ABSTRACT
The legacy of Canada’s nineteenth-century wars against the Métis and, to a lesser extent, the Plains Crees, has been twofold. The execution of the Métis leader Louis Riel and the scattering of his people in the wake of the 1885 war caused reverberations of discontent among French-speaking Canadians which have still not died out. The harsh treatment of Canada’s Western Indian population, not just the few Crees who rose up in 1885 but those tribes, like the Blackfeet, who remained neutral, has also left a bitter residue in Canadian public life. The government’s post-1885 policy foresaw the rapid transformation of the former plains nomads into farmers by the introduction of ‘the Bible and the plough’ onto the reserves. ‘Savage’ practices such as the Sun Dance, potlatch, and wearing feather headdresses were made illegal.1
