| 6ixStringJack: Sounds like your Indian name wouldn't be Pathfider either, huh? |
| 6ixStringJack: I remember back when I was on the wrestling team in high school and some of the guys on the team were huge into a movie called Vision Quest (Which I've never seen and I should watch one day). Very long story short, me and a few guys got lost while the team was out running in the woods and since I was the guy everyone knew best of the 3 of us, they gave me the nickname Pathfinder, and I think that came from the movie, which is at least loosely related to native Americans, if memory serves. |
6ixStringJack: Yeah. With Riel I don't think I was expecting to see him dressed up to the 9's in feathers and tanned leather or anything, but all the men just looked so dorky in those old cordory suits and those hair styles back then. I was expecting some towering Chad of a warrior when I saw him and I was like, oh... okay.  They got any pictures or drawings of him when it didn't look like he was ready for a day at the office? |
| 6ixStringJack: Haha. Don't feel bad. I couldn't find my way out of a paper bag. The only time I ever know what direction I'm facing is if it's sunny and I'm outside. I could go to the same place 10 times and still need a GPS to get me there on the 11th time. I think too much, especially when I'm driving and highway hypnosis is a very real thing. I only know any of this because I'm looking at maps. |
| Brenda: Riel is a French name and the Metis for the most part half-French, half-First Nations. Riel's blood line is probably something like mine. Enough French mixed that he didn't look especially Cree. That was the thing back in the day. All old pictures you see men dressed like that. So, that probably has thrown you off. |
Brenda: I see what you mean now Jack. Yeah, I guess that is right. Should tell you right now, I never inherited my dad's sense of direction.  And I forgot which direction Deadwood is in. |
| 6ixStringJack: Was Riel part European? It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the few that I've seen of him don't look particularly Native to me. All the pictures I saw shows him in a suit from the time too, so that could really be throwing off my perceptions here too. |
| 6ixStringJack: "Brenda: No the Prairie provinces are over Montana and North Dakota." Yeah. I was just meaning the latitude. If I'm looking at the map right, most of what we're talking about was taking place east enough to be on the east end of North/South Dakota while Deadwood is just about as far West as you can go in South Dakota. |
| THG: |
| Brenda: This an early morning test. Had something strange happen last night. So testing. |
| Brenda: It was. But never underestimate the stubbornness of a Scotsman. Sir John A. MacDonald was going to get that railroad through no matter what. Government didn't have enough money at the time, so they had to go to wealthy businessmen to get the rest. There was also a lot of blasting to be done as well. Getting through the Laurentian Shield for one then through the Rockies. Huge amount of effort to get the CPR built across Canada. And again we come back to Riel. Railroad went through Metis and Cree lands. |
| Brenda: No the Prairie provinces are over Montana and North Dakota. |
| 6ixStringJack: That would still be a huge amount of milage back in those days though when you consider the settling and building taking place. Not like hopping in a car and driving down the freeway from the east side of SD to the west side in 2025. |
| 6ixStringJack: I just looked, figuring that Reil's events probably took place much further east than Deadwood given the similar timeline, but that's not really much the case either. The Red River is essentially at the east side of South Dakota, while Deadwood is almost on the Western border of the state. |
| 6ixStringJack: That's what tripped me up... I figured expansion in Canada would have taken place after the expansion further south, so I was thinking these events would have taken place quite a bit later. |
| Brenda: I've watched too many westerns in my time, which back when I was growing up didn't give you the full picture. "The Last Spike" was a mini series when I was in elementary school about the building of the CPR, the Canadian Pacific railroad and covered the Riel Rebellion. There is an official provincial holiday in Manitoba for him. Statues there as well. Yes, we do for sure. |
| Brenda: It would have made a good Deadwood story. Sorry, I should have mentioned the years. This all took place between 1869 to 1885 when he was executed. Deadwood from looking up comes in around the same time, 1870s. The Canadian prairies were pretty sparsely populated before then. Ottawa was still in its infancy then, Sir John A. was the first Prime Minister of Canada. Also at this time Upper and Lower Canada had become just Canada at this time. That is also why the railroad was being built. Keep the Prairies as Canadian. A lot of cities and towns on the Prairies started out a trading posts. Places like Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary and other place. |
| 6ixStringJack: I don't think I've ever watched anything like that. A show where the wars are over and the new governments have been established. The fighting is over, but the hate and pain and all of those base instincts just never go away. Time over generations can heal things, but for any of those men, women and children, on either side... could you imagine it? What that would be like, living that way in that time? ... ah shit... we sure take a lot of stuff for granted in the future, don't we Brenda. |
| 6ixStringJack: Sounds like it all could make a good story like Deadwood. Although you've never said when this was all going down, I have to guess that it all took place quite a few years after the events in Deadwood took place. It seems like in Riel's story, even though the government was still in its infancy, it was already in the process of being officially established there and then by his 3rd election they were already a force and had just been continuing to grow. Where most of Deadwood was all before the government rolled in after letting everyone else do the hard work. |
| Brenda: True in some ways. But with Sir John A's government wanting settlers to out to the Prairies. And the settlers wanted assurances that the government would keep them safe. Hence the formation of the RCMP, which was the first law West of Ontario and also the first military Canada had. After the third time Riel knew that the RCMP would be coming for him |