Riel House, A House of Sadness

Riel House, a restored French-Canadian farmhouse from 1881, is located in St. Vital, a pleasant and tree-lined residential suburb of Winnipeg. This house has close ties to Louis Riel and was the home of his mother, Julie Lagimodière. Julie and her children, including Louis, first lived in a different house on the same lot. When the new Riel house was built in 1880-1881, a large portion of the building material from the former house was recycled in the construction of the new structure. Occupying river lot 51 along the Red River, Riel House was also the Riel family home where Louis Riel's descendants continued to live until 1969, at which time Parks Canada purchased it and converted it into a one acre National Historic site.

The house itself, a Red River frame building (a style of construction popular for this region) has been restored to the spring of 1886, six months after Riel's execution. At one time twelve people lived here.

Along one side is a forecourt of paving stones, broad lawns, picnic tables and display panels outlining the history of the Riel family. The farmland that once ran down to the river a half-mile away is now a modern subdivision.

Louis Riel never lived in this house but he visited here from Montana during the summer of 1883 when his younger sister, Henriette married Jean-Marie Poitras. After his execution by the authorities, his body lay in state in the front parlor before burial.

The Manitoba Free Press of 1885 reported that Riel's body was in a rosewood casket, a small illuminated altar at his head. The family never doubted Riel's charges against him. Madame Julie earlier told a reporter: "I think that he meant no harm to anyone and he was not working for his own interests. He has always been in trouble since 1869 and he is still in trouble; but he is in God's hands and I must leave him there."

The day on which I visited Riel House in the company of my friend, Carla, was a brilliantly sunny one, with gentle soft breezes and a cerulean blue sky. As such, it was very difficult to conjure up the atmosphere that would have prevailed during the days of December 10th and 11th, 1885 that Louis Riel's coffin lay in this house. The heavy and intense miasma of grief, encompassing the mourning of a race and the private anguish of a loving family, would have been oppressive coupled with the winter cold outside the house being biting and frigid. Riel's mother rocked Louis' little son in a hammock while Marguerite, his very young and ill wife, sat by his casket in a feverish delirium barely acknowledging those who came to pay their respects to her husband. Hundreds of Métis filed through this room to grieve for a man they have never ceased to honor as the greatest of their race.

Marguerite Monet Riel died on May 24th, 1886, six short months after Louis Riel was buried, leaving behind a four-year-old son, Jean, and a two-year-old daughter, Angélique. Louis' mother and sister cared for Marguerite tenderly during her final illness (she died of tuberculosis and a broken heart) but all this devoted attention wasn't enough to save her. So great was Marguerite's love for her deceased husband that perhaps in her last few moments during the shadowy transition between life and death, he connected with her and her spirit rose up to join his.

"Think of me as withdrawn into the dimness, yours still, you mine.
Remember all the best of our past memories and forget the rest.
And so, to where I wait, come gently on."

The morning we were there, the house was very peaceful and immaculate, the furnishings those of the Franco-Métis style of the 1880's. Our young Métis tour guide was well-informed and articulate. She showed us the summer kitchen at the back of the house, which featured a huge black iron stove. In the front parlor was a framed picture of a female saint on the wall, which belonged to Riel's mother. Underneath was a small table simply decorated on its surface with a candle in a holder and a photograph of Louis' wife, Marguerite. There was a bed in the corner of this room with a hammock hung from wall to wall; it was the custom of French-Métis people to rock their babies in a hammock rather than a cradle. The small bedroom in which Marguerite Riel died was immediately to the right of the front door. This bedroom was originally Julie's but she gave it to her frail daughter-in-law and the two young children.

This two-storey home has been painted white and trimmed in green and there is a plain wooden cross on the roof at one end. The grounds are neat and tidy. Métis from Western Canada and the northern plains states visit here frequently. They no longer mourn Riel……….it has been so very long. But neither do they forget.

Visiting Riel House was a very moving and memorable experience; I truly felt the presence of Louis Riel's spirit surrounding me.

For anyone interested in Manitoba history and the story of Louis Riel and his family, this quiet and beautiful site is well worth the visit.