The Northwest Rebellion

The Northwest Rebellion

The Northwest Rebellion
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 6 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	6.88

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		stronghold, protestant, further, amnesty, military, retreat, status, ammunition, better, regroup, response, treason, victory, disagreement, collapse, decisive
	content words:		Red River Resistance, Many Métis, Northwest Territory, Bay Company-along, First Nations, Since Canada, Louis Riel, Red River, Gabriel Dumont, Honore Jackson

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The Northwest Rebellion
By Mary Lynn Bushong

¹     After the Red River Resistance failed, many of the Métis left that area. Though they were given legal status and their lands, they were not able to preserve their culture. Many more protestant English settlers moved into the area. Then land speculators moved in and bought the Métis lands for far less than they were worth. Many Métis chose to move further west rather than become farmers.

²     Open hunting lands were becoming much harder to find. Saskatchewan, known as the Northwest Territory at that time, was their destination.

³     The Métis were hunters rather than farmers. Their main source of meat was bison. By the mid 1880's, the Hudson's Bay Company-along with other hunters-had decimated the numbers of animals. Instead of vast herds, there remained only a few thousand animals.

⁴     It was not only the Métis who starved, but also the First Nations. Since Canada owned the land, the people asked the government for help. They got very little response.

⁵     In 1884, a group of Métis traveled to Montana. They wanted Louis Riel to come and help as he had at Red River. When the government was slow to act, Riel, Gabriel Dumont, and Honore Jackson set up the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan.

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