Paper Summary:

The following paper will argue that the causes of the Northwest Rebellion in 1885 can really be reduced to two things: the cultural insecurity and fearfulness of the Metis peoples of Alberta and Saskatchewan; and the sheer dilatoriness of the Canadian central government in meeting the needs of an embattled people. As time permits, the ensuing several pages will underscore how the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 was something that could easily have been prevented - or at least mitigated - if the government had been more tactful in dealing with the land claims of Manitoba Metis and, especially, if it had honored its obligations to the Metis under Treaty Number Six. Other things, such as high freight rates and the CPR's decision to have the national railway line re-routed far to the south and hundreds of miles away from Metis residing in the central and northern parts of Alberta only made the conditions even more conducive to a large-scale armed revolt against the center. As an addendum before moving on to the body of this essay, this writer will address at the out-set the evolution of the scholarly historiography on the 1885 Northwest Rebellion, most of all because it shows how, over time, certain historical explanations have become more enduring than others and therefore more reliable when analyzing why things went as they did.

From the Paper:

The Causes of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 The following paper will argue that the causes of the Northwest Rebellion in 1885 can really be reduced to two things: the cultural insecurity and fearfulness of the Metis peoples of Alberta and Saskatchewan; and the sheer dilatoriness of the Canadian central government in meeting the needs of an embattled people. As time permits, the ensuing several pages will underscore how the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 was something that could easily have been prevented - or at least mitigated - if the government had been more tactful in dealing with the land claims of Manitoba Metis and, especially, if it had honored its obligations to the Metis under Treaty

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