Riel's Defence: Perspectives on His Speeches

Hans V. Hansen ed., Defence: Perspectives on His Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014. 336 pages. ISBN 978-0-7735-4336-2. $32.95 paperback.Riel's Defence, Hans V. Hansen's edited collection examining two trial speeches at his 1885 treason trial is a comprehensive, albeit at times repetitive volume. While it provides some novel interpretations of trial, the book ultimately suffers from the underrepresentation of Metis analysis and perspective.Riel's speeches are quite fascinating historical documents in their own right. The speeches were made against his lawyers' wishes and presented the legal defence he instructed his lawyers to prepare, but ultimately did not receive. In these two speeches, Riel asserted his sanity, contested Canada's claim of ownership over the still-indigenous prairies, and expressed the Metis right of self-determination even if overpowered by Canadian troops. speeches also represent one of the most detailed defences of his life's work, his opposition to Canadian colonization of his people, and an alternative vision for what would become Western Canada. These speeches, then, are important not just for Indigenous studies scholars and students as well as Metis interested in their own history, but for making sense of Canada's colonization of the prairies following the multiple Indigenous resistances of 1885.Indeed, the speeches that comprise the first section of the book are a welcome re-boot to traditional sources on trial. Hansen's skillful editing of these speeches is the result of a self-conscious attempt to provide charity in reconstruction. (21) In previous reproductions of the text, editors had lumped together different trains of thought in the same paragraph leading many scholars and popular historians to treat trial speeches like the ramblings of a disorganized and incoherent speaker. (21) Since, as Hansen notes, sanity was repeatedly questioned both at his trial and often still by contemporary scholars, judicious editing with an eye to a more ideal presentation of the texts allows for a more accessible and preferable reading.The articles, unfortunately, do not possess the same level of coherence. While the legal and rhetorical elements are given significant attention, the near total absence of Metis voices is very obvious from the outset. In this regard the volume does seem to reflect an older era where scholarly discussions on Indigenous did not always involve Indigenous people.In fact, there is only one Metis-authored article in the collection, Kerry Sloan's 'A New German-Indian World' in the North-West: A Metis Deconstruction of the Rhetoric of Immigration in Louis Trial Speeches. Sloan herself expresses awareness of the lack of Indig- enous writing on the origin of political program in Indigenous thought, arguing that the scholarly reluctance to acknowledge the fact that Riel's religious and political thought was influenced by Indigenous philosophies stems from the apparent lack of primary sources on the subject and consequent difficulties in 'proving' such claims. (182) Sloan's analysis of vision of settler immigration on the prairies is both sophisticated and tender, struggling to appreciate the very real threat faced by Metis in lifetime in numerous dream-like asides in which Sloan herself engages with ghost. Alternating between Borrows-esque dreams and detailed political analysis, Sloan is cognizant of weakened political position at his trial, but simultaneously aware of the need for him to protect his people's prosperity and political independence even after his capture - his much-touted prophetic mission, after all. Sloan sees his trial speeches as a defence of Metis landholdings and self-determination in an increasingly Canadian west.Unlike many other scholars in the volume, Sloan situates this defence not in eastern education, but rather Indigenous political thought. …

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