<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Casualties and losses </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> None </Td> <Td> 1 (Thomas Scott) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Red River Resistance (or the Red River Rebellion, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion) was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by the Métis leader Louis Riel and his followers at the Red River Colony, in what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba . For a period it had been a territory called Rupert's Land under control of the Hudson's Bay Company . </P> <P> The Resistance was the first crisis of the new federal government faced following Canadian Confederation in 1867 . The Canadian government had bought Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869 and appointed an English - speaking governor, William McDougall . He was opposed by the French - speaking, mostly Métis inhabitants of the settlement . Before the land was officially transferred to Canada, McDougall sent out surveyors to plot the land according to the square township system used in Ontario . The Métis, led by Riel, prevented McDougall from entering the territory . McDougall declared that the Hudson's Bay Company was no longer in control of the territory and that Canada had asked for the transfer of sovereignty to be postponed . The Métis created a provisional government, to which they invited an equal number of Anglophone representatives . Riel negotiated directly with the Canadian government to establish Manitoba as a province . </P>

Who led the metis in the red river rebellion