The Riel Problem

Canada, the Métis, and a Resistant Hero

Albert Braz

• Publisher: University of Alberta Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781772127331
• eBook ISBN: 9781772127485
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Tracing Louis Riel's metamorphosis from traitor to hero, Braz argues that, through his writing, Riel resists his portrayal as both a Canadian patriot and a pan-Indigenous leader. After being hanged for high treason in 1885, the Métis politician, poet, and mystic has emerged as a quintessential Canadian champion. The Riel Problem maps this representational shift by examining a series of cultural and scholarly commemorations of Riel since 1967, from a large-scale opera about his life, through the publication of his extant writings, to statues erected in his honour. Braz also probes how aspects of Riel's life and writing can be problematic for many contemporary Métis artists, scholars, and civic leaders. Analyzing representations of Riel in light of his own writings, the author exposes both the constructedness of the Canadian nation-state and the magnitude of the current historical revisionism when dealing with Riel.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Map
• Introduction: The National Metamorphosis of Louis Riel
• 1 | I, the Prophet: Riel’s Image and His Self-Fashioning
• 2 | The Precursors: John Coulter, Joseph Kinsey Howard, and the New Riel
• 3 | Singing Louis Riel: The Centennial Quest for Representative Canadian Heroes
• 4 | The Bard’s Apocryphal Song: Rudy Wiebe, Pierre Falcon, and Riel
• 5 | Consecrating Canada’s Icon: The Projet Riel Project
• 6 | The Naked Martyr: Sculpture and the Shifting Image of Riel
• 7 | The Problematic Patriot: Chester Brown’s Louis Riel and Canadian Nationalism
• 8 | Confronting the Hero: Contemporary Métis Engagements with Riel
• Conclusion: Louis Riel in the Twenty-First Century
• Appendix: Variations on the “Riel” Artistic Prophecy
• Works Cited
• Index
• About the Author