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A HANDBOOK OF METIS FACTS, FANCIES & FIGURES SECTION N [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] Nault, Napoleon - During the North-West Resistance and the Battle of Batoche (of 1885), Napoleon Nault was one of the younger, more strongly committed supporters of Louis Riel. Napoleon was a cousin of Louis Riel. Nolin, Charles - It is difficult to summarize the character and integrity of former Metis activist Charles Nolin. Diane Payment (Monsieur Batoche, Manuscript Report Series Number 97, Ottawa: Environment Canada Parks, June 1978, pg. 32, Endnote #60) states that, "Charles Nolin was initially one of the strongest advocates of armed resistance to the Government. For largely inexplicable reasons he suddenly reversed his position [with reference to the North West or Riel Resistance] in March, 1885. He became reconciled to the Church during a special novena which ended dramatically with the miraculous recovery of his wife, Rosalie Lepine. Arrested by the Metis Provisional Council on March 19th, he feigned submission but fled to Prince Albert during the battle of Duck Lake on March 26th. He was one of the principal Crown witnesses during the trials in Regina. The Metis called him 'un vire-capot...terrible ce Nolin.' More charitably, Dumont said, 'il a eu peur.' Howard Adams in Prison of Grass [Toronto: General Publishing, 1975] advances the largely unverifiable but interesting theory that Nolin was an agent provocateur, hired by the Government to provoke an armed uprising among the Metis. All in all, Nolin's behaviour was scheming and contradictory." Northcote - The sternwheeler Northcote was leased by the Canadian government for use in the North-West Resistance of 1885. The Northcote was involved in the first and only naval warfare to take place in the Canadian West. On May 9, 1885 the Northcote was used to attack Batoche from the river vantage-point. The sternwheeler was, however, neutralized by the Metis forces who severed the smokestacks and wheelhouse of the Northcote by stretching the ferry cable across the river in the path of the oncoming vessel. The Northcote then floated harmlessly downstream and was incapacitated for the remainder of the Battle of Batoche. Today the ruins of the Northcote may be seen at Cumberland House. According to "Gabriel Dumont's Account of the North-West Rebellion, 1885" (Canadian Historical Review, Volume 30, Number 3, September, 1949, pp. 264-265), "Meanwhile Middleton was encamped at Fish Creek, on the right bank of the Saskatchewan, where he had brought his left column back across the river, waiting for reinforcements and especially the arrival of the steamer Northcote which was descending the river with provisions, two companies of the Midland Regiment, and a Gatling gun. The vessel which had been put in a state of defence with pieces of wood, sacks of oats etc., having arrived at Fish Creek, On May 5, Middleton embarked 35 men of 'C' Company, School Corps, and set out on the 7th for Gabriel Dumont's ferry, where he halted and the boat anchored. This ferry is 30 miles from Clarke's Crossing and 6 miles from Batoche. It was there my farm was located. The troops burned my house and pulled down my stables to strengthen their steamer which they made arrow proof all round.... When I learned that the enemy had torn down my stables to strengthen their steamer, I concluded the steamer was descending to Batoche to take part in the impending attack and to divert the attention of a part of the defenders. These were in fact the orders which Middleton had given. I had a body of men placed opposite the Batoche church, to keep the crew from landing. Since the boat, which had set out on the 9th, had to pass through a rapid caused by a bend in the river, before it could continue on its way, I had suggested that at this spot we cripple the helmsman, so as to set the boat adrift, and that an iron cable, thrown across the river, would make the vessel capsize. My men did, in fact, fire on those who were on deck and several of them threw themselves into the water. And the boat, as I had forseen, went adrift. I galloped on horseback along the bank to give the signal to lower the cable, but it was done too slowly, the cable only caught the funnel which was torn away and a fire started. The crew however extinguished it, although my men fired on any that showed themselves on deck.... They were kept there in check all day long, and in spite of the bugle calls, no one came to their aid, and it was not until 6 at night that they raised anchor and went a few miles further down stream to moor for the night." North West Company - When, in 1670, King Charles II of England granted to the Hudson's Bay Company all rights over soil, exclusive trade, rights of government--even rights to make war and peace--over the territory and inhabitants of Rupert's Land the grant was contested vigorously by the French, then by traders inside the British empire who maintained that the charter was invalid. France as a challenger had been stifled after a succession of wars and defeats. But the domestic contestants, organized in 1784 as the North West Company, had taken up the fight, and for thirty-seven years Rupert's Land was torn by bitter rivalry and vicious fur trade wars. The North West Company was a loosely-knit but solid organization of Montreal fur interests. The consolidation of the capital and resources turned their competition away from one another and toward the Hudson' Bay Company. Many French Canadians joined the new company as employees and brought their considerable experience in travelling and trading in the vast expanses of the Northwest. The North West Company suddenly had the capital and the know-how to invest in exploration, to surge westward and outreach the Hudson's Bay Company--despite the HBC's obvious geographic advantage. To surmount the problem of distance the North West Company divided its supply line into two parts. Fort William became the hub around which the North West Company would revolve. The "wintering" partners collected furs and brought them to Fort William while the "Montreal" partners transported the furs to Montreal for export. Trade goods, on the other hand, were purchased and transported to Fort William by the Montreal partners. These trade goods were then transported by the wintering partners to the Northwest where they were exchanged for furs. The North West Company was not above using and inciting the Metis people in their continued attempts to gain the advantage over the Hudson's Bay Company. The Battle of Seven Oaks (1816) was a case in point, where tensions (between the HBC and the Metis) were intensified and amplified by the machinations of the North West Company as they played on the Metis pride and on the nascent Metis nationhood sentiments and on the wrongful treatment of the Metis people by a distant, uncaring, unfeeling government and Hudson's Bay Company. The Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, bitter rivals for thirty-seven years, amalgamated in 1821. Northwest Fare - According to George Woodcock (Gabriel Dumont: The Metis Chief and his Lost World. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1976, pp.42-43), "To realize in a concrete way what that abundance [of food] meant, and how well one could live merely off the land in the Saskatchewan Valley in the 1840s, let us take a farewell glance at Paul Kane, enjoying at Edmonton House on Christmas Day, 1847, a dinner of characteristic Northwest fare: At the head, before Mr. Harriett, was a large dish of boiled buffalo hump; at the foot smoked a boiled buffalo calf. Start not, gentle reader, the calf is very small, and is taken from the cow by the Caesarian operation long before it attains its full growth. This, boiled whole, is one of the most esteemed dishes among the epicures of the interior. My pleasing duty was to help a dish of mouffle, or dried moose nose; the gentleman on my left distributed, with graceful impartiality, the white fish, delicately browned in buffalo marrow. The worthy priest helped the buffalo tongue, while Mr. Rundell cut up the beavers' tails. Nor was the other gentleman left unemployed, as all his spare time was occupied in dissecting a roast wild goose. The centre of the table was graced with piles of potatoes, turnips, and bread conveniently placed, so that each could help himself without interrupting the labours of his companions." North-West Rebellion - The North-West Rebellion (variously known as the Riel Resistance or Riel Uprising--many of the older Metis people in the area still refer to the uprising of 1885 as "The Rebellion") of 1885 was led by Louis Riel. On March 19, 1885 Riel proclaimed the existence of a Metis Provisional Government at Batoche, in the North West Territories. The rebellion or resistance or uprising was the result of growing unrest among Metis who felt they had been betrayed, belittled and cheated (and indeed they had been) by the Canadian government following the Red River Resistance or Rebellion of 1869 and the proclamation of the Manitoba Act in March of 1870. See D.N. Sprague (Canada and the Metis, 1869-1885. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1988, pg. vii) for concrete examples of this "betrayal, belittlement and cheating" on the part of the Canadian government. The Metis' chief grievance arose from the Canadian Dominion's failure to settle Metis land claims in Manitoba or in the Saskatchewan District. The North-West Rebellion or Resistance began on March 26, 1885, when a small detachment of North West Mounted Police and Canadian militia marched on Duck Lake and were intercepted by Metis partisans and riflemen led by Gabriel Dumont. The Metis routed their opponents as the NWMP and the militiamen lost one-quarter of their men--either dead or wounded--in their quarter-hour engagement. The Federal government, led by Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, raised a field force of nearly 7,000 soldiers under the command of General Frederick Middleton and dispatched it to the North West Territories on the nearly completed Canadian Pacific Railway. Riel and the Metis were joined by a few bands of Indian peoples under the leadership of Cree chiefs Big Bear and Poundmaker but were vastly outnumbered and under-supplied. General Middleton's plodding caution and Dumont's considerable military skills delayed the inevitable outcome until the Canadian troops finally closed in on and defeated the Metis at Batoche on May 12, 1885. Louis Riel surrendered to the Middleton forces on May 15, 1885 and was hanged for treason in November of 1885. Gabriel Dumont fled to the United States and hooked-up with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show (replete with the title of, "The Prince of the Prairies"). North-West Territories Act - The North-West Territories Act is a federal statute passed in 1875. It came into effect in 1876 with the intention of organizing--governmentally and administratively--the northwest region of Canada, a region which was acquired from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1870. The North-West Territories Act provided for a governor, appointed by Ottawa, and an appointed council which would be replaced by elected members as the population increased. This act was amended many times in subsequent years as portions of the region were allocated to the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. See the Battle of Batoche, Fish Creek and Northcote entries. Norris, Malcolm (1900-1967) - Malcolm Norris, along with James Brady, were two of the most important Metis patriots of the 20th Century. According to Murray Dobbin (The One-And-A-Half Men: The Story of Jim Brady and Malcolm Norris, Metis Patriots of the 20th Century. Vancouver: New Star Books, 1981, pp. 9-10, 15, 63), "As leaders over a 35-year period in numerous organizations and in the communities where they lived, Brady and Norris provide, in their life stories, a special opportunity to bring together a study of socialist leadership and history. Brady and Norris were self-educated Marxists engaged not only in the anticolonial struggle but in the broader struggle for socialism. Their life-long effort to place the anticolonial movement within the broader socialist struggle gives us a rare gift: a systematic, Marxist analysis of the interplay of race and class in the colony within Canada, not by academics but by socialist Metis activists." "No one could break the solitude quite like Malcolm Norris. He was continually agitated, always involved in a political battle. Driven by a sense of urgency, Norris' physical appearance suited his temperament. Small, slightly built, with a hawkish face, he possessed a wiry strength and tireless energy which matched his tenacity as a political fighter." "Malcolm Norris was an agitator and orator. Soon after he joined the movement Norris was tagged 'Dynamite.' The name was apt as he was quick-witted and a master of the Cree and English languages. Of the Metis leaders present at the December convention, it was Norris who left the most lasting impression. His spirited call to action and his tremendous energy and optimism gave the Metis something they had not had for two generations--the belief that they could win." According to The Metis: Two Worlds Meet (36 excellent and informative Study Prints and Teachers' Guide, Developed by Sherry Farrell-Racette, Calvin Racette and Joanne Pelletier, Regina: The Curriculum Unit, Gabriel Dumont Institute, n.d., People: 5.6: Malcolm Norris), "Malcolm Norris was born at Edmonton in 1900. His father, John Norris, was a wealthy Scottish settler. His mother was Euphrosine Plante, a Metis of St. Albert. Children from his father's previous marriage were antagonistic to their Metis step-mother and her children. As a result, the family lived in two separate homes. Malcolm grew up and received his education in St. Albert. Metis heritage and the Resistance of 1885 were familiar topics of discussion in the Norris home. In his twenties, Norris married, became an avid socialist and began to fight against bigotry and racism. He often introduced himself as 'Redskin Norris'. He spent five years working for the Hudson's Bay Company until he grew disenchanted with the trading methods of the company. He left the company and spent his next five years trapping and trading. Political turmoil in the 1930's caused Malcolm to become a strong activist, lobbying for Metis rights and social equality. He joined Jim Brady, Pete Tomkins and Joseph Dion. Together they organized the Alberta Metis Association. When World War II broke out, the organization disbanded and Norris joined the RCAF. After the war, he went to work for the CCF party in Saskatchewan. He became a strong defender of Metis rights and began to organize another Metis Association. With the ousting of the CCF party in 1964, Norris was dismissed from his job. He worked in Prince Albert as the director of the Indian-Metis Friendship Centre. He continued to fight for Metis rights and, in 1964, started the Metis Association of Northern Saskatchewan. In 1966, Norris suffered a stroke, but he continued his political career from a wheelchair. Later, a political controversy caused him to withdraw from politics. He moved back to Alberta where, in 1967, he suffered another stroke and died. Norris is remembered as a brilliant orator and political organizer." See entries James Brady, Metis Colonies, Ewing Commission and L'Association des Metis d'Alberta et des Territoires des Nord Ouest. Nor'Wester, The - According to Calvin Racette (Metis Development and the Canadian West [Booklet No. 1: Contrasting Worlds]. Regina: Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research Inc., 1985, pg. 20), "By 1859, the Red River Settlement acquired its first newspaper, The Nor'Wester. The editor of the paper, Dr. Schultz, was a member of the Canada First movement, a group whose members strongly supported the acquisition of the North West by Canada. The Nor'Wester became a valuable asset to the Canada First movement.... Besides promoting annexation and attacking Hudson's Bay Company rule, Schultz frequently published demeaning remarks about the indigenous peoples of the North West. Comments such as, 'The indolent and the careless, like the native tribes of the country, will fall back before the march of superior intelligence,' caused resentment and concern among the Metis and Indian peoples of the Red River area." |