Louis Riel was one of the leaders of the Metis people in the aftermath of the American Civil War. For years, his relationship with the Canadian government was contentious, and indeed he was hung for treason. Today he has been deemed a Father of Confederation for his role in the development of Manitoba.
Closer to home, the post-Civil War years saw a period of raids by Irish-American veterans of the Union. They were called the Fenian Raids, and they involved insertions into Canada. The objective was to hold the country hostage to force the British to give Ireland its independence. Canadian soldiers and militia drove them back each time. Among the casualties of Fenian activists was the Canadian politician Thomas D'Arcy McGee, the most eloquent of the Fathers of Confederation, who had once been a Fenian in his youth before coming to Canada, but was now deemed a traitor by his former comrades for changing his world view and seeing the value of Westminster style Parliamentary democracy.
Both Canadian and American governments put their efforts into expanding west into the territories nominally under their names in the years following the Civil War. The speed in which they did so would lead to other conflicts- with the indigenous peoples already out there.
In 1868, Ulysses S. Grant was elected president. The hero of the Civil War settled into political life. His two terms would be riddled by scandal, generally because of those around him.
The Fifteenth Amendment granted the right to vote to black men.
In 1871, the Treaty of Washington between the United States and Great Britain settled many of the issues from the Civil War. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald represented Canadian interests, and ended up getting pretty much everything he wanted out of the treaty.
A border was now being established in the West, even with people already out there. The Blackfoot tribe would find themselves on both sides of that border.
Linda Manyguns is a contemporary Blackfoot. I listened to her commentary about the period.
I like the photo of Linda Manyguns.
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