Phillippe Jaques

When people hear the name Louis Riel, some fill up with anger, others fill up with a thankful sense of happiness, like me and my grandfather for example.   Louis was Metis, this was the product of a Voyageur and Indian women having a child.   The Metis were famed for their hunting and tracking abilities and were often employed individuals or groups as guides or interpreters.   Their farming tradition had its roots in the Red River settlement of Manitoba.   Following the massive exodus into Sasketchewan, the Metis again established farms and homesteads.   The difficulties encountered by the Metis in gaining clear entitlement to their land and the intervention of land speculators when scrip was issued caused most Metis to lose possession of their farms. "York" boats played a major role in the fur trade industry as they replaced freight canoes on the main water systems of Canada in the late 19th century.   They had a larger carrying capacity and required fewer men to operate them.   This enabled furs to be transported faster and more economically than by canoe.   It took eighteen men to run the York boats: a helmsman to give the orders for rowing, a man to steer and sixteen men to pull the oars.   Sails were often used to catch favourable winds.   The inland sailors who manned these boats were predominently the Metis men who worked for the fur companies.   The The Voyageurs wanted to remain friends with these they married the Indian women.   He was a man who stuck up for the rights of his people, such as my grandfather.   In this essay I will tell you how Louis Riel contributed to the Confederation within the years 1869-1885, and how it affected my life.


        I was born on a very cold night on November 16, 1867.   I grew up in a very poor family, we barley had enough food for my four other brothers and sisters, and my grandmother.   We had to take my grandmother in our home because my grandfather, at the time had to fight with the other metis people to try to get us some...