Metis (people)

Metis (people) (French métis, “mixed race”), name given to the ethnic group which emerged in the prairie region and north-west of what is now Canada during the 18th century, from the union of French (and later Scottish) fur traders of the North West Company and women from the indigenous tribes with which they traded in those regions, notably the Cree, Assiniboine, and Chipewyan. Their culture was predominantly French-speaking and Roman Catholic, but shared most other characteristics with their aboriginal neighbours, a way of life based around the hunting of bison. This lifestyle brought them into conflict with European settlers intent on farming, who first came into the region in 1812 when the Earl of Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, sent a group under the auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company to establish a colony at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, the site of present-day Winnipeg, Manitoba. Friction with the Metis, who sided with the rival North West Company, led to the massacre at Seven Oaks (June 19, 1816) in which 20 settlers were killed. Over the next few years, however, amalgamation of the two fur-trading companies and the determination of the settlers to remain produced a de facto peace that lasted another 40 years.

The Confederation of Canada in 1867 led the Metis to fear again that their way of life was under threat. Led by the young lawyer Louis Riel, the Red River Rebellion resulted in the white settlers of the area being taken prisoner and released only after the Canadian government had agreed to admit Manitoba to the Confederation with guarantees that its traditions would be preserved. One of the prisoners was executed, however, and Riel had to flee the country. Tension continued to simmer until the early 1880s, when construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway brought a huge new influx of settlers not just to Winnipeg but the whole of the prairie region, and brought about the final decimation of the bison herds. Riel returned to Saskatchewan in July 1884 and petitioned the government with the grievances of the Metis, but received no reply. In March 1885 the Northwest Rebellion began when Riel proclaimed a provisional government on the 18th, and a party of Metis defeated a detachment of North West Mounted Police at Duck Lake on the 26th. Soldiers sent from Ontario on the partially completed railway met the Metis under the brilliant guerrilla leader Gabriel Dumont and bands of Cree warriors under the chiefs Poundmaker and Big Bear in several engagements, climaxing at Batoche, Saskatchewan, on May 8-12, 1885. The troops overwhelmed the Metis, Riel was captured, and the political ambitions of Metis nationhood died.