Louis Riel was without a doubt, a national hero because he stood up for Metis rights, was responsible for the formation of Manitoba, and he called attention to the Canadian Pacific Railway. Some may see Louis Riel as a villain because of his initiatives taken against the Canadian government: he was the leader of two major rebellions in the years of 18-69-1870 and 1885. The first rebellion was The Red River Rebellion in 1869, when there was a need from the Metis people for help because they feared that they would lose their land to the settlers and they had enough of being taken advantage of. Land speculators and surveyors at the time laid out new square townships and disregarded the strip lots the settlers were used to having. Rupert’s land was purchased without any consolations with the settlers in the area.
Prior to this rebellion, Metis were being taken advantage off, losing their land to Canadian Europeans and losing their children to Residential Schools. Riel and the rebellion attempted to protect this land as well as the First Nation culture. Riel was so dedicated to the cause that he created a provisional government to try to negotiate with the Canadian government. Furthermore, Riel also led the Northwest Rebellion in 1885. When the Canadian Pacific Railway was under construction, funding was taking from the Indian Budget.
Despite the documentary many Europeans were killed during these massacres as well as Indians. The director not showing the Europeans being killed is a form of selection of detail. This takes away our traditional views of Indians from the old Cowboy and Indian movies where Indians kidnapped women and children and the white people were there savior. When the Europeans settled in America they tried to recreate Britain in this land but the climate, plants and animals were totally different so they were upsetting the natural ecosystem of the land. Whereas this is what the Indians had successfully not done by harvesting only what they need.
Tommy Douglas was attempting to form the first Socialist government in Canada. Farm ownership was the key issue of the campaign. Farm owners believed that if they were to vote for Douglas, their farmland would be safe from foreclosures from mortgage companies. As a result, scare tactics from mortgage companies were used, to encourage voters to cast their ballot for the longstanding liberal government in Saskatchewan. Douglas used these threats to his advantage, with the promise of a blackened moratorium across the province in order to protect the farmers.
A way in which assimilation is forced upon the family is due to their reliance on weekly rations due to the fact that ‘wetjala cut all the trees down’, this is symbolic of their loss of self-determination and highlights the power and control that the white authorities hold over them. Also, the assimilation level is depicted in Milly when, after finding out of the removal of soap from the rations, replies ‘how can I keep my kids clean and sen ‘em to school?’ connoting that she is more civilised. Overall, it is evident that there is a loss of culture among the Aboriginal characters in the play and the white authority, depicted by Davis, is the prime wreckers of Indigenous
As the Indians were forced to leave the land white people just came over and took part of the land that belong to the reservation and there was nothing the Indians could do about it. The discovery of gold made matters even worst as Americans came across the land looking for fortune in large numbers and in the process destroyed the land and the ecosystem. Their vast numbers drove away the bison herds and forced them to change their emigration patterns, which made it a lot more difficult for the Indians to sustain themselves. In addition to being forced to move to small reservations they were put on rationed food and supplies from the U.S government and to change their culture all against their will. The reservations were not set on the best land; those were given to white Americans.
Later the indians suspected the colonists wanted to rule them and control the colony. When captain John Smith was appointed as a member of the council and being sent to the colony in dire times of famine. He forced all people to labor stating that “ He that will not work shall not eat” which was proven to be very effective, he also dealt with mutiny from the indians very well. To settle matters even more he bargained with the indians as well. It was due to his leadership that the colony survived.
Boarding Schools In the nineteenth century, Native American Boarding Schools played an essential role in programs that were designed by the United States government to foster the forced assimilation of its native peoples into the mainstream of American society. David Wallace Adams described this solution to the ‘Indian Problem’ “as an instrument for fostering social cohesion and republicanism, no institution had been more important in the spread of the American system” (Coontz, 39). Reformers and politicians that favored this policy of reservation allotment also advanced the concept of placing Indian children in residential schools where they would speak English, learn a vocation, and practice farming. Advocates of boarding schools argued that industrial training, in combination with several years of isolation from family, would diminish the influence of tribalism on a new generation of Native Americans. For fifty years after the first federally administered
Ramsay Cook’s article, “The Social and Economic Frontier in North America” provides evidence of the first relationships and trade between the Natives and the first Europeans to arrive in North America. Similarly, Cornelius J. Jaenen’s reading, “Amerindian Views of the French Culture in the Seventeenth Century” has argumentative information about the relationships the Indians and Europeans formed, based on their trading goods. Also, this essay acknowledges Bruce G. Trigger’s ideas from his article, “The French Presence in Huronia: The Structure of Franco-Huron Relations in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century” about the negative turn in relationships between the Indians and Europeans during the fur-trade. The fur trade played a significant role in determining the dynamics of the relationship between the Indians and Europeans. The relationship was positive at the beginning of the Native-European contact because of their reliance on each other for trade goods but in turn, negative consequences of Native-European contact arose during the fur trade which resulted in the relationships becoming weakened and problematic.
Subsequently, the settlement became highly dysfunctional since the English gentleman refused to do work that was necessary to the colonies survival. This difference in social status was one of the many problems faced by the Jamestown colony. These setbacks included disease, starvation, massive death rates, and the pending relationship with the Powhatan Native Americans. The Powhatan were initially friendly to the colonists and gave them food, but drought ended the Powhatans generosity. The colonists attacked the Powhatan to procure food and relations never recovered afterwards.