The execution of Thomas Scott is one of the great mysteries of the first rebellion because Riel had earlier pardoned Major Boulton, the leader of the second one. While some characterized Riel's actions as insurrection and treason, others saw it as a necessary measure to force the Canadian government to acknowledge and to begin real negotiations with the Metis. With the Ontario government putting up a $5000.00 bounty for Riel's head, he removed himself from the political scene for about twenty years.

Despite the execution of Scott, and despite calls from Ontario Orangemen to exact revenge upon the Metis for Scott's "murder," the Canadian House of Parliament passed the Manitoba Act in July of 1870. The parties agreed that the Red River Settlement would enter Confederation as the new Province of Manitoba (comprising a "postage stamp" of 11,000 square miles in the southern part of today's province) with representation in the House of Commons and the Senate.

Through the Metis List of Rights, Manitoba's official languages would be English and French and denominational schools would be safeguarded. The only stumbling block in the talks was the demand for provincial control of public land. Although the Metis were seeking no more than what existing provinces enjoyed, Macdonald feared they would obstruct mass immigration into the North West, a central part of his National Policy. He considered Dominion control of Manitoba's public lands to be non-negotiable. In order to settle the North West, Macdonald agreed that compensation would take the form of a retention of existing Metis land holdings and a 1,400,000 acre land grant to the Metis in recognition of their Indian title.

On May 2, 1870 the Manitoba Act (including most of the demands in the Metis List of Rights) was introduced in the House of Commons. Ten days later it became law. On July 15, 1870, Manitoba became Canada's fifth province: aptly stated by historian G.F.G. Stanley: "a national achievement of the New Nation and the personal victory of Louis Riel".

With the end of the Red River resistance and peaceful acquisition of the North West by Canada, Macdonald set out to transform Manitoba. He reneged on his commitments to Riel's delegates. Section 30 of the Manitoba Act gave the Dominion jurisdiction over "all ungranted or waste lands" in the province but Macdonald's regime considered all lands (including surveyed river lot farms occupied by Metis and the 1,400,000 acre grant) to be ungranted or Dominion land. Section 31 & 32 were reinforced when Macdonald requested the British Parliament to amend the BNA Act, 1857 to sanction what he had done in Manitoba. The subsequent amendment to this act confirmed the Manitoba Act by giving it constitutional force.

During the next decade, Parliament and the Legislature of the Province of Manitoba enacted a number of statutes. As a result of these alterations to the Manitoba Act about 85% of the Metis were denied the benefit of the land grants promised by the Act. Dispossession led to the dispersion of the Metis; their proportion of Manitoba's population dropped from 83% in 1870 to 7% in 1886. Two-thirds of the Metis people moved out of the Province of Manitoba, most between 1876 and 1884. Some moved to the north or into the United States; but a majority went to the South Saskatchewan Valley and to the settlements near Fort Edmonton where they joined or founded Metis communities. They resumed their demands for a land base in unison with those Metis resident in the North West before 1870.

By 1872, the Saskatchewan Metis had already petitioned for an inalienable colony of 1,800,000 acres of land. They asked to "secure to themselves the right to prohibit people of other nationalities from settling on the lands occupied by them without the consent of the community".

The Dominion Lands Act of 1879 had extended land grants to those Metis living outside of Manitoba in the Northwest Territories (today's northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Northwest Territories) in 1870, but it was not until March 31, 1885 (after the outbreak of the Northwest Rebellion) that Ottawa authorized the Street (Scrip) Commission to issue scrip. This scrip dispersement went to the children of the Metis (most of whom had left with their parents in 1870).

Metis emigrants from Manitoba fared even worse than their brethren resident in the North West Territories in 1870. Having been disqualified from land grants in Manitoba, they were denied scrip in the North West on the grounds their claims should have been settled in Manitoba. Likewise, they were denied homestead lands under the provisions of the Dominion Lands Act on the grounds their claims should have been settled by scrip. What a wonderful example of a "Catch-22" situation.

While the Federal government negotiated treaties with Indians and granted vast tracts of land to the Hudson's Bay Company and railroad companies, it ignored continuous Metis petitions for land title. The Metis were expected to apply for land as homesteaders.

Thus is the story of the acquisition of Manitoba into Canada. It is very clear that the tables could have turned in favour of the growing United States, had the Metis Nation not held such strong love and respect for the territory of Canada. Canada was growing from their exact roots, from the beginning territories of Ontario and Quebec, growing from their families and relatives and from the history that the Metis had forged. The Metis trusted and believed in the new country and threw their lot in with Canada and the promises of Sir John A. Macdonald, even though they were recognized as a viable force and a Nation unto themselves at that time. Their land was stolen, along with their rights and recognition as a founding people. Canada reneged on her promises to these founding people and it is only now, in the year 1998, that consideration is being made to make Louis David Riel a founder of Confederation. The Province of Manitoba recognized Louis David Riel as a founder of Manitoba in the year 1996. (See my page on Louis Riel.) Canada has much to make up to the Metis People.

However, the battle for recognition and a place within Canada does not end here, it moves onto the remaining Northwest Territory now known as Saskatchewan. Life in Manitoba had changed a great deal. The influx of immigrants was driving the Metis away. Stripped of their land and their way of life, they were moving farther and farther west to settle along the Saskatchewan River at places such as Lac la Biche, Qu'Appelle, Edmonton, Prince Albert, Duck Lake and Batoche. And their final stand in the battles of the Northwest Rebellion.