Thomas Flanagan - Louis \'David\' Riel Prophet of the New Wo torrent

Louis Riel believed that on 8 December 1875 he received a divine commission authorizing him to save the metis and reform the Catholic Church. He was a prophet, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the metis were the new chosen people. A new branch of the Catholic Church would be founded in North America, with its first Holy See in Montreal, and its second in Riel's birthplace of St. Vital.

The North-West Rebellion thus became as much a religious as a political movement; Riel believed himself a prophet to the end of his life, and he went to his death thinking that he would be resurrected on the third day.

Thomas Flanagan takes Riel's religion seriously and analyses it using categories developed in the literature about millenarian movements. He shows that Riel's religion, far from being simply individual madness, is typical of the nativistic and millenarian movements described by one author as the 'religions of the oppressed.'