Word: riel
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...Riel belonged to the community known as the Métis, a mixture of Native Americans and French settlers who lived along the Red River just north of Minnesota. In 1869 the land was ostensibly owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, who sold it to Canada. Fearful of having another French influence in Parliament, the Canadian government attempted to install an English Protestant governor. Angry that they were left out of the deal and determined to have elected representatives the Métis prevented the governor from entering the territory. Riel's knowledge of English, Montreal education, and overall...
...this point, around issue five, things take a strange turn. While in exile in the United States Riel has a vision from God, appointing him as a new prophet. Thus divined he returns to Canada to lead the Métis from bondage as Moses led the Jews. By now, many of the them have moved further west where they continue to rankle against the Canadian government. As Brown depicts it, the Prime Minister takes advantage of Riel's return to deliberately provoke a rebellion in order to send in troops on the foundering Canadian-Pacific Railway. Declaring that...
...Louis Riel has a vision...
Chester Brown takes admitted liberties with some aspects of the story. Some are as small as combining Riel's several defense councils into one character. Bigger leaps include the theory that the Canadian government actually conspired to cause the last Métis rebellion. In a remarkable move that lets Brown tell the best story and tell the truth, every deviance from recorded history is meticulously footnoted at the end. Deeply researched yet carefully manipulated, the final result goes past history and into literature. "Louis Riel" ties together all the ideas Chester Brown has explored before in disparate ways...
...Being a smart comix artist, Chester Brown makes the design of "Louis Riel" match its concept of history as viewed through a personal lens. He strives for historical accuracy in every way except the characters, who are deliberately cartoonish - sometimes absurdly so. Canada's Prime Minister, Sir. John McDonald has a comically gigantic gibbous nose. Riel himself starts out rather normal in scale but after his enlightenment becomes huge, like the Hulk in a wool suit. In the final issue, Brown cites Harold Gray's "Little Orphan Annie" as a major influence, and the comparison is dead on. From...