Louis Riel, Sr.

Who was Louis Riel, Sr.?

Louis Riel Sr. was a farmer, miller, Métis leader, and the father of Louis Riel.

Born in Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan, Riel was the eldest son of Jean-Baptiste Riel, dit L’Irlande, a voyageur, and Marguerite Boucher, a Franco-Chipewyan Métis. The Riel family moved back to Lower Canada while Louis was a child. He was educated in Quebec, learning the trade of carding wool. He joined the fur trade with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1838 and was stationed at Rainy River, Ontario for several years, where he fathered a daughter named Marguerite in 1840. He left the HBC in 1842 and returned to Quebec with the intention of joining the priesthood at the Oblates of Mary Immaculate at Saint-Hilaire, but withdrew a year later. He returned to the Canadian West, settling in the Red River Colony on a river lot in Saint-Boniface. He married Julie Lagimodière, daughter of voyageur Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière and his wife, Marie-Anne Gaboury in January, 1844. Together they had eleven children, and by all accounts formed a devout and close-knit family.

Louis Riel Sr. was an active participant in the Red River Métis community.