The Manitoba Act and The banishment of louis riel:
Creating the fifth province of Canada, the Canadian Parliament passed the Manitoba Act on May 12, 1870. Because of all the lakes and rivers in the area, Manitoba was an Assiniboine word that meant "water of the prairie". The Act stated that the Métis lands would be protected. All the other land was the property of the Dominion of Canada. Peace needed to be kept until the transfer of power to a new official government. Under the instructions of Macdonald, a force of 1,200 soldiers were dispatched to Winnipeg. Fearing for his life, Riel fled the area, and was banished from Canada by the Canadian Government for five years, spending the next fifteen years in exile in the United States.