Reconciling Differences between the Métis Nation and the Crown: An Agenda for Law Reform

• Author: Mark L'Hirondelle Stevenson
• Pages: 141-152

141

  

Reconci ling Dif fere nces bet ween the

Métis Nation and the Crow n:

An Agenda for Law Reform1

 ’ 

A. INTRODUCTIO N

Since the time of rst contact, Indigenous peoples have been engaged in a

con sta nt s tr ugg le t o pro tec t th eir com mun iti es a nd t hei r la nds and res our-

ces f rom encroachment. is struggle is well documented i n Canadian

hi st or y, which for the Métis, began only aer the emergence of distinct

Métis com munities, particularly on the Pr airies. is struggle ha s been

documented in numerous accounts of the war between the followers of

Louis Riel a nd Gabriel Dumont and the Canadia n troops sent by Sir John

A. Macdonald and others. e Mét is struggle was marked by two sig ni-

cant and seemingly contradictory events: the rst was the successful es-

tablishment of the Métis provisional government in Manitoba, along with

negotiations for the inclusion of Manitoba in Confederation. Coinciding

with th is was the subsequent elect ion of Louis Riel as a feder al member of

Parliament. e second signicant event was the Battle of Batoche and the

subsequent hanging of Louis Riel. ese events, however, were followed

by a long period of inaction and indierence: never before and never since

has the batt le for Aboriginal rights a nd autonomy been waged so ercely

against the Canad ian government, only to be so quickly forgotten.

 is artic le represents the personal views of t he author and is not to be reproduced

in any way without per mission.

 See, for example, Robin Fisher, Contact and Conict (Vancouver: UBC Pres s, ).