Celebrating Louis Riel Day and Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Red River Resistance

“The ability to move between culturally distinct worlds empowered Riel to see the possibilities that could hold a new country together. He navigated the political and cultural boundaries to contest the imagined nation of Canada’s founders.” Max Hamon, The Audacity of His Enterprise

This February 17th, as we commemorate the historical and cultural legacy of Louis Riel and the Métis People on Louis Riel Day, we also mark the 150th anniversary of the Red River Resistance of 1869-70. This resistance, led by Riel, in which the Métis fought for their land and their culture served as the catalyst for the founding of the province of Manitoba and significantly shaped the future of Canadian history. Embodying the various roles of politician, activist, traveler, and writer throughout his eventful and remarkable life, Louis Riel also symbolizes values of inclusiveness and cultural acceptance that still resonate today.

However, as Max Hamon’s new book suggests, usual depictions of Louis Riel tend to overlook key aspects of his impact on Canadian history and on our current understanding of Canadian identity. In The Audacity of his Enterprise: Louis Riel and the Métis Nation That Canada Never Was, 1840–1875, Hamon shines a spotlight on the life, vision, and cultivation of one of Canada’s most influential historical figures, just in time to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the historic Red River Resistance, and to commemorate the man himself.

Max Hamon is a lecturer and research affiliate at McGill University and a lecturer in the Department of History at Queen’s University.

The Audacity of His Enterprise

Louis Riel and the Métis Nation That Canada Never Was, 1840–1875

By M. Max Hamon

Louis Riel (1844-1885) was an iconic figure in Canadian history best known for his roles in the Red River Resistance of 1869 and the Northwest Resistance of 1885. A political leader of the Métis people of the Canadian Prairies, Riel is often portrayed as a rebel. Reconstructing his experiences in the Northwest, Quebec, and the worlds in between, Max Hamon revisits Riel’s life through his own eyes, illuminating how he and the Métis were much more involved in state-making than historians have previously acknowledged.

Questioning the drama of resistance, The Audacity of His Enterprise highlights Riel’s part in the negotiations, petition claims, and legal battles that led to the formation of the state from the bottom up. Hamon examines Riel’s early successes and his participation in the crafting of a new political environment in the Northwest and Canada. Arguing that Riel viewed the Métis as a distinct people, not caught between worlds, the book demonstrates Riel’s attempts to integrate multiple perspectives – Indigenous, French-Canadian, American, and British – into a new political environment. Choosing to end the book in 1875, at the pinnacle of Riel’s successful career as a political leader, rather than at his death in 1885, Hamon sets out to recover Riel’s agency, intentions, and imagination, all of which have until now been displaced by colonial narratives and the shadow of his execution.

Revisiting the Red River Resistance on its 150th anniversary, The Audacity of His Enterprise offers a new view of Riel’s life and a rethinking of the history of colonialism.