Red River Settlement was a colony built at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers long before Confederation. It would become the city of Winnipeg. It became an official colony in 1812 with the arrival of settlers from the Scottish Highlands, known today as Selkirk Settlers.
Full Answer
How did the Red River settlement start?
Red River Settlement was among the unbound land, in the center of the continent with key waterways that enabled travelers to reach it from all directions. In 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company and its English and Scottish fur traders arrived on the coast of James Bay in northern Ontario and Quebec, and later Hudson’s Bay in northern Manitoba.
What was the original name of the Red River Colony?
Red River Settlement. The colony was founded in 1811–12 by Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of Selkirk, a Scottish philanthropist, who obtained from the Hudson’s Bay Company a grant of 116,000 square miles (300,000 square km) in the Red and Assiniboine river valleys. The official name of the settlement was Assiniboia ( q.v. ).
Who were the Metis of Red River Settlement?
The Metís of the Red River Settlement were divided into three socio-economic groups: Tripmen, Hunter and Farmer-Merchant. Most Metís were either Tripmen or Hunters, many of whom spoke Michif. Until the late 1860s, they took part in the semi-annual bison hunts then spent the fall and winter at the Red River Settlement on available river lots.
What is the story behind the tent at Red River?
Tent at Red River, 1821: A 15 year old artist, Peter Rindisbacher, an immigrant from Switzerland, painted this well known family scene inside a tent on the site where Fort Garry would later be built. The Hudson's Bay Company tried to monopolize the fur trade by outlawing all other traders.
Why was the Red River settlement important?
The Red River Colony was created to disrupt trades between the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company.
What happened at the Red River settlement?
Locusts devastated the crops in 1818 and 1819, and the greatest known flood of the Red River virtually destroyed the settlement in 1826. After Selkirk's death in 1820, his executors administered the colony and sought to reduce expenses by ending settlers' subsidies and refusing to recruit new European immigrants.
Where was the Red River settlement?
ManitobaRed River Settlement, (1811–36), colony in Canada on the banks of the Red River near the mouth of the Assiniboine River (in present-day Manitoba).
Who lived in the Red River settlement?
The first contingent of settlers, comprising not only Scottish but also Irish men and women, arrived in Red River in 1812. They were followed two years later by a group of Scots from the Kildonan region. In 1815 about 300 people, the majority of whom were Roman Catholic, were living there.
Who owns the Red River?
Thus, Texas (or its residents) own the property up to the gradient boundary along the southern bank of the river, while the federal government owns the land between the medial line of the river and the southern gradient boundary. Issues of jurisdiction again arose due to the highly transitory nature of the Red River.
Who was the leader of the Red River settlement?
Founded in 1812 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, the colony grew through times of extreme hardship into a multiracial society. It was the site of the Red River Resistance before reluctantly joining Canada as the province of Manitoba.
Why was there conflict in the Red River settlement?
The resistance was sparked by the transfer of the vast territory of Rupert's Land to the new Dominion of Canada. The colony of farmers and hunters, many of them Métis, occupied a corner of Rupert's Land and feared for their culture and land rights under Canadian control.
Where is what state is a Red River in?
The Red River is the second-largest river basin in the southern Great Plains. It rises in two branches in the Texas Panhandle and flows east, where it serves as the border between the states of Texas and Oklahoma. It forms a short border between Texas and Arkansas before entering Arkansas.
What states does the Red River go through?
From its headwaters in New Mexico, the Red River flows across Texas, along the Texas-Oklahoma border, and into Arkansas before reaching its confluence with the Mississippi River in Louisiana.
Is the Red River public land?
Red River as public domain. includes a 116 mile stretch of the Red River on the border between Texas and Oklahoma in Wilbarger, Wichita, and Clay counties. considered public domain. Issues discussed for this land included open public access for hunting, recreation, and management.
What river was the Red River Settlement?
Red River Settlement. The Red River Settlement refers to permanently and semi-permanently inhabited areas along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. The Parishes of St. Boniface, St. James, St. Charles surrounded the Forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers where Upper Fort Garry was located; adjacent to these were the Parishes of St. John and St. Vital.
When was the Red River Settlement established?
While Indigenous people had used the area around the Forks for millennia, the founding of the Red River Settlement dates to 1811. The first group of Lord Selkirk’s settlers arrived the following year. The area experienced a major increase in population (and decrease in tensions) after the amalgamation of the Hudson’s Bay and Northwest Companies in 1821. Upper Fort Garry, located at the centre of the Red River Settlement, was the headquarters of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). The HBC controlled the import, export and marketing of goods harvested from the land and those shipped in from Europe during the early years. Challenges by the Metís ended the HBC monopoly in 1849, allowing goods to be shipped in from St. Paul. By the 1860s, paddlewheel steamboats from the United States had largely replaced Red River cart brigades.
Who were the most wealthy people in the Red River Settlement?
Hudson’s Bay Company employees and retirees, such as James Bird and Cuthbert Grant, were among the wealthiest individuals in the Red River Settlement. Until 1870, permanent houses were usually constructed from squared oak logs using mortise and tenon (tongue and groove) techniques.
Where did the Italians follow the Wood Road north to Red River Settlement?
Paul, the expedition reached Minnesota Territory where the Italians followed the Wood Road north to Red River Settlement. Some considered their trip to be a dangerous one because of the recent Sioux uprisings in Minnesota.
Who concluded that those who left the Red River settlementbefore 1875 were pursuing the buffalo trade?
Francois Xavier, Gerhard Ens concluded that those who left the Red River settlementbefore 1875 were pursuing the buffalo trade as well as avoiding the racism of the incoming Protestant settlers from Ontario.
What tribe is Red Rock?
Red Rock Chapter of the Navajo Tribe
When were the Manitoba settlements?
The Manitoba Settlements at St. Daniel and the Boyne, 1871-1901
What was the North West Company's hostility to the Métis?
The determined hostility of the North West Company mounted, especially after the company men had won the Métis (people of mixed European–indigenous Canadian descent), entirely to their side. By cajolery and threat they persuaded settlers to desert, but a new group of settlers came, and the colony was restored in 1815.
What was the Red River Settlement?
Red River Settlement was a colony built at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers long before Confederation. It would become the city of Winnipeg. It became an official colony in 1812 with the arrival of settlers from the Scottish Highlands, known today as Selkirk Settlers.
What was the name of the area that was part of the Red River Settlement?
Boniface and west to White Horse Plains (Headingly). The areas we now call St. Clements, St. Andrews, Selkirk, and East Selkirk were the northern extensions of Red River Settlement. Before the concept of Confederation emerged, there was no Canada.
Where did the Saulteaux settle?
They established new camps on the banks of Netley Creek and places further inland near Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis. On 1 July 1867, the British North American Act (BNA) passed, creating the Dominion of Canada.
What was the territory of Rupert's Land?
The territory he claimed was huge, about forty percent of modern-day Canada from Alberta to Quebec and from Hudson Bay south to the northern United States. Red River Sett lement was in the territory of Rupert’s Land.
How many people lived in the Red River Settlement?
After the Scottish settlers arrived, others followed. In 1872, the population of Red River Settlement totaled about 15,000 people. 1. Most residents were of First Nations and/or Métis/half-breed heritage. Other residents were of European heritage from the countries of Scotland, England, Ireland, Germany, eastern Canada, and the United States.
When did Selkirk become a colony?
It became an official colony in 1812 with the arrival of settlers from the Scottish Highlands, known today as Selkirk Settlers. They sailed from their homeland to York Factory on Hudson Bay and travelled the waterways to Red River.
Why are the Saulteaux called Saulteaux?
They called them this because the people leaped and jumped across the rapids as they speared fish on the St. Mary’s River near modern day Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario).
What is the Red River?
The Red River is therefore a very young geographical feature. It is shallow, winding along a 550 mile course to Lake Winnipeg. The shallowness of the river, combined with its numerous bends and oxbows, plus the heavy annual snowfall that can readily occur in the prevailing climate, create ideal conditions for Spring flooding. Geological studies confirm that flooding was almost an annual event in the pre-settlement era. Several streams flow into the Red; but, as Brophy notes, the "stream network [has] great distance between streams, leaving vast areas untouched by any natural drainage areas." The land surrounding the river and streams is generally flat but also is filled with uneven depressions that can hold the runoff of the melting snow. Before the land was put heavily to the plow, these 'potholes' acted as "storage tanks" for ground water, and contributed nutrients to the soil. But the swamp-like ground aslo limited how much land could be planted; as late as the 1920s, the agriculture agent for Clay County Minnesota noted that farmers could increase their crops as much as thirty percent if drainage efforts were undertaken.
When did the first people live in the Red River Valley?
The first people in the Red River Valley were ancestors of the American Indians. They were here after 10000 years ago . This estimate is based on findings at several archaeological sites with either radiocarbon dates, or diagnostic artifacts known from other parts of the continent to date to that time period, known to archaeologists as the Paleoindian. At Browns Valley Minnesota, near Lake Traverse, remains of an ancient man with these distinctive early artifacts was radiocarbon dated to 9050 years ago. This is one of the most famous of all Paleoindian sites in North America.
What was the first settlement in Manitoba?
The first major agricultural settlement established by the British in the Manitoba region was the Selkirk Colony , in 1811. The colony was the brainchild of Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, a Scottish laird. Lord Selkirk had for years been seeking a place to establish a North American colony for displaced Scot farmers who had lost their livings when ever more land in Scotland was enclosed for sheep. The British crown and parliament had encouraged this ongoing process for decades, as a method of building the empire's profitable woolen goods trade; they had succeeded so well that between 1760 and the early 1800s over 40,000 displaced Scots had left their homeland for overseas colonies. In 1803 Selkirk had helped to settle some 800 homeless highlanders on Prince Edward Island. A year later he paid out funds to help another group establish the hamlet of Baldoon in southern Ontario. But it was the lands of the Manitoba prairie that drew his most avid attention. In 1808, Selkirk visited Montreal and met with shareholders in the Northwest Fur Company, the only real rival to Hudson Bay for Canadian pelts. After extended talks with the already renowned explorer and entrepreneur Alexander Mackenzie, Selkirk approached the board of directors of Hudson's Bay, in which he held considerable stock, and persuaded them to let him fund a colony on a huge tract of land extending south of Lake Winnipeg, reaching east toward Lake Superior and south nearly to the banks of the Missouri River. It encompassed nearly 75 million acres in all.
What did the American traders do on the Manitoba Plains?
American traders who did business with those Europeans living up on the Manitoba plains invariably made their expeditions with combination of canoes, flatboats and two-wheeled carts, usually drawn by oxen. The oxcart trails became the 'international highways" between the two countries. The cart trade with settlements like Pembina and the Selkirk colony, became very profitable. Norman Kittson's cart business grew to the point that by the late 1840s he employed hundreds of men and women between St. Paul and Pembina, and operated over 600 carts. (3)
Why did the British create the Hudson Bay Company?
In 1670, the British crown authorized the creation of the Hudson Bay Company for maintaining control of the trade in furs for this part of the continent. The Hudson Bay Company became immutably linked to the subsequent settlement and history of Manitoba and the Red River Valley.
What are the Plains Village artifacts?
The Plains Village artifacts are very similar to those used by the Oneota, a skilled group pf farming natives who moved into the eastern plains regions about 1100 years ago. Oneota natives may have been the ancestors of several plains "tribes" that European explorers and traders came into contact with in the late 17th and early 18th century -- the Omaha, Winnebago, Oto and Iowa.
How did the Red River Valley form?
The Red River Valley as it exists today emerged from receding glacier ice at the end last major ice age. Over a period of time that began about 14,000 years ago, an enormous "ice lobe" crept south from the Arctic, pulverizing all in its way and kneading the land into a new configuration. After reaching a point in what is today mid-Iowa, the ice sheet slowly receded northwards as the climate warmed, until about 12,000 years ago the land that is now the Valley was uncovered once again. The advance and retreat of the ice sheet had remade the land, smoothing it, in the words of geologist John Brophy, with deposits of "glacial and lake sediments so that the topography was now a broad, shallow basin" that gradually sloped away to the north. As melt-off and precipitation filled the low-lying ground a massive inland lake developed, covering some 370,000-430,000 square miles of ground, with depths of 200 to 700 feet. In the late 1800s, after the Swiss geologist Louis Agassiz, compiled evidence for the existence and impact of the ice ages, this massive lake was named Lake Agassiz. Lake Agassiz waxed and waned in size during climate changes over thousands of years, until the further retreat of ice permitted it to drain eastward and northward. Approximately 7500 years ago, the lake had disappeared, replaced by the Red River watershed that now extends from Lake Traverse (another product of the glacier age) on to the north.
Where did the French settle?
They had settled along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, with their homes along the river, and long narrow lots extending back from the river in the French Canadian style.
Who painted the tent at Red River?
to put the Métis in their place. A Disappearing Way of Life1840s-1860s. Tent at Red River, 1821: A 15 year old artist, Peter Rindisbacher, an immigrant from Switzerland, painted this well known family scene inside a tent on the site where Fort Garry would later be built.
Why were the First Nations so alarmed?
First Nations were alarmed when they heard rumors that the Hudson's Bay Company was selling their land (i.e. the First Nations' land) to the new government of Canada in Ottawa. The Métis were also alarmed. They feared they would lose their lands and their rights.
What river did Lord Selkirk live on?
In 1812 the Hudson's Bay Company gave Lord Selkirk a land grant of 116,000 acres centred on the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in the Red River Valley to bring in Scottish settlers.
What colony was formed by the British in 1867?
Outside the walls of Fort Garry. In 1869, the Hudson's Bay Company agreed to sell its territory to the new Dominion of Canada, which had been formed in 1867 by the uniting of four British colonies: Canada East (Quebec), Canada West (Ontario), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
Where did the Métis flee?
Many Métis families had fled the area for the western prairie spaces of Saskatchewan. where they hoped to regain their traditional freedom, far from the clutches of the Canadian Government and its business partners.
What expedition did the Métis and First Nations use to hunt buffalo?
The buffalo were declining in number, and the Métis and First Nations had to go further and further west to hunt them. In 1857 the Dawson-Hind exploration expedition arrived from eastern Canada to study the land. The expedition recommended that the Canadian government acquire the arable part of the Company's land for settlement.
The People of Red River Settlement Before Confederation.
Arrival of Fur Trade
- In 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company and its English and Scottish fur traders arrived on the coast of James Bay in northern Ontario and Quebec, and later Hudson’s Bay in northern Manitoba. When King Charles II of England established the Hudson’s Bay Company, he claimed all lands that drained into Hudson and James Bay. He called his new territory Rupert’s Land.The territory …
How Manitoba Became A Province
- Manitoba became a province and joined Confederation in 1870. However, in order to tell the story of how this came to be we need to go back a little further in history. 1. In 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company claimed ownership of Rupert’s Land and ruled over it for 200 hundreds. 2. By the mid 1860s, Hudson’s Bay Company officials agreed to transfer the land to the newly formed country …
What Does The Name Manitoba Mean?
- Steeped in ancient lore and legend, First Nations ancestors described the region of Manitoba as a place of Spirit, especially so in the narrows of Lake Manitoba northwest of the city of Winnipeg. There, strong winds send waves crashing against the limestone shore rocks creating a rhythmic surge like the powerful, steady beat of a drum, which the ancestors believed was the heartbeat …
Peguis/St. Peter’s Band and Settlement
- Prior to the region becoming the province of Manitoba, the land between east/west Selkirk and Lake Winnipeg was reservation land. It had belonged to the Peguis/St. Peter’s Band for over fifty years. On 18 July 1817, Chief Peguis officially claimed it when he and four other indigenous leaders, Le Sonnant, Le Robe Noir, L’homme Noir, and Premier, signed the first treaty of the reg…
Treaty One
- After Manitoba became a province, the Canadian government began land negotiations with First Nations people in the region. Many First Nations peoples did not understand the concept of owning land or Confederation. Nor did they speak or write the English language. This put them at a great disadvantage in negotiations with the new Canadian Government. However, the govern…
Residents of East/West Selkirk
- During the time of Confederation, residents of the east/west Selkirk region were a multi-cultural group of First Nations, Métis/half-breed peoples, and European immigrants.
Did You Know?
- Winnipeg was once called Red River Settlement.
- East and west Selkirk were the northern extension of Red River Settlement.
- Manitoba became a province on 12 May 1870.
- Louis Riel fought for the rights of the Métis people.