The Red River Rebellion

Curtis Gunn teaches history at the University of Saskatchewan.

“There are two traps that must at all cost be avoided ... One trap is
to tell the story of Red River from any single vantage point, but most
especially that of Louis Riel and/or his Metis followers ... The second
trap is to allow the execution of Thomas Scott to assume undue
importance in the telling of the story.” While most Canadian
historians would agree with the wisdom of this statement, few have been
able to avoid the two tempting “traps” in order to produce a book as
skilful and entertaining as J.M. Bumsted’s The Red River Rebellion.

This accessible, historically accurate, and visually appealing account
of the troubles at Red River both before and immediately after the
rebellion begins with an informative prologue in which the author
explains the social, political, and ethnic tensions within the Red River
community. Having set the stage in the prologue, Bumsted takes his
readers through each stage of the conflict, from the arrival of William
McDougall to the end of the Wolseley Expedition in 1870. An excellent
historiographical essay in the appendix looks at how accounts of the
rebellion have changed over time.

Despite a regrettable absence of footnotes and other references to
secondary sources, The Red River Rebellion is a valuable addition to the
literature Red River.