Probably everyone in Canada knows the name of the small town of Batoche if they paid any attention to Canadian history in school. As the site of the 1885 Riel Rebellion it is probably one of the most well-known towns in Canada. However other than the bare facts that Riel and his band of Metis fighters were defeated by Canadian soldiers led by General Middleton I did not know much else about this famous battle. Maia Caron has dug into the facts and emerged with a story based on those facts that puts the reader right in the thick of the action.
Many of the characters in this book are based on real people but the central figure of Josette Lavoie is fictional according to the author’s Acknowledgments. Nevertheless she seems like a real person as Caron describes her. She was raised in the Red River Settlement and educated by nuns and priests in the Catholic church there. It was expected that she would become a nun but Josette could never really believe in the religious teachings. Her father was a supporter of Riel’s when he staged the first Riel Rebellion in 1870 and he was killed by soldiers after Riel’s government executed Thomas Scott. So Josette holds no love for Riel. When Gabriel Dumont goes to Montana to ask Riel to return to the Metis settlements on the Saskatchewan River to force the Canadian government to acknowledge their rights Josette is not interested in supporting Riel. Nevertheless when Dumont returns with Riel and his family she gets drawn into the cause. Her marriage is foundering as her husband Norbert is a violent man who cares little that Josette would die if she got pregnant again. Dumont loves his wife but he is drawn to Josette and appoints himself as her guardian against Norbert. Of course he is busy as Riel’s chief aide trying to gather support from other Metis communities and the Indian bands of the region. As they wait for word from Macdonald’s government about the reaction to their petition the communities go through a hard winter on the edge of starvation. It seems inevitable that when Macdonald sends troops to the area instead of negotiators Dumont will become the war chief. Riel waxes hot and cold about fighting. His mental fitness is questionable but he is still the saviour the Metis look toward. Josette thinks that Dumont would do a better job as the leader but Dumont is fiercely supportive of Riel. In the end the small band of Metis led by Dumont is overwhelmed by the superior numbers and firepower of the government troops but they did manage to hold off the soldiers for some days. Riel surrenders and Dumont heads off to the US. Norbert Lavoie was killed in the final action so Josette is left to raise her family in Batoche alone. That’s not quite the end of the story but I’m not going to reveal that.
Caron did an excellent job fleshing out the details of this piece of Canadian history; you can see that things could have gone differently if people on both sides had acted with concern for human rights and the rule of law. I am very glad I read this book and I hope Maia Caron will write more. ( )