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Canadian Theme Unit

The Northwest Rebellion

The Northwest Rebellion
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.01

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    amoung, treaty, federal, rebellion, victory, settlement, peace, against, chief, exactly, government, wealth, lived, notice, trouble, bands
     content words:    First Nations, Red River, Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont, While Riel, Duck Lake, Frog Lake, Fish Creek, General Middleton, Big Bear

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The Northwest Rebellion
By Mary Lynn Bushong 		  
1     Changing times can be good for some people. They can bring wealth and new inventions. They can also bring hardship to others. As the world changed, the Métis and First Nations were left behind.
 
2     After the trouble at Red River, many Métis moved on. They lived by hunting and trapping. They needed large open spaces to work. Many new people were moving into Red River. They could not live as they had and stay.
 
3     It was getting harder to find open land in Canada's Northwest. It was getting harder to find food, too. Most of the bison had been killed by hunters.
 
4     Bison were the main food for Métis. They were the main food for the First Nations, too. Without bison to eat, they began to starve.
 
5     The people tried to tell Canada's government they needed help. The men in Ottawa did not hurry to help them.
 
6     The leaders of the Métis people needed help. They went to see Louis Riel. He had helped lead the people at Red River. Maybe he would help again.
 
7     Riel lived in Montana. He had become an American. Even so, he wanted to help his people.
 
8     He helped them set up a government. It was a way they could tell the federal government their concerns and problems. Some of the men wanted to fight. One of those was a friend of Riel's, Gabriel Dumont.

Paragraphs 9 to 18:
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