RIVYAYR PIMICÎWAN: We Are Always Somewhere

Four days ago marked 157 years since nineteen unarmed Métis riders, led by Louis Riel, confronted a Canadian government survey crew south of the Forks and compelled it to withdraw. The crew had been running a base line across Métis river lots for a township north of Ste. Anne. Nobody fired a shot. No weapons were seen. According to the surveyor's own memorandum, the riders stopped the work "by standing on the chain." The riders put their boots down on a length of metal meant to ensure the land was measured properly into squares. They refused to move. A boot on a chain. It was the first public act of the Red River Resistance, and it led, less than a year later, to the creation of the province I was born in. In 1836, the Red River Settlement had been surveyed according to the river lot system. The long, narrow strips inherited from seigneurial Québec, three kilometres deep. Every family had frontage on the water. Fish, transportation, drinking water. Then, a wood lot. Then, the hay of…