‘Zones of Intelligibility:’ The Trial of Louis Riel and Nineteenth-Century Canadian Media Sorouja Moll A Thesis In the Department of Humanities Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Humanities) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada December 9, 2013 © Sorouja Moll, 2013 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Sorouja Moll Entitled: ‘Zones of Intelligibility:’ The Trial of Louis Riel and Nineteenth-Century Canadian Media and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: _________________________________________Chair Dr. M. Kanji _________________________________________External Examiner Dr. K. Anderson _________________________________________ External to Program Dr. H. Igloliorte _________________________________________Examiner Dr. C. Nelson _________________________________________Examiner Dr. M. Evans _________________________________________Thesis Supervisor Dr. Y. Jiwani Approved by ________________________________________________ December 9, 2013 _______________________________________ ii ! ABSTRACT ‘Zones! of Intelligibility:’ The Trial of Louis Riel and Nineteenth-Century Canadian Media! Sorouja Moll, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2013 ‘‘Zones of Intelligibility’: The Trial of Louis Riel and Nineteenth-Century Canadian Media” is a critical discourse analysis of Louis Riel’s 1886 trial transcript and, using a post colonial, intersectional, and critical race approach, I examine various Canadian media upon which the event was predicated. Using an interdisciplinary approach, my research project enters Canadian history in the mid-nineteenth-century setting of Riel’s 1885 high treason trial and uniquely draws together three distinct areas: Canadian media history, illustrative print culture, and the intertextual use of Shakespearean works in a selection of media. The 1886 trial transcript is my point of departure from which I address how the tripartite discourses of sovereignty, civility, and memory, each with inherent paradoxes, operate through the media to cultivate a specific national pathos that shaped the zones of intelligibility and naturalized the (mis) representation of Louis Riel, the Métis peoples, and Aboriginal Nations in Canada. My analysis of Louis Riel’s trial transcript is concerned with critically addressing the historic and inherently dichotomous verdict, guilty or innocent, to uncover what it elides. Here, I argue, Riel’s trial was not about his guilt or innocence, nor his insanity or sanity; Riel’s trial and his execution were about Métis people’s sovereignty. iii ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I! am profoundly grateful to my advisor and teacher, Dr. Yasmin Jiwani for her encouragement and brilliant acumen, especially when I felt that I was lost. Her knowledge, insight, and generosity are woven throughout this work; she is a constant and guiding presence. I am thankful to my Shakespeare Studies advisor, Dr. Meredith Evans for believing in me and letting me take Shakespeare to crazy places. Thank you for your keen intellect, creative energy, and for giving me courage. I am grateful to my advisor, Dr. Charmaine Nelson for her generosity and continual words of wisdom, her open office door, and her enduring support and encouragement. My thanks to the women who were the initial spark for this project and who continue to inspire me: Dr. Kim Anderson, Monique Mojica, Yvette Nolan, Helen Thundercloud. My thanks to my enthusiastic peer readers, Dr. Alan Wong, Dorota Lech, Leslie Cheung, Dr. Angela Facundo, and Dr. Peter Milner. Thank you for being so incredibly smart, saying yes, and reminding me to put a subject in my sentences. I am grateful to my brothers, Richard Moll and Edward Moll for their support, and to my father, Richard Moll, senior; he would have been very proud. I am thankful to the people who have endured my forced discussions about obscure nineteenth-century newspapers: Patricia Davenport, Tatiana Koroleva, Karla Dawn Packwood, and Dawn Owen. My thanks to Dr. Michael Keefer for the “extended” loan of his great grandfather’s scrapbook, in which I found Riel’s voice. I am especially grateful to David Milner for his love, encouragement, and for being happy to listen to me as I try to figure things out. This project is dedicated to the two women who have come before and after me, my mother Corrie “Jimmy” Kommer, and my daughter Baritte Rose Williamson. Thank you for your love and for just being you. iv ! TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 RESEARCH PROBLEMATIC 6 CENTRAL RESEARCH QUESTION 9 EPISTEMOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK 10 SOVEREIGNTY 10 CIVILITY 14 MEMORY, AS MEMBER RESOURCES 16 LITERARY REVIEW OF SOURCES SPECIFIC TO THE RIEL TRIAL 18 METHODOLOGY 24 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 24 CHAPTER OUTLINE 26 RATIONALE -WHY RIEL? 31 PROLOGUE 'THAT WHICH GOES BEFORE THE WORDS': MÉTIS HISTORY IN CANADA 35 INTRODUCTION 35 RUPERT’S LAND AND THE COMPANY OF ADVENTURERS:THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY 41 SELKIRK AND SEVEN OAKS 44 SEEDS OF SOVEREIGNTY 48 THE CANADA FIRST PARTY 52 THE RED RIVER REBELLION 53 THE MANITOBA ACT 57 RIEL’S EXILE 61 NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE 64 GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND ABORIGINAL NATIONS 66 THE INDIAN ACT 71 THE 1885 REBELLION 76 FROG LAKE 79 BATTLE OF BATOCHE 80! CHAPTER 1 TRIAL TRANSCRIPT: PARADIGM SHIFTS IN SOVEREIGNTY, CIVILITY & MEMORY 83 INTRODUCTION 83 SOVEREIGN CONCEPTS 88 THE TEXT:THE QUEEN VS.LOUIS RIEL 96 METHODOLOGY 97 THE TRIAL AND THE TRANSCRIPT 99 v ! CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS:TRANSCRIPT 112 QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS 112 SOVEREIGNTY 113 CIVILITY 124 MEMORY (MEMBER RESOURCES) 140 CONCLUSION 143 CHAPTER 2 'DISCOURSEMACHINEWEAPON': THE REGINA LEADER & THE TRIAL OF RIEL 146 INTRODUCTION 146 METHODOLOGY 148 TRIAL AND NEWSPAPER PUBLICATION TIMELINE 151 THE REGINA LEADER (WEEKLY EDITION) 151 REGINA LEADER NEWSPAPER FORMAT (FROM JULY 9, 1885) 153 TRIAL COVERAGE –THE REGINA LEADER (WEEKLY) 163 RIEL’S TRIAL:DAY ONE 163 SOVEREIGN FORENSICS 168 THE PROBLEM WITH (LAUGHTER) 173 RIEL’S SPEECH AND THE ACT OF MEDIATION 177 THE VAMPIRE INVASION 185 THE REGINA LEADER,DAILY EDITION; OR,THE NWMP VERSION 187 CONCLUSION 192 CHAPTER 3 NINETEENTH-CENTURY MEDIA: COLONIAL 'ZONES OF INTELLIGIBILITY' 195 INTRODUCTION 195 METHODOLOGY 198 LITERARY REVIEW 201 STEREOTYPE:THE MATERIAL AND PSYCHIC MATRIX 204 1493 213 THE HALIFAX GAZETTE 219 THE NOR’WESTER (1859 – 1869) 223 THE NEW NATION 225 CANADA EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY AND SCHOOL CHRONICLE 236 EDUCATIONAL WEEKLY (GRIP PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO.) JAN 1, 1885-87 238 THE CANADIAN INDIAN (1890) 243 THE INDIAN: A PAPER DEVOTED TO THE ABORIGINES OF NORTH AMERICA, AND ESPECIALLY TO THE INDIANS OF CANADA. (1885) 249 CROFUTT’S NEW OVERLAND TOURIST, AND PACIFIC COAST GUIDE 251 CONCLUSION 254 CHAPTER 4 vi ! ILLUSTRATIVE ZONES: THE 'POSSESSION' OF ABORIGINAL IDENTITY 256 INTRODUCTION 256 METHODOLOGY 258 PAUL KANE AND THE PEDAGOGY OF “THE INDIAN” 261 THE POSSESSOR AND THE SECOND SELF 261 WANDERINGS OF AN ARTIST:ACOLONIAL TRAVEL NARRATIVE 276 CUN-NE-WA-BUM’S DRESS 278 THE “HE-DEVIL”: A PALIMPSEST OF TREASON 285 RIEL AND ILLUSTRATING THE SOVEREIGN 288 COMMODITY RACISM:THE SELLING OF RIEL AND CIGARS 288 JOHN HENRY WALKER –ILLUSTRATING EMPIRE 292 RIEL AND BENGOUGH 297 THE VACANT CHAIR AND THE DOCILE BODY 300 CANADIAN PICTORIAL AND ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS: 1885 REBELLION 306 ILLUSTRATING HIERARCHIES:THE DEFINING MATRIX 315 CONCLUSION 318 CHAPTER 5 SHAKESPEARE & SOVEREIGNTY: CANADA'S NINETEENTH-CENTURY MEDIA 320 INTRODUCTION 320 LITERARY REVIEW 324 METHODOLOGY 326 METHOD TABLE 1: INTERPRETATIVE PROCEDURES 328 QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS: “SHAKESPEARE” IN EARLY CANADIAN MEDIA 333 METHOD 333 OUTCOMES 334 ANALYSIS OF DATA 335 FROM BRITAIN -THE EARLY DISPATCHES 338 EDMUND KEAN RECITING BEFORE THE HURONS 345 GRINCHUCKLE:“IN YOUR PRIVATE EAR …I SOMETIMES FEAR MY SOVEREIGNTY” 351 “SPAKESQUEER”: INTERTEXTUALIZING SHAKESPEARE IN THE GRIP 357 SHAKESPEARE STUDIES IN EARLY CANADA 361 CHARLES MAIR:CANADA’S SHAKESPEARE 364 THE REGINA LEADER:THE THEATRE OF TRIAL 369 HENRY V AND RAISON D’ETAT IN CANADA’S NORTH WEST 370 THE TEMPEST AND RIEL:CANADA’S LEVIATHAN 374 RIEL AS CALIBAN /CALIBAN AS RIEL 378 CONCLUSION 385 CHAPTER 6 RIEL AND THE STATE OF EXECUTION: LAST WORDS & PARTING MESSAGES 389 vii ! INTRODUCTION 389 MEDIATING EXECUTION: ‘REGARDING THE PAIN OF OTHERS’ 391 HEADLINES AND THE EXECUTION 396 THE REGINA LEADER: THE PRESS AND THE “ACT OF COMMON SPECTATORSHIP” 403 “THE CLOSING ACT” 410 RIEL’S “LAST MESSAGE” 412 PEDAGOGY AND MASS EXECUTION:DECEMBER 26, 1862 416 “… AND OTHER WERE HANGED” 420 CONCLUSION 424 CODA FINAL REFLECTIONS 426 ZONES OF INTELLIGIBILITY 428 2013 435 REFERENCES 439 APPENDICES 465 viii ! LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 — Page 61 “The Tragedy at Fort Garry, March 4, 1870,” woodblock illustration on paper, from The Canadian Illustrated News, Volume 1, no. 25. (Saturday, April 23, 1870). Public domain. Figure 2 — Page 81 Professor Oliver Buell, 1844-1910, Louis Riel addressing the jury during his trial for treason, photograph, no. 3623729, 1966-094, C-001879 (1885) Collection of the Library and Archives Canada. Public domain. Figure 3 — Page 91 Abraham! Bosse, 1651, Frontispiece from Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, by Thomas Hobbes, (1651) wood block on paper. Public domain. Figure 4 — Page 104 Anonymous, The jury members Walter Merryfield, Broadview;