Exovedate is the name coined by

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which deri ...

leader

Louis Riel Louis Riel (; ; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first ...

and given by him to his council of the

Provisional Government of Saskatchewan The Provisional Government of Saskatchewan was an independent state declared during the North-West Rebellion of 1885 in the District of Saskatchewan of the North-West Territories. It included parts of the present-day Canadian provinces of Albert ...

during the

North-West Rebellion The North-West Rebellion (french: Rébellion du Nord-Ouest), also known as the North-West Resistance, was a resistance by the Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Nations Cree and Assiniboine of the District of ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. Ten years prior to this date on December 8, 1875 after attending a mass in Washington, D. C., Riel had a religious vision where God spoke to him in Latin. Riel believed that God had chosen him to be the divine leader of the Métis and that he had been given the mission to lead them to their promised land similar to how God had chosen Moses to lead the

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

. From this point onward Louis took the middle name "David" and called himself "the prophet of the new world."

Background

In order to facilitate Riel's political and religious ambitions he formed the Exovedate in March 1885. Individual council members were called Exovedes. The term is a

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

invented by Riel, derived from the Latin "out of" and "sheep", meaning "chosen from the flock". The Exovedate was composed of twenty men, including Gabriel Dumont (Métis leader), Gabriel Dumont and

Honoré Jackson William Henry Jackson (May 3, 1861 – January 10, 1952), also known as Honoré Jackson or Jaxon, was secretary to Louis Riel during the North-West Rebellion in Canada in 1885. He was married to Aimée, a former teacher in Chicago. He was b ...

. The majority of the Exovedate were Métis; however, it also included two

French Canadians French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...

, the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...

chief White Cap, and Jackson, who was a white English-speaking

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

and first to be baptized into Riel's new religion. The Exovedate's ultimate goal was for the betterment of the Métis who continued to suffer increasing marginalization and poverty in spite of the success that Riel had accomplished in founding the province of

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Win ...

in 1870. It was also a means by which Riel could proselytize for his new religion; however, it is not known to what extent the Exovedate understood or were indoctrinated into Riel's increasingly esoteric beliefs. They did however declare Riel "a prophet in the service of Jesus Christ and Son of God and only Redeemer of the world...". The final meeting of the Exovedate prior to the defeat of the Métis in the North-West Rebellion was on March 31, 1885.

References

* *{{cite book , title = Riel: a life of revolution, author = Siggins, Maggie, author-link = Maggie Siggins, year = 1994 , publisher =

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

, Toronto , isbn = 0-00-215792-6 North-West Rebellion Religion in Canada Councils

Background

See also

References