generally agreed that, despite the inherent difficulties of establishing a colony at the Red River amid the fierce competition between the fur-trading companies, Macdonell must bear some of the responsibility for the colony’s initial failure. They have focused upon his character faults, his inability to inspire trust and loyalty among his people, his obstinacy, his arrogance, his unaccommodating temper, and his lack of staying power. It was these flaws, as well as his lack of shrewdness and diplomatic skill, that led to his failures. Either he never understood his situation, or worse, refused to come to grips with it. Nowhere is this better shown than in the decision to issue the Pemmican Proclamation. It was promulgated at a time when the colony was too weak to defend itself and it offered the NWC excellent propaganda against both the HBC and Lord Selkirk. His behaviour during those years suggests that he saw the colony as entirely separate from the fur trade but his point of view does not excuse an insensitivity that blinded him to the provocative nature of his actions. Through a similar blindness he alienated his own people, seeking out the company of "gentlemen" in preference to theirs. In later years, he lived at the residence of his brother John at Pointe-Fortune on the Ottawa River where he died in 1828. References External links Miles MacDonell Collegiate Miles MacDonell Collegiate Alumni Association Miles Macdonell 1767 births Year of birth uncertain 1828 deaths Canadian fur traders People of Rupert's Land People from Inverness Scottish emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario Immigrants to Upper Canada People of the Red River Rebellion Red River Colony Pemmican War