When he was a student in Paris, where he was preparing for the history aggregation, Jean Meyer discovered by chance in documents from the University of Cambridge a five-page notice devoted to a leader who had led a mixed-race revolt in the distant Manitoba at the end of the 19th centurye century. It was love at first sight. He was only 22 years old then, but the name Louis Riel never left him. He did not yet know that he would soon settle in Mexico, where he notably wrote a history of the Mexican Revolution. This passion would lead him years later to Montreal and Ottawa to consult the archives.
We finally had to wait 60 years after this first discovery for this biography to finally appear, Louis Riel. Prophet of the New World (Gallimard). The first in French in a very long time.
It is no coincidence that it is written by a specialist in Latin American civilization who has lived in Mexico for years. “Among Louis Riel’s admirers, we find the great hero of the struggle for Cuban independence, José Marti,” says the historian. A few months after his death, the Brazilian poet Mathias Carvalho paid him a vibrant tribute in a long poem entitled American Poems (Louis Riel. American poems, Trois-Pistoles editions). In short, Riel was not only a hero among the Métis, Indigenous peoples and Quebecers, but also throughout Latin America.
Heir of Champlain
The leader of the Red River (1869-1870) and Batoche (1885) rebellions “represents for me a generous and reasonable vision of the cohabitation of peoples,” says his biographer. “He inherited the French tradition which had dominated until the treaties imposed on the Indians who were then locked up in reservations. He saw the Métis movement as unifying, in the continuity of Champlain, who said “our boys will marry your daughters, and we will become one people”. »
For Meyer, the French, but also the Hispanics, had a way different from that of the Anglo-Saxons of entering into contact with the indigenous peoples. He recalls in particular that in New France as in Mexico, “in all cases, there was biological interbreeding, men slept with women and had children.” “The conquistador Hernán Cortés even forced his captains to marry Indian princesses. His firstborn and only heir, Martin, illegitimate child of an Indian mother who was also Cortés’ advisor and interpreter, would be sent to the continent and educated with the greats of Spain. In Puritan England, one could not imagine such a thing. »
Jean Meyer obviously does not deny the abuses, wars and massacres, but he recalls that in the United States, state laws prohibiting marriages between whites and blacks were only abolished in 1964. In this regard, he also quotes his Mexican friend from the University of Chicago, Mauricio Tenorio, who recently wrote a small book with a symbolic title: Elogio de la impureza (Praise of impurity). A book, he says, that his American colleagues don’t like at all.
“In the same space of North America, you had very different ways of coming into contact with Indigenous people. I believe that the religious variable, opposing a Puritan society and a Catholicism that Protestants accuse of being a little pagan and too tolerant of sin, explains this crossbreeding in New France and Mexico. »
Riel, mystical leader
All historians confronted with the journey of Louis Riel must confront these years during which the Métis leader had mystical visions. While there was still a price on his head, he was even interned under a false name at Saint-Jean-de-Dieu, then at Saint-Michel-Archange. Could he be crazy?
His main biographer, George Stanley, associated him with the many mystics in religious history. For Meyer, who compares him to Sitting Bull, Riel fits perfectly into the tradition of indigenous leaders.
“I see him as a shaman, a man who has visions, which does not necessarily mean madness in the clinical sense. It is believed that Sitting Bull was a war leader and it was he who defeated General Custer’s Seventh Cavalry Regiment. Now, it wasn’t him, but Crazy Horse. In Indian nations, there is the political and religious leader, like Sitting Bull, and the military leader who directs operations, like Crazy Horse. In 1884-1885, during the last confrontation in Batoche, Saskatchewan, we found exactly the same relationship between Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont. This separation necessarily implies consensus and dialogue. But it can also have negative consequences. Like when Dumont wanted to wage a guerrilla war, something the Canadian army feared, but Riel had forbidden him to do so. »
Because Riel was a non-violent person who had a horror of blood. He was very proud that between his arrival in Saskatchewan, in July 1884, and March 1885, there was no violence. But that was without taking into account his irreconcilable enemy, John A. Macdonald, who was both prime minister and superintendent general of Indian Affairs. His famous imprecation has gone down in history: “Louis Riel will be hanged, even if all the dogs of Quebec bark in his favor. »
“He won’t deviate from it for a moment,” said Meyer. The Indians and the Métis are an obstacle in his path — and his railway! —, and they must be deleted. Riel will be hanged. But also eight Indian chiefs during an execution which the families were required to attend. Then the Indian nations will be locked into reservations. The sinister boarding schools will follow where attempts will be made to turn these children into white men. It was the absolute opposite of the tradition and vision of Louis Riel. » Who, by the way, spoke French, English, Latin and three indigenous languages. We feel here, says Meyer, the influence of Europe in the second half of the 19th century.e century, that of intolerant nationalism, the conquest of Africa and the sharing of the world where modern anti-Semitism is born.
“After the crushing of Riel, Canada will adopt the reserve system which until then was foreign to it. It will follow the American model,” he says. The hanging of Riel will also blow into the embers of Quebec nationalism, “which then turns away from Canada to concentrate on Quebec.” “Moreover, among the 300 books devoted to Riel, the majority are in English,” he notes.
For Meyer, Riel’s trial was an injustice from start to finish. The only question the jury had to answer was whether he was guilty of rebellion, which automatically meant death. “Obviously he was guilty, which did not prevent this jury, although composed entirely of English-speaking Protestants, from asking for leniency. The president will read his decision with tears in his eyes. »
A family matter
For the Meyers, Louis Riel is a family affair. Inspired by the patriarch’s work, his son Matías, who now lives in Quebec, has just completed a film illustrating Riel’s last eight days in prison. Shot in black and white with very limited means, Louis Riel or The Sky Touches the Earth will have its world premiere on June 15 in Mexico City.
At 82 years old, Jean Meyer would dream of being able to present his book in Canada with his son’s film. In this one, it is Matías Meyer who plays the character of Louis Riel himself. However, he had found a Métis actor from Manitoba to play the role. But he suddenly withdrew, for fear that his community would criticize him for starring in a film directed by a director who was not Métis.
What irony! First, for a filmmaker born to a French father and a Mexican mother with indigenous origins. Then, for a hero whose universalist thought had always risen above races.