Riel: A Life of Revolution

Trevor S. Raymond is a teacher and librarian with the Peel Board of Education and editor of Canadian Holmes.

This biography of the turbulent life of Louis Riel is a frequently
gripping narrative history illuminated with vivid descriptions of its
prairie setting, but sometimes clichéd and often exasperating. A major
frustration is the uneven documentation, which is extensive but not
exhaustive. The sources I sought for several quotations, particularly
from Macdonald, were not cited. Siggins writes, “Sometime between
December 10 and 15, 1875, using a false name, Riel had a private
audience with the President of the United States”; this is just one
example where she provides no documentation, an omission that
unfortunately weakens the credibility of the whole work.

Riel is the unquestioned hero of these pages. Indeed, he approaches the
saintly at times. Those who oppose him are variously described as
bigots, racists, and liars. The detailed account of Riel’s years in
exile is particularly interesting, but what gives this biography its
greatest strength is the extensive use made of Riel’s personal
writing. There are many excerpts from his diaries, and about 750 lines
are quoted of poetry he wrote as “a kind of catharsis,” and which
Siggins aptly describes as “a mirror into his soul.” Riel’s
thoughts reveals much of the man that has in previous biographies only
been hinted at, and provide more evidence on which to examine the
perennial question of Riel’s sanity. There is, Siggins writes, “no
doubt that by late 1875 Louis was losing his grip on reality,” but 10
years later, at the tragic climax of his life, she believes that “Riel
was not insane.” She finds his bizarre religious proclamations
evidence not of madness but of “a unique spirituality.” An
interesting appendix, in the form of a lengthy undated letter from a
sociology professor to a politically active (in Latin America) Roman
Catholic priest, also offers thoughtful commentary on this issue.

There are five helpful maps and an impressive bibliography. Siggins has
read widely, and takes issue specifically from time to time with what
other historians have written about these events. No doubt future
writers will take issue with her. But with one conclusion she offers
about the Northwest Rebellion, surely no one can disagree: “It was
not,” she writes, “a war to be proud of.”