Louis Riel was a political representative of the Metiś people born in Winnipeg, 1844. Throughout Riel’s life, he was in an endless battle against the Canadian government for 
equality, respect, and land rights for the Metiś. In 1870 Riel served a 5 year exile sentence in America, due to his role as a leader of a group of Red River militants. Louis Riel was anything but a violent man in fact, Riel had always sought peace, especially for his fellow
Metiś. Unfortunately, peace was not the case when conflict took place between the North-West Rebellion lead by Riel and the Canadian Government. After the conflict, Riel surrendered himself as he believed it would benefit the safety of the Metiś. Riel was hung for high treason on November 16th, 1885.
Louis Riel has been through different eyes. Lemay and Gaboury designed and sculpted their portrayal of him. Lemay and Gaboury’s interpretation of Riel “in this sculpture as visually ominous, physically deformed, and very opposing. In this Heritage Minutes, insightful short film was produced by Historica Canada in the 1990s. The setting of the short film took place 
with Louis Riel with a noose hung around his neck. Throughout the video they continued toget into the internal thoughts of his. Based on these thoughts, they portrayed him as confident with the actions he took for the Mètis people. Riel believed he struggled and sacrificed for the greater good of the Mėtis, constantly battling against an “irresponsible” and “insane” government.
Back in the late 1800s, Louis Riel was only perceived as deranged; a mad man which was the corrupt Canadian governments view of him. However, Riel’s fellow Mètis had a different perspective on him. Overtime, more and more Canadians have gained insight that Louis Riel
wasn’t quite as deranged as the government had depicted him as historically. The more the Metiś had spoken out their perspective on Riel, non-Aboriginals opinions of Riel had evolved from mad, slowly into to heroic slowly over the course of a century.