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Bishop's North-West war map
ca. 1885
The map poster shown here was one of the more sensational
items produced during the North West Rebellion. All
the pictorial elements were copied from government publications,
or in the case of the map, from a brochure published
by the Canadian Pacific Railway. By dramatizing the
brutality of war, the scalping scene was obviously meant
to catch the public's attention and perhaps their money.
With the exception of the portrait of Louis Riel, none
of the scenes had any obvious connection to the Métis.
[more]
Fifteen years after organizing the first armed resistance
to encroaching federal power at Red River, Louis Riel
returned to lead a second rebellion. In mid-March
1885, Riel seized some arms near Batoche and established
a provisional government with himself as President
and Gabriel Dumont as Adjutant-General. But Riel underestimated
how much the times had changed. The North-West Mounted
Police was now stationed in the West, along with thousands
of white settlers and a partially completed Canadian
Pacific Railroad, all of which tied the region more
closely to eastern Canada.
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