Batoche is the promised land. In 1884, the buffalo have disappeared from the plains, and J.A. Macdonald needs the fertile land along the Saskatchewan River for European settlers. But this raw wilderness has long been claimed by the Métis.

They have invited Louis Riel, the exiled rebel leader, to fight for their farms, unaware that he considers them one of the lost tribes of Israel, and he the prophet David meant to save them from tyranny.

Josette and Gabriel Dumont draw closer to one another in their struggle to manage Riel, who is determined that he will meet the Dominion army only in Batoche, the City of God. When General Middleton and his soldiers storm their rifle pits, the Métis question the man with the courage to rise against the might of a general obsessed with avoiding the same mistakes Custer made at the Little Bighorn.

Is Riel God's instrument or a mad saint? (From Ronsdale Press)