Riel poem finds new home with U of S

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A small but important piece of Metis history has found a new home as part of the University of Saskatchewan library's special collections

A poem, handwritten by Louis Riel in his Regina jail cell just weeks before he was hanged for treason, is now part of the library collection. Riel had written the poem to his jailer, Robert Gordon on Oct. 27, 1885.

Before coming to the U of S, the poem had been in the possession of Edna Robinson of Burlington, Ont. Members of Robinson's family had found the poem while helping the 89-year-old woman move from the family home.

"That's when they came across the letter and she said, 'Oh, the University of Saskatchewan should have that. That would be the place for it.' So that's how we started, said Donna Canevari de Paredes, collections librarian with the U of S library.

Robinson died in November 2005, but family members carried through on her wish to see the poem added to the library's collection. The library received the poem earlier this year and found it to be in very good condition.

"It was very well preserved," Canevari de Paredes said. "It wasn't out in the sun for 50 years. It wasn't water-damaged. You can see the folds in the paper but it hasn't been folded in a long time, which was a good thing for it.".

Canevari de Paredes has put a lot of time and effort into researching the history of the poem, but all her work has produced little information. She discovered the poem was first published in the Hamilton Times, and then subsequently in another paper called the Daily Manitoban. While she wasn't able to find any archived materials relating to the poem's appearance in the Hamilton paper, she was able to find a microfilm version of the issue of the Daily Manitoban that featured the poem.

Very little is known about Robert Gordon, for whom Riel wrote the poem, other than that he was born around 1850, that he served with the North West Mounted Police from 1885 to 1887 and that he'd met Riel. But how the poem made its way from Gordon into the possession of the Robinson family is anyone's guess, although some believe Robinson's father, who had worked as a sports editor for another Hamilton paper, may have obtained the letter through his work at the paper.

Once the library finally had possession of the poem, work began to consult on the best way to include the Metis community in the official unveiling of the historic artifact.

The poem was unveiled on Nov. 16, Louis Riel Day, 121 years after Riel's death. It was standing room only in the university's main library as members of the Metis community gathered to watch Metis Elder Maria Campbell and U of S Indigenous studies librarian David Smith officially unveil the document.

The next step for library staff will be to determine the best way to preserve the poem while also making it accessible for the public.

The historic artifact will add to the library's already impressive collection of Western Canadiana, including collections focusing on Riel, the Metis resistances, the fur trade, the RCMP and settlement of the west.

"We are honoured to be the repository of this," Donna Canevari de Paredes said. "We're the custodians now, of this. We are very pleased that Edna Robinson and the Robinson family felt that we were the appropriate place, and I believe we are. One cannot say that Riel was of Saskatchewan. He was of many places, but he wasn't born in Saskatchewan. But of course the Northwest Resistance happened here ... and he was hanged here, which is a great black mark in the history of Canada, of course, but it happened here. So we are honoured that we were considered the repository and we are very honoured that the Metis community is in agreement with that."