The Riel/Real Story: An Interpretive History of the Métis People of Canada

Michael Payne is head of the research and publications program, Historic
Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and the
co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

As the title suggests, this second edition of The Riel/Real Story, which
was first published

in 1994, re-evaluates Louis Riel and his significance in Canadian
history. Once a misguided rebel at best, and a traitor and murderer at
worst, Riel is now increasingly seen as a Father of Confederation and
heroic defender of his people, the Métis. Few historical figures in
Canada have undergone such a fundamental reappraisal.

In similar fashion, the history of the Métis is also the subject of
critical reappraisal, and this volume includes a brief survey of recent
Métis historiography, highlighting some of the main areas of debate
among scholars in the field. However, readers looking for a revised,
updated narrative history of the Métis in Canada will not find it here.
The author’s intention is not so much to rewrite Métis history as to
speculate on the implications for Canadian multiculturalism of issues
Riel and subsequent Métis leaders raised. Issues of land entitlement,
political power, and economic and cultural security hinge, in the
author’s view, on whether or not the Métis should be seen as a
distinct nation. He offers a variety of reasons for seeing the Métis as
a distinct nation, and suggests that, once this position is accepted, it
may allow for redress of various historical injustices.

The author’s belief that true multiculturalism can accommodate
treating groups not exactly equally is probably more contentious than
his point that history is subject to interpretation and that
interpretation, varies by point of view. This view of history will
certainly come as no surprise to historians or to the Métis.