The NWT, a HBC-dominated area, was granted to Canada in 1870, when the HBC gave up its royal charter. That was when the present-day provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan and the present NWT became part of Canada.
As a self-governing dominion within the British Empire, Canada showed its mettle in 1885 when it suppressed the 1885 Rebellion just with its own resources, using its permanent army forces and militia forces. The brains though could be said to be contributed by Britain - General Middleton, who led the main section of the government fores, was a British general who had had previous experience in colonial wars in New Zealand and India.
(And of course the young government of John A. Macdonald bears heavy responsibility for its mis-dealings in the Territories, arousing such discontent that the Metis took to arms to try to defend their rights as long-standing occupants of the land. Their rights were eventually recognized by the government after the shooting stopped anyway.)
The suppression of the 1885 Rebellion went something like all such British wars - the British lost every fight but the last.
Defeats at Duck Lake and Fish Creek did not stop the push. The Metis did not hold their ground even if they had won each fight. And even if they had tried to do so, the soldiers would have just gone around them - the Metis could not hope to hold a solid line across the whole Prairies against the slow but steady advance by the Red Coats.
The fights each in turn grew closer to Batoche, which was really just a symbolic capital of the Resistance. The taking of Batoche saw the killing of fewer than 20 Metis fighters, a small portion of the fighters, and secured the capture of neither Riel nor his military commander, Dumont. But it signalled the end of organized resistance. If the Metis fighters could not even hold Batoche, it showed they had no strength.
There was no bitter-end guerrilla fighting as seen in the Boer War a decade later.
Louis Riel stayed around Batoche and within days was captured. Later put on trial for treason, found guilty and was hanged in Regina on 16 November.
Gabriel Dumont fled to the U.S., returning to Batoche in 1893. Where he was eventually buried.
Other groups were pursued and eventually gave up the struggle as well.
Poundmaker surrendered on May 26.
Cree fighters and families under Big Bear held out the longest. They fought off Canadian troops pursuing them in the Battle of Frenchman;s Butte and the Battle of Loon Lake. They gradually dwindled in number, disappearing into the bush along the way. Eluding his pursuers, Big Bear turned himself in at the NWMP post at Fort Carlton in early July. (The story goes that he was friends with a NWMP officer and knew he was at Fort Carlton so turned himself in there to be sure of having at least one friend there.)
Poundmaker and Big Bear both were sentenced to prison terms.
Amnesty was granted for rank-and-file fighters.
Several murders that had taken place outside the fighting were punished. The largest mass hanging in Canadian history took the lives of eight men in November 1885. The presiding judge, Rouleau, later was prominent in early Calgary. The Mission neighbourhood (once known as Rouleauville) was formed around his mansion.
But also the government did not rely on military might, hangings or imprisonment to effect a peace. A commission of investigation held public hearings, and land scrip was issued to assuage the discontent.
And complaints of lack of representation was at least partially addressed. The NWT was given four federal seats. Alberta's seat at first was filled by former whiskey peddler D.W. Davis, running for the Conservative party, elected mostly by Calgarians. Former Metis rebels and other unsettled old-timers in the Saskatchewan valley probably found little satisfaction with Davis's brand of representation - the fate of many groups under our geographical-district election scheme.
With elections up to five years apart, it would not be until 1896 that Edmonton and north-central Alberta finally exerted an upper hand. That was the year it sent its first local representative to the House of Commons - and a Liberal at that - Frank Oliver.
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