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A lot has been written about why Scott was executed. It may have been necessary to pacify the guards, or to impress his opponents with his sincerity. But the real roots of the execution of Thomas Scott came from the patterns of authority in the buffalo hunting camps. The people had spoken and the leaders could not overturn their decision.

In Ontario, the execution of Scott after a court-martial became a "murder" of a political martyr. In the actions of the Métis provisional government were the seeds of their conquest. The resistance had run its course by April 1870, they only had two more hurdles to clear. The first was negotiations between the delegates from Red River and the Canadian government over the terms of entry into Confederation and including terms of amnesty for those involved in the events. The second hurdle was how power and authority would be transferred for the provisional government to the new Lieutenant-Governor and the Canadian state.

When the delegates left for Ottawa at the end of March, they carried a third list of rights as the basis for negotiation. It was said that certain changes had been inserted secretly by Riel:

• The admission of the northwest into confederation as a Province
• That the lieutenant-governor be bi-lingual
• That there be a general amnesty covering all acts by all participants in the resistance.

• The establishment of denominational schools
• The creation of an upper house or Senate as well as the assembly, following the Quebec model.

When the delegates arrived in Ottawa, they discovered that the agitation over the death of Thomas Scott was still growing. Two of the delegates passed some unhappy time in jail before they could go on with the assignment to meet representatives of the federal cabinet and to go on with negotiating the terms of transfer.

The tragedy of the Red River Rebellion was the Riel-authorized shooting of Thomas Scott. As a result, Eastern Canada would settle for nothing less than Riel’s head on a platter. Colonel Wolseley's troops wanted blood. Leaving Fort Garry, Riel said: "We have fled because it appears that we have been deceived." Bishop Tache later said regarding the promised amnesty: ‘The Rt. Honourable John A MacDonald lied like a trooper.’³

British regulars under Colonel Garnet J. Wolseley (1833-1913) were dispatched to suppress the rebels, who gave up Fort Garry without a fight on August 24, 1870. Louis Riel fled to the United States.

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