Coordinates: 49°00′00″N 97°14′15″W

Red River Colony

The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement),
also known as Assinboia, was a colonization project Red River Colony
set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of
British colony
Selkirk, on 300,000 square kilometres
(120,000  sq  mi) of land in British North America. 1811–1870
This land was granted to Douglas by the Hudson's
Bay Company in the Selkirk Concession. It included
portions of Rupert's Land, or the watershed of
Hudson Bay, bounded on the north by the line of 52°
N latitude roughly from the Assiniboine River east to Flag
Lake Winnipegosis. It then formed a line of
52°  30′  N latitude from Lake Winnipegosis to Lake
Winnipeg, and by the Winnipeg River, Lake of the
Woods and Rainy River.

West of the Selkirk Concession, it is roughly formed

by the current boundary between Saskatchewan and
Manitoba. These covered portions consisted of
present-day southern Manitoba, northern

Minnesota, and eastern North Dakota, in addition to

small parts of eastern Saskatchewan, northwestern
Ontario, and northeastern South Dakota.[1][2] The
lands south of the 49th parallel north ceased to be a
part of the Red River Colony following the signing of
the Treaty of 1818, in the United Kingdom agreed to
cede this territory to the United States.

Selkirk's land grant

Contents Capital Upper Fort Garry

Colony conception History

Settling Red River Government

 • Type Colony
War between the companies Governor  
Rising colony • 1812–1815 Miles Macdonell
Women in the colony • 1859–1870 William MacTavish

The Metis people of the Red River Colony History  

• Established 1811
Church Missionary Society
• Disestablished July 15 1870
Red River Resistance
American Annexation Plans Preceded by Succeeded by
The Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia, Louis Rupert's Land Canada
Riel, and the Manitoba Act Manitoba
Development of Manitoba Missouri Territory

Governors of Red River

See also
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
External links

Colony conception
Growing up in Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745, Lord Selkirk was constantly
troubled by the plight of his Scottish kin.[3] Selkirk was influenced by humanitarians including
William Wilberforce and, following the forced displacement of Scottish farmers that took place
during the Highland Clearances, decided that emigration was the only viable option to improve the
livelihood of the Scottish people.[3] Upon inheriting his father's title in 1799, Selkirk focused the
majority of his time and resources on establishing a Scottish colony in North America.[3]

Selkirk became interested in the Red River region after reading Alexander MacKenzie's Voyages in
1801; however, Selkirk was prevented from settling the region in 1802 when the Hudson's Bay
Company raised concerns that the proposed colony would interfere with the running of the
company.[3] During the first decade of the nineteenth century Selkirk established two unsuccessful
agricultural colonies in British North America but continued to pursue the settlement of the Red
River region.[3]

By 1807, Selkirk acknowledged that an alliance with either the Hudson's Bay or North West
Company, the dominant fur trading companies at the time, was essential to the establishment of a
colony at Red River.[3] By 1811, the Hudson's Bay Company had reconsidered Selkirk's proposal
and granted Selkirk 300,000  km2 (116,000  sq  mi), an area five times the size of Scotland, to
establish an agricultural settlement in the region of Red River. Supplies of "produce, such as flour,
beef, pork and butter..." would be affordable to manufacture in this colony, and would reduce the
costly shipments from Britain.[4]

The grant was also pending the annual provision of 200 men to the company and Selkirk's
assurance that the colony would remain out of the fur trade.[3] Selkirk, who once mocked the fur
trade for rarely grossing more than £200,000 and only having three ships employed in its service,
gladly agreed to the terms.[5] Selkirk referred to this new territory as the District of Assiniboia.[6]
At the time of the concession, Red River was the only Hudson Bay Colony that had been
established within the company's 610,000-hectare (1.5-million-acre) territory.[7]

There is continuing debate as to whether Selkirk forced the concession of Assiniboia through a
controlling interest of Hudson's Bay stock.[3] The argument against Selkirk claims that he received
the concession by controlling the shares in the company.[3] Historians seeking to defend this claim
have argued that although Selkirk did buy a considerable number of Hudson's Bay shares between
1811 and 1812, Selkirk received his initial grant in 1811.[3] The Red River Colony was created to
disrupt trades between the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company.

Settling Red River

The early settlement of the Red River region was marked by a long series of crises and ecological
disasters and within the first decade of settling the region it had already suffered renewed warfare,
epidemics, prairie fires and a flood.[8] Perhaps the most significant ecological disaster was the
rapid depletion of the bison population. A vital food source, bison numbers had been dwindling
since the 1760s due to overhunting by colonial inhabitants of the prairies.[8]
In July 1811, Miles Macdonell sailed from Yarmouth, England
to the Hudson's Bay post at York Factory with 36 primarily
Irish and Scottish settlers.[3] Due to persuasive efforts of the
North West Company, only 18 settlers actually arrived at Red
River in August 1812.[3] As the planting season had ended
before the settlers could complete the construction of Fort
Douglas, they were forced to hunt bison for food and were
completely unprepared for the arrival of 120 additional settlers
Protestant Church and Mission
in October.[3] More settlers were scheduled to arrive in 1813,
School, Red River Colony
but due to a fever outbreak on their ship, they did not arrive (Manitoba), c. 1820–1840.
until June 21, 1814.[3] Dogged by poor harvests and a growing
population, Macdonell, now governor of Red River, issued the
Pemmican Proclamation in January 1814 to prevent the export of pemmican from the colony.[3] In
doing so, Macdonell undermined the security of Red River and plunged the colony into a conflict
with the North West Company that would not end until 1821.

War between the companies

The Pemmican War that was initiated by Macdonell's proclamation was only the tail end of a much
larger conflict between the Hudson's Bay Company and its fur trade rivals, both English and
French, in Montreal.[9] The conflict dates back to King Charles II's generous grant of Rupert's Land
to emigrants who were members of the nobility in 1670.[9] Cause for conflict arose from the
inability of either the Montreal traders or the Hudson's Bay Company to gain a monopoly over the
North American fur trade.[9] Between 1800 and 1821, the conflict between Hudson's Bay and
Montreal, at that point represented by the predominantly Scottish North West Company,
intensified.[5]
The conflict reached its peak in 1801 and witnessed both companies expending more
resources on out-competing each other than were expended on the exploration of new fur
grounds.[5] Between 1803 and 1804, Hudson's Bay morale had plummeted in the face of fierce
Northwest competition and forced the two companies into negotiations but neither side could
come to terms.[5] Negotiations broke down again in 1805 and despite employing more aggressive
agents and the provision of incentive programs, the Hudson's Bay Company was ready to abandon
the fur trade in 1809.[5] The Nor'Westers ability to make region-wide plans based on first-hand
knowledge in addition to their ability to react quickly to changing circumstances provided the
North West Company with a decisive advantage prior to 1810.[5] After 1810, the combination of
new management within the Hudson's Bay Company and the approval of a company-sponsored
colony at Red River put the North West Company on the defensive.[5] The establishment of a
Hudson's Bay colony in the Red River region denied the Nor'Westers access to vital supplies and
restricted the company's ability to expand westwards.[6] Additionally, the establishment of an
agricultural colony made the Hudson's Bay company nondependent on the profitable fur trade, a
factor that the Nor'Westers simply could not compete with.[5] Moreover, by establishing an
agricultural colony, the Hudson's Bay Company gained a decisive advantage over the North West
Company by virtue of a viable fallback economy as well as a readily available food source during
economic slumps.[5] Much of this new-found confidence hinged on the Selkirk's success at Red
River and resulted in the colony becoming the central focus of seven years of inter-company
warfare.[3]

Red River first came under attack from the North West Company in the summer of 1815.[3]
Convinced that Macdonell's proclamation was a deliberate attempt to block Northwest trade, the
company destroyed Fort Douglas and burned down all of the surrounding buildings.[3][10] The fort
was later rebuilt but the engagement resulted in the capture of approximately 150 settlers including
Macdonell.[3] He was replaced by Robert Semple who took over as governor the following winter
and reinforced the colony's 45 survivors with 84 additional settlers. In 1815, the North West
Company once again entered into negotiations with the Hudson's Bay Company under the threat of
invasion of Northwest territory.[5] Negotiations were headed by Selkirk himself and he promptly
threw out all of the Nor'Wester proposals.[5] The following year Semple and twenty other settlers
were killed in the Battle of Seven Oaks and the settlement was abandoned once again.[3] The
imminent arrival of Selkirk in 1817, who had been en route to the colony prior to the incident at
Seven Oaks, prompted the settlers to return to the colony shortly after.[3] Travelling with a force of
approximately 100 soldiers from the recently disbanded Swiss and German Regiment de Meuron
and De Watteville's Regiment,[11] Selkirk captured Fort William, the North West Company
headquarters,[11] and captured several key agents including William McGillivray, Kenneth
McKenzie and John McLoughlin.[12][13] Although the arrival and subsequent settlement of Selkirk's
private army finally broke the back of the North West Company, Selkirk spent much of his
remaining years, and the majority of his fortune, defending his actions at Fort William.[5][3] When
Selkirk arrived at Red River in 1817, the stability of the colony dramatically improved, especially
after the removal of all Indigenous claims to the land. Selkirk achieved this by signing a treaty
between the Red River colonists and the local Cree, Assiniboine and Ojibwa.[11][12] Between 1817
and 1820, Selkirk committed all of his available resources to the betterment of his colonial venture
and ironically it was Selkirk's death in the spring of 1820 that ultimately ended Northwest
aggression against his beloved colony.[12]

Rising colony
The rivalling Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company
were forced to merge in 1821 by the British government, and
from then until 1870 the area was under the jurisdiction of the
Assinboia Council, an appointed body with representatives of
various sections of Red River society (francophone and
anglophone, Roman Catholic and Protestant officials, Métis,
Scottish, Irish, French-Canadian, etc.), all sharing a common
past or present involvement with the Companies. While the end
Homes on narrow river lots along
of the fur trade's inspired conflicts on the plains, the Red River
the Red River in 1822 by Peter
settlement was able to grow in both population and economic
Rindisbacher with Fort Douglas in
importance with the expansion of commercially-oriented
the background
agriculture (raising of staple crops). The agricultural products,
primarily wheat, began to rise in yearly yields. Flour production
rose from over 9,100 kilograms (20,000  lb) annually from 1823 to 1829 to over 14,000  kg
(30,000 lb) in the early 1830s.[6] The supply of flour reached over 23,000  kg (50,000  lb) by the
mid-1830s, rapidly deflating the price the HBC paid the farmers for the product. Numbering over
1,000 by 1827, the farmers began to complain about the deflating rates they received and lack of
markets for their goods.[6]

In 1841, James Sinclair guided 200 settlers from the Red River Colony west in an attempt to retain
the Columbia District for British North America. The party crossed the Rockies into the Columbia
Valley, near present-day Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia; then travelled south. Despite such
efforts, the British government eventually ceded all claim to land south of the 49th parallel of
latitude west of the Rockies to the United States as a resolution to the Oregon boundary dispute.

Women in the colony

The position of many women in the Red River Colony was determined within the Hudson Bay
Company's 1670 Charter; this document gave legislative and judicial powers in Rupert's Land to
the company. It is stated within the Charter that the legal status of women is as dependents of a
male authority, which included fathers, husbands or brothers.[14]
In an extremely rare example of a woman successfully challenging this status-quo, Maria Thomas,
a 16-year-old Métis domestic servant, took her employer, Rev. Owen Corbett, to court for
repeatedly raping her and subjecting her to illegal abortions.[14] Thomas, in her testimony, used
the laws in place to challenge Corbett's actions; citing British law against forcing individuals to
undergo abortions, which were illegal.[14] She won the case; however, Corbett was freed from jail
shortly after by a group of settlers who were opposed to the trial. The courts did not challenge this,
fearing a possible insurrection, demonstrating the weakness of the colonial authorities in the
nascent colony.[14]

In the establishing years of the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, male
settlers frequently took a First Nations or Metis spouse. Though only encouraged by the NWC for
trade relations, it was a common practice among European employees of both companies due to
the various policies by the companies which only allowed males to emigrate to fur trading
outposts.[15] When female settlers did eventually started emigrating to the settlement, tensions
between the European and indigenous communities were heightened due to the highly restrictive
gender norms these women brought with them from Europe.[15] In part a reflection of their
conservative morals, many settlers in the colony also claimed to observe differences between
European and indigenous women; Alexander Ross, a Scottish author who lived in the Red River
Colony for a number of years, stated in a book written by him on the colony's history that a friend
informed him that European women were required to be "graceful" unlike indigenous women, who
were exempt from this due to their bashfulness.[16]

The Metis people of the Red River Colony

The mixed ethnicity of indigenous and European peoples at the Red River Colony, known as Metis,
were not always referred to by that name in the beginning years of their existence. Augustus
Chetlain, an author who lived in the colony, wrote in his book that they were often called "Brules,
Metifs, or half-breeds, the bastard sons of Indian concubines".[17]

The culture and lifestyle of the Metis community living in Red River were not only present at the
colony. Metis people had a long-lasting tradition of a semi-annual, commercial, buffalo hunt that
took place throughout the prairies starting in the mid-1700s with the western fur trade.[18] The
Hudson Bay Company's journals and a number of witnesses to these events stated that the united
caravan was commonly known as a brigade.[18] These brigades did not just focus on buffalo
hunting but were used by buffalo hunters to trade and freight during this time.[18] Women were
fundamental in both actively participating in the brigade hunts or trade, as well as the bringing
together of people prior to the excursion. By studying the social network of the Trottier Brigade, a
community of people from the White Horse Plains in Red River, it is notable that biologically
related women brought the majority of the men together.[18]

Throughout the time that Metis people were a part of the Red River community they developed
into several different identities, rather than just the common depiction of the bison-hunting French
Catholic Metis. Metis identity, at that time as it is today, was diverse and complex due to the
different livelihoods and practices followed.[19] Metis who chose not to live on prairies and hunt
buffalo for the winter remained on lakes such as Manitoba, Winnipegosis, and Winnipeg to ice
fish.[19] Over the course of the first half of the 19th century, up to forty households had developed
on the lakeshore of Lake Manitoba. Fishing and trading had become year round practices and the
Metis families involved would trade with HBC and ‘Freemen’- traders that did not work at the
post.[19]

Christianity played a vital role in shaping the community within the colony, especially for the Metis
people. In the early 19th century, considerations were made by the Committee in London to open
schools run by the Clergymen to benefit, in their opinion, from instruction in religion and
civilization.[20] Although these schools took in all children of the colony, mixed-ancestry children
were a large focus due to them being tied to the fur trading post by their European fathers.[20] John
Halkett, a Committee member, wanted Metis families of retired HBC employees to be brought to
Red River (from other nearby posts) to be put under the authority of the Roman Catholic Mission
or Church Missionary Society.[20] This plan was largely related to keeping retired Metis employees
from continuing trade with the Indigenous peoples; however, its effect led to Christianity being a
prominent part of culture for the Metis community. The Chaplain of the Hudson Bay Company,
John West, was also interested in the religious educating of Metis children. According to his book,
he wrote to the Governor submitting a plan to gather up a number of children to care for and
educate. He stated that he created this plan when he saw these children being raised in a way he
deemed ignorant and idle.[21]

The above-mentioned differences in religion, ways of life, and ethnic origins largely followed a
pattern based on the initial contact between individuals, groups, and institutions. For example
large communities within the Cree nation are thought to have come into contact with French and
later French-Canadian traders bringing Catholic priests and missionaries in their wake, later
Scottish traders and the Company brought Protestant missionaries and clergy into Ojibwe-
dominated areas. This division into a Cree-French-Catholic oriented group and an Ojibwe-
Scottish-Protestant oriented group can be seen in the rise of the two main Métis languages:
Mitchif, a French and Cree-based mixed-language whose speakers were largely Catholic, and
Bungi, a form of speech that developed from Ojibwe, Scots, English, Gaelic, and Cree and was
mostly spoken by Protestants (Anglican, Presbyterian).

Church Missionary Society

The Church Missionary Society (CMS) provided financial assistance in 1820 to Reverend John
West, chaplain to the Hudson's Bay Company, towards the education of some First Nations
children, including James Settee[22] and Henry Budd of the Cree nation, both of whom were later
ordained as priests. In 1822, the CMS appointed Revd West to head the mission in the Red River
Colony.[23] He was succeeded in 1823 by the Revd David Jones who was joined by the Revd W and
Mrs Cockran in 1825.[23] The mission expanded and by 1850, the missionaries were active
throughout the colony and were travelling to Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie River.[24]

Red River Resistance

American Annexation Plans

American expansionists became heavily interested in the

economic potential the territory of the Red River Colony
possessed. The ideal soil, climate and socio-economic potential
of the area convinced many Americans that they needed to
Map showing parts of the Northwest
make the territory part of the United States.[25] The result Territories, British Columbia,
ended up being an annexation proposal of Red River in 1870, in Saskatchewan, and Manitoba
order to convert it into land that American settlers could use (referred to on the map by its
for economic purposes. Due to the outbreak of the Red River historic name of Red River
Rebellion, the American annexationists hoped to take Settlement), published in 1870.
advantage of the disruption caused by these political conflicts
and present themselves in the forefront as the ideal leaders of
the Red River land. The annexation was led by Minnesota senator Alexander Ramsey, and was
backed by Zachariah Chandler and Jacob M. Howard- who were both senators of Michigan and
represented Detroit merchants. They all shared the same economic vision for the annexation:
Ramsey believed that the Red River valley would serve as an important commercial adjunct for his
state, while Chandler and Howard believed that annexing the Red River would benefit their Great
Lakes Trade.[25] This was done under the belief it would help them in their attempts to colonize the
region, as it prevented the Canadian government from establishing sovereignty over the area. A
notable example would be James W. Taylor: he was an American special agent and Winnipeg
consul who used his political power to shape the destiny of the valley, which called for the removal
of all English-Canadian influence.[26] The Canadian government, however, did not allow these
attempts at U.S. expansionism to succeed.

The proposal was met with a significant amount of resistance from the inhabitants of the Red River
as they were given the chance to address their grievances about the potential loss of land and
becoming part of an American colonization project through a proclamation by the Governor-
General of the dominion. Americans who supported annexation by the U.S. government tried to
depict themselves as favorable figures in the eyes of the Métis by associating themselves with Louis
Riel. The Rebellion was an unarmed conflict started by the Métis because Canada was attempting
to claim possession of Rupert's Land without any concern for the grievances of the Métis. However,
the main American intention behind their decision to support Riel and the Rebellion was an
attempt to sway the Métis in favour of the annexation by the US.[27] One of their tools was the New
Nation newspaper which elicited rhetoric that advocated annexation by the US because it
embodied the popular Manifest Destiny ideology. This was meant to help the cause of annexation,
the idea being that their support of the Red River Rebellion would encourage local resistance
against the Canadian government, and help swing local opinion in favour of independence – then
ultimately America would step in to offer the protection of the United States government to the
Red River Métis and assert themselves as the new leaders and Red River would become American
land.[27] They ultimately wanted to create a situation where the Red River could become American
territory by allying with the discontented Métis Nation.

However, this aggressive propaganda ultimately backfired upon the proposal of annexation. It
created even more hostility towards the annexation party and the United States. This great
emphasis on materialism never seemed appealing to the Red River people. The Americans became
too acquisitive because they were eager to create a political union. This ultimately caused the
annexation of the North West to fail, despite it being almost within reach.[27] All this ultimately
benefited the cause of Riel and the Rebellion. As a result, the Metis were able to successfully defy
Canadian expansion into Rupert's Land.[28]

The Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia, Louis Riel, and the Manitoba Act

This political chaos, in a sense, became pivotal for Red River because it allowed for the success of
the Métis in their rebellion. In 1870, the elected Legislative Assembly of Assinboia was created by
Red River inhabitants to take the place of the unelected Assiniboia Council. The Canadian
government was forced to develop the negotiations that allowed for the Métis demands that were
legally entrenched in the Manitoba Act which eventually led to the creation of the province of
Manitoba.[29] The political disputes put the Métis on a platform to voice their disapproval of
Americans ignoring their concerns over these land disputes. They had legitimate claims to the land
and they stated that they were the "descendants of the lords of the soil.".[30] Also, under Louis
Riel's leadership, the Metis rebels were able to capture Fort Garry – a fortified post of the Hudson's
Bay Company. This would lead Riel into becoming the leader of the provisional government, and
he composed and sent a list of rights to Ottawa.[31] The demands mainly consisted of the Métis
wanting Red River to be entered into Canadian confederation as a province, security for their land
claims, making English and French the official languages of the colony, as well as financial support
for the Red River population.[31] Riel hoped to accomplish a sense of equality for the Métis; he
wanted to present them as a civilized people that were deserving of the same rights of any British
subject.[30] The rebellion became a pivotal moment in acquiring land rights and a political voice for
the Métis, who were constantly disregarded for their Aboriginal status.
The aftermath of the resistance caused the Métis to no longer be considered as Canadian
Aboriginals – they became regarded as their own social group, and were distinct from other
Aboriginal groups. In order to pacify the Métis resistance further, the Canadian government gave
them generous land grants in 1869–70 that were carefully structured to be given in severalty,
rather than in common.[32] Red River was now developing its own provincial government that had
a political voice and political implications upon Canadian federal government. This resistance also
led to the Métis emerging as a unique, acknowledged group within Canada, and ultimately, the
disappearance of the Aboriginal rights paradigm in the public view of Red River.[30] The rebellion
was successful in a sense that it allowed the Métis to have a political voice, but it impacted the
perception of how other Aboriginals would be viewed in Red River.

Once the resistance ended, Riel and several of his comrades fled to the United States in 1870 upon
being informed that several government soldiers and irregulars were looking to kill him to exact
revenge for several incidents, in particular, the execution of Thomas Scott.[31] Riel, however later
returned to Canada in 1885 to help lead the North West Resistance. This caused him to face trial in
a Canadian court, and eventually to being executed by the Canadian government in Regina. His
death provoked outcry among the French Canadian, First Nations and Métis communities, with
particular uproar in Québec in reaction to the execution of a French-speaking, Catholic political
leader, and Riel's death was seen on all sides (among those who saw Riel as a traitor who was
rightly punished and those outraged at his arrest and execution) as symbolic of the danger that
could result from contesting Canadian government policy. Riel would subsequently be claimed as a
hero and martyr by the French-Canadian, Métis, and various First Nations for decades. The
Canadian government was starting to punish the Métis for their defiance, but the resistance is still
considered a success in the sense that the Metis were still able to acquire the land rights they hoped
to achieve, as well as no longer being ignored when it came to federal matters.

Development of Manitoba
The Red River rebellion needed to be finally be put to rest. In order to accomplish this, the
Canadian government, which was predominantly led by English-Canadian conservatives, initiated
the Manitoba Act in 1870. They believed that this act would accomplish two purposes: this would
be able to crush the rebellion, while at the same time, appeasing the French demands of increasing
French influence in Canada because the act would create a Western province that was
constitutionally supportive of French Canadian language and culture.[31] This was the first steps
towards the creation of the present-day province of Manitoba. The Act was given royal assent on
May 12, 1870, and the commencement of Manitoba with a provincial status came to fruition on
July 15, 1870. After the passage of the Manitoba Act, the Métis Provisional government was
disbanded.[31] There was an assimilation of the Métis people and the European settlers, and the
Aboriginal influence was further distanced from Red River.

Through the Act, the Red River colony was now christened as Manitoba: a new Canadian province
that was self-governed, and that had its own rights and responsibilities.[33] It was no longer being
viewed as a territory and was now officially part of the Canadian confederation. Provincial status
was accelerated by Louis Riel's rebellion. Riel wanted to secure Red River for the Canadians against
the Americans' colonization projects and sentiments of their Manifest Destiny ideologies.[33] The
early Manitoba provincial government initially struggled to be effective. Everything around it felt
rushed because the Manitoba Act was mostly created to prevent another Red River Rebellion.
Many of the government officials were inexperienced – especially the three delegates who went to
Ottawa to negotiate union terms. None of them had experience with diplomacy or the creation of
new governments.[33] Due to the hurried nature of the creation of this province, the officials of this
new government presented themselves as overwhelmed and unprepared, and this shows that
Manitoba was essentially created to re-stabilize political unrest within Canada.
Many in French Canada had seen the establishment of Manitoba, officially bilingual and with a
large francophone and Catholic population, as a counter-balance to English and Protestant
dominance in the Canadian Confederation, while some hoped the province would be a political
entity centered or at least heavily influenced by indigenous or Métis communities. Once the
rebellion was put down and Manitoba was admitted, thousands of largely Protestant, anglophone
Ontarians quickly began migrating to the prairies, and their presence swiftly shifted the
demographic, national, and linguistic profile of the province, which in turn meant the election of
provincial governments decisively oriented towards Ontario and English Canada, rather than
French Canada, Métis, First Nations, or balance between these groups. The Manitoba government
also sought to encourage immigration and the immediate establishment and expansion of stable
agricultural communities, and within a two decades many thousands of international migrants,
largely ethnic Ukrainians and Germans, had come to the province as agricultural settlers[33]. The
Catholic Church also continued to encouraged migration and settlement from Québec and
francophone Ontario to Manitoba, however these settlers were far outnumbered by English settlers
as well international migrants whose communities would be assimilated in Anglo-Canadian
society.

In the province's first few decades of existence (1870-1900), Manitoba experienced conflicting
interests between French and English Canadians. A quarter-century after the implementation of
the Manitoba Act which legally guaranteed a place for the French language in the province's
administration, lawmaking, and judiciary along with a clause ensuring state funding for both
Catholic (often de facto French) and Protestant schools, English had become the sole means of
communication in the legislature and the judiciary, while the provincial government attempted the
introduction of a secular, English-only public school system which would be the sole recipient of
any public funding. The policy was eventually implemented with minor concessions such as the
teaching of Catholic doctrine at the end of the day where the number of students warranted, and
the role of French in these new public schools was to be highly limited, mainly to use as means of
instructing young students who started school not speaking English.

Governors of Red River

Term Governor
August 1812 – June 1815 Miles MacDonell
June 1815 – June 1816 Robert Semple
August 1816 – June 1822 Alexander Macdonnell
June 1822 – June 1823 Andrew Bulger
June 1823 – June 1825 Robert Parker Pelly
Governor of Red River, Andrew
June 1825 – June 1833 Donald McKenzie Bulger, driving his family on the
frozen Red River in a horse cariole
June 1833 – June 1839 Alexander Christie
with Fort Garry in the background
June 1839 – June 1844 Duncan Finlayson (1822–23)
June 1844 – June 1846 Alexander Christie
June 1846 – June 1847 John Folliott Crofton
June 1847 – June 1848 John T. Griffiths
June 1848 – June 1855 William Bletterman Caldwell
June 1855 – September 1859 Francis Godschall Johnson
September 1859 – July 1870 William MacTavish

[34]
See also
Former colonies and territories in Canada
Territorial evolution of Canada

References

Footnotes
1. "Red River Colony" (http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/red-river-colony/). The
Canadian Encyclopedia.
2. Morris, Alexander (1880) The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-
West Territories Including the Negotiations on Which They Were Based, and Other Information
Relating Thereto, Chapter I (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7126)
3. Carter 1968.
4. Ross 1856, pp. 16–18.
5. Davies 1966.
6. Gibson, James R. Farming the Frontier, The Agricultural Opening of the Oregon Country,
1786–1846. Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press. 1985, pp. 10–13.
7. Baker, Robert (1999). "Creating Order in the Wilderness: Transplanting the English Law to
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External links
The Journal of the Bishop of Montreal, during a Visit to the Church Missionary Society's North-
West America Mission (http://anglicanhistory.org/canada/gjmountain/journal1849/), by George
Jehoshaphat Mountain, an early account of religious life in the Red River Colony.
The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists (https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/17358) at
Project Gutenberg, by George Bryce 1909

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