Louis Riel

reference: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/louis-riel/

In Another Person's Shoes

Lord Selkirk (A.K.A. Thomas Douglas)
Thomas Douglas was a male Caucasian from Scotland born on June 20th, 1771, and died April 8th, 1820. Lord Selkirk was born at Saint Mary's Isle, Scotland. Thomas Douglas was the youngest of 13 children. Lord Selkirk was the 5th Earl of Selkirk. He was a well known Scottish philanthropist. He was also a lawyer, and owned land. Mr. Douglas became Earl when he inherited all of his family's wealth. Thomas Douglas was very angry about the treatment of the Scottish Clearance victims, and wanted to help. So, he bought enough shares of the Hudson's Bay Company, that he could buy a lot of land. He then offered this land to Scottish Clearance victims for free. The land he bought is now known as "The Forks" in Winnipeg. At the time however, it was Rupert's Land. Lord Selkirk bought about 40468 hectares of land. After the Battle of Seven Oaks, Thomas Douglas had four offence charges due to him taking over Fort William from the North West Company. A lot of money was spent by Selkirk defending his name in court against his charges. Not long after his court battle, he died (April 8th, 1820). Ironically, the two companies (HBC) and (NWC) merged only a year after his death. 
References: Wikipedia, Thomas Douglas 5th Earl of Selkirk
last modified November 14th, 2016
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Douglas,_5th_Earl_of_Selkirk

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This Reminds me of:

In our grade 11 History course, the topic of Leaders came up when talking about the First Peoples. As we learned about the ways of the First Peoples, I couldn't help but notice how similar their societies functioned to ours (in the sense of "government" or "leadership"). In Canada, we have what is called a democracy. We as people, have a lot of freedoms in speech and are free to speak our opinions. Different areas also happen to have personal representatives, chosen by voting. Although our country does happen to be represented by one person (prime minister), it doesn't necessarily mean that we are controlled.

The First Peoples also happened to have someone to represent their groups. This person was elected through various ways, but often in a group decision. In order to be a leader nowadays, you have to have something to offer. It’s more than just randomized choosing. This was the same back when the First Peoples were around too. Things like family ties, area, physical abilities, and other things played a role in who would be appointed to be the leader. We look for different things in a leader, but the idea if having some type of plan or direction for the group remains the same. We as people try to find someone who will benefit everyone. Not only that, but we look for someone to represent us in a good way. Things like gender roles have no real meaning back when the First Peoples were still around. In our communities and work places, gender roles aren't a big deal (anymore). The whole idea of government and working together for the people's benefits happens to also be a similarity. 

 Both we as people now and back then focused hard on making sure that everything stayed in working order and that everyone was happy. In both people, the majority of decisions are/were made in the hopes of bettering both the community and the people who live in it. To be important in the community back then, you had to be smart. The same idea applies now. There are certain qualifications as to who gets chosen to represent the peoples. Which happens to be very smart if you think about it; it shows that the First Peoples and our societies are alike in a good way. Governing a town or city is quite difficult and stressful, as would governing a colony or group of people. The person in charge would have a lot of responsibilities. This didn’t change over time ether, because our government is very important nowadays and are needed for decision making. Without a type of government or system, both peoples would have struggled greatly to strive. Things like when to hunt, who hunts, where they hunt, what animal to hunt, etc... Are the types of decisions that the leader of the group may have had to make. For our society it would be things like: making/enforcing laws, politics, taxes, etc… Both peoples had a very organized system, and everyone is open to helping.