montreal, and possesses the ability, especially in tact, craft, and persuasion, which, aided by considerable attainments, and a strong sense of what he believes to be the wrongs suffered by the haif-breeds, accounts for his domination over the aggrieved Indians and half-breeds who follow his leadership. While the form of bis features suggests the Indian, his complexion is fair’and his eyes are light blue. ’ Hugh Conway’s story. “Called Back," has been translated into French, German, Italian, Norse, Swedish, Dutch, Koumanian, and Welsh. *• The congregation of which Dr. Barchart) was pastor has dissolved, and the property is to be turned over to the New York Presbytery. The Rothschild family history is being written by a Paris author upon the request of the English branch of the house. After April 1 the average temperature of Khartoum is 90 degrees in the shade.