Louis Riel, like other Red River Métis who had left Manitoba, heads further west to start a new life.

Traveling to the Montana Territory in 1879, he becomes a trader and interpreter in the area surrounding Fort Benton.

Observing rampant alcoholism and its detrimental impact on the Native American and Métis people, he engages in an unsuccessful attempt to curtail the whisky trade.

Riel had been primarily concerned with religious rather than political matters during his time of exile.

Spurred on by a sympathetic Roman Catholic priest in Quebec, he had been increasingly influenced by his belief that he is a divinely chosen leader of the Métis.

Modern biographers have speculated that he may have suffered from the psychological condition megalomania.

His mental state had deteriorated, and following a violent outburst, he had been taken to Montreal, where he was under the care of his uncle, John Lee, for a few months, but after Riel disrupted a religious service, Lee had arranged to have him committed in an asylum in Longue Pointe on March 6, 1876 under the assumed name "Louis R. David".

Fearing discovery, his doctors soon transferred him to the Beauport Asylum near Quebec City under the name "Louis Larochelle".

While he suffered from sporadic irrational outbursts, he had continued his religious writing, composing theological tracts with an admixture of Christian and Judaic ideas.

He had consequently begun calling himself Louis "David" Riel, prophet of the new world, and he prayed (standing) for hours, having servants help him to hold his arms in the shape of a cross.

Nevertheless, he had slowly recovered, and had been released from the asylum on January 23, 1878, with an admonition to lead a quiet life.

He had returned for a time to Keeseville, where he had become involved in a passionate romance with Evelina Martin dit Barnabé, sister of his friend, the oblate father Fabien Barnabé, but with insufficient means to propose marriage, Riel had returned to the west, hoping that she might follow.

However, she had decided that she would be unsuited to prairie life, and their correspondence soon ended.

In the fall of 1878, Riel had returned to St. Paul, and briefly visited his friends and family.

This is a time of rapid change for the Métis of the Red River—the buffalo on which they depend are becoming increasingly scarce, the influx of settlers is ever-increasing, and much land is sold to unscrupulous land speculators.