Louis Riel was viewed by some as a saviour, and by some as a traitor, Riel nevertheless became the voice of the Métis people during a turbulent time in Canadian history, and was largely responsible for the entrance of the province of Manitoba into Confederation.
The Red River Settlement land-surveying episode set in motion the irrevocable rise in tensions between the Métis and the federal authorities. The need for the Métis to organize themselves became obvious and Riel assumed the leadership of the movement.
The political organization of the Métis continued as a convention of representatives from the Métis and Anglophone population was set up. Four "Lists of Rights" were drafted. These constituted the basis of the negotiations leading to the entry of Manitoba into Canadian confederation.
On March 22, 1870, a fourth and final version of the List of Rights was drafted and sent to Ottawa by the trio of Ritchot, Black and Alfred H. Scott, all chosen by the committee to represent the provisional government. At that time, Riel played a more secondary role in the events that were taking place in Ottawa. He was devoted above all to the affairs of the Red River Settlement.
Following many years of stress, Riel suffered mental exhaustion, which in 1876, forced him to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Montréal, then in Beauport, close to Québec.
From 1877 to 1884, he stayed in the United States, between Keeseville, N.Y. (close to Montréal) and Montana, and obtained American citizenship in 1883.
On returning to Saskatchewan in 1884, he found that the Métis and the First Nations in southern Saskatchewan had a number of grievances. After many attempts to vindicate what the federal government, according to him, owed the First Nations and Métis, Riel, convinced that many hundreds of men in the North West Mounted Police were advancing towards them, formed a provisional government in Batoche, Saskatchewan.
Those actions angered English Canada, which, not willing to understand the validity of the Métis' and First Nations' claims, called on the Macdonald government to act. It sent the Canadian militia to Batoche, Calgary and Battleford, Saskatchewan. The Indian and Métis resistance could not survive against the strength of the Canadian militia. On May 12, 1885, the rebellion ended. Riel gave himself up to the North West Mounted Police. Accused of treason, he was tried in Regina where he was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Louis Riel was hanged on November 16, 1885, in the North West Mounted Police quarters in Regina.