“The Catholic Mahdi of the North West”: Louis Riel and the Metis Resistance in Transatlantic and Imperial Context

• Published in: Canadian Historical Review
• Main Authors: Read, Geoff, Webb, Todd
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 2021
• Subjects: Religious studies; History; Metis
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/chr-102-s1-020; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/chr-102-s1-020

The authors examine the transatlantic press coverage of the Metis resistance in Saskatchewan in 1885. The article documents that there was extensive international coverage of this ostensibly Canadian conflict and traces the evolution of narratives about it from their origins in French and English Canada to the United States, Great Britain, and France. The article resituates Riel and the Metis resistance within this international framework, demonstrating how the story of Riel and the Metis was reshaped by commentators in the transatlantic world to suit local, national, and imperial contexts.