Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Former Moose Jaw judge’s take on Louis Riel

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David Orr, who was a judge in Moose Jaw from

1996 to 2007, has written a book about Louis Riel.

By Lisa Goudy

When David Orr was a boy, an older Metis fellow, Harry Hourie, used to come into his father’s store in Regina.

“He was a huge old man, 6’6” or so.  He wore a cowboy hat and a buckskin jacket. He would’ve been 85 years old,” he said. “He told my dad stories of the old west,” said Orr.

“Listening to this old guy’s stories made me interested in the rebellion. He remembered it. He remembered the Mounties in their red coats. He remembered the militia in their red coats. He had actually seen Riel and it turns out his own brother, Tom Hourie, was the scout who captured Louis Riel after the battle of Batoche and that’s historically true too. I looked it up and that got me interested. I thought, ‘This old man actually remembers this incredible thing.’”
 
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