West of Canada….

1. West of Canada…. What else was going on, other than discussions between the French, English and Maritime People and Provinces, while Canada move towards Confederation?

2. Rupert’s Land • All the land controlled by the Hudson’s Bay Company (7 770 000 km2) • The area became know as the North West • Naturally became the next area to join in a Union with the other Provinces (Confederation)

4. First Nations People 1800’s • 30 000 to 40 000 1st Nations People lived between the Great Lakes and the Rockies • Ojibwa, Cree, Sarcee, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, (and Metis) • Fishing, Trapping, Hunting, Buffalo Hunting • Native Men trapped and guided for the HBC and NWC • Women made pemmican, canoes, snowshoes, moccasins and traded for metal pots, guns, clothes, tools that made hunting easier

5. Assiniboia: The Red River Settlement • Lord Selkirk (Thomas Douglas) • Scottish nobelman who wanted to bring sheep farming to Canada in Rupert’s land. • The government wouldn’t grant him the land because it was granted to the HBC • The HBC stocks went down and Lord Selkirk bought over 50% of the shares, and gained control of the company.

6. Red River Settlement • 300 000 square kms • Valley of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, now known as Manitoba (and stretched into the U.S.) • This area was heavily relyedon by the North-West Company, who used the area for access to the Great Lakes, and for a food source (pemmican) • Where the Metis had settled in the early 1800’s

7. Métis • Largest group of people in the area (out of the 5000 people 1000 were Caucasian and 4000 were Métis) • English, Scot, or French fur traders married Native Women. • Able to draw culture from all sides, spoke English and French • Educated in British Schools (in BNA or Great Britain) • Work: traded, worked the posts, worked for the fur trading companies, women supplied pemmican to the fur traders.

9. Conflict in the Red River Settlement Métis: • The Métis settled there and were already farming for several generations (in the Seigniorial System Ways) when Selkirk came with Scottish settlers. • The Cree and Métis felt that Selkirk’s settles would bring an end to their traditional way of hunting (increase farmland would decrease buffalo range land). • Selkirk blocked the Métis from supplying pemmican to the fur-traders, and hunting buffalo (“Pemmican Proclamation”) making them very angry and ending a huge source of income and food. • The Métis and Cree still helped the newcomers by providing food and assistance

10. Seven Oaks • The NWC tells the Métis that the settlers will ruin their lives and they should destroy the crops and homes of the settlers. • By 1815 only 60 settler remained. • Governor Grant of Red River and Governor Semple of Rupert's Land had a brief battle against the Metis in which 20 settlers, 1 Métis and Governor Semple died. (no settlement)

11. Louis Riel • The Métis got even angrier when the government sent out surveyors to title the land in 1869. • Because the Métis used the Seigniorial System of long, river-front farms, and the British used the square block system, the Métis decided to put a stop to the surveying. • Louis Riel, a Red River Métis, educated in Montreal comes back to be a leader in Red River. • Le ComiteNaional de Métis: to bargain with the Canadian Government over Métis land, language, religious rights. • They blocked the new Lieutenant Governor McDougall from entering the Red River area • Seized Fort Garry from the HBC (without firing a shot)