"Do you know these people of mine are just as were the children of Israel, a persecuted race deprived of their heritage. But I will wrest justice for them from the tyrant. I will be unto them a second David." Louis Riel
Born on Seine River (a tributary of the Canadian Red River) Louis "David" Riel (history-maker and eloquent leader of the Metis people) fought with words, prayers and total conviction in the cause of the "Half-Breed" people and for the rights of all Western Canadians.
The eldest of eleven children, Riel was born on October 22, 1844 in a log cabin by a gristmill his father, Louis Riel Sr., had built. Riel Sr. believed in free trade and justice, passing these attributes down to his son. In 1839, Riel Sr. helped to break the Hudson's Bay trade monopoly through an organized resistance. The Metis were then free to trade with their southern neighbours.
As a student in the small river community of St. Boniface, Manitoba; Riel attracted the attention of Bishop Alexander Tache. The Bishop was delighted with Riel; and at the age of fourteen he was sent off to Montreal to study in a seminary in preparation for the priesthood. Both Riel's mother (Marie Ann) and his father were extremely proud of him.