The Red River Settlement. 2

01 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Canadian History, Fur Trade, pemmican, Voyageurs

Tags

Cuthbert Grant, Miles Macdonnell, Peter Ridinsbacher, Régiment de Meuron, Robert Semple, the Battle of Seven Oaks, The Earl of Selkirk, the Hudson's Bay Company, the North West Company, The Pemmican Proclamation, The Red River Colony, Watteville's Regiment

Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This post was part of a longer post: Louis Riel, Hero or Rebel. It is also related to posts one can find under The Voyageurs Posts, Aboriginals in North America and the two Canadiana posts: Canadiana.1 and Canadiana.2. These are pages. It is also associated to The Red River Settlement, a post. Yet, somehow, it is new.

In The Red River Settlement, I wrote about the conflict that arose between the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC, established in 1670) and the North West Company (NWC, established in 1789). York Factory, the HBC’s trading post, was too distant a location for Amerindians. In the words of one critic, Joseph Robson,

the Hudson’s Bay Company ‘have for eighty years slept at the edge of a frozen sea; they have shewn no curiosity to penetrate farther themselves, and have exerted all their art and power to crush that spirit in others to take pelts to fur traders.’

Therefore, the HBC built trading posts inland and started to use riverways and employ voyageurs. Wikipedia has a complete list of HBC trading posts.

Winter Fishing on the Ice by Peter Rindisbacher, 1821 (Photocredit: Wikipedia)

Summer View in the environs of the Company Fort Douglas on the Red River by Peter Ridinsbacher, 1822 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Riverways were the highways of the day, which I noted in an earlier post, hence the lots of the Red River Colony being narrow and deep. Inhabitants had their boat, a canoe, “at the ready” at the river end of their lot. Swiss-born Artist Peter Ridinsbacher left a visual testimonial of this juxtaposition of lots. In the images above, one can see the canoes at the river end of narrow lots and adjoining houses. The ice was also used in winter. Peter Rindisbacher lived in the Red River Settlement at the time the fur companies, Hudson’s Bay Company and North West Company were merged, in 1821.

American Indian hunting buffalo by Peter Rindisbacher, circa 1830 (Photo credit: Alamy)

Buffalo hunting in the summer by Peter Rindisbacher, 1822 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Earl of Selkirk settles the Red River Colony

the Earl of Selkirk
the end of the fur trade
crofters
the great plains

This story has a happy beginning, despite glitches and the disastrous Battle of Seven Oaks.

The Earl of Selkirk, a philanthropist, set about finding land for the Scottish crofters who had lost their home. Many settled in Nova Scotia, i. e. New Scotland. My neighbours, Dr Cecil MacLean, professor of French at St. Francis Xavier, and the Honourable Allan J. MacEachen, one of the finest politicians in the history of Canada, were both descendants of crofters. Mr MacEachen spoke Gaelic. The video inserted at the bottom of this post tells the story of crofters Lord Selkirk helped relocate to the Red River Colony. The crofters would live in the Canadian great plains which was fine territory for farmers. They were excellent recruits.

In order to acquire the land he needed to found the Red River Colony, the Earl of Selkirk and his family bought a large number of shares in the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). In fact, the Earl of Selkirk became the majority shareholder.

The fur trade was drawing to a close for want of beavers, which meant a complete change of lifestyle for voyageurs. Retired voyageurs, such as Louis Riel’s grandparents, Jean-Baptiste Lagimonière or Lagimodière and Marie-Anne Gaboury, settled in the future Winnipeg, However, many young voyageurs did not prove suited to farming. So, as the fur trade declined, they became guides to explorers in search of the Northwest Passage and a way to the Pacific Ocean, north of the South Pass (Wyoming). Truth be told, voyageurs and Amerindians opened up the continent, but as employees rather than employers. They were employed by explorers.

Settling the Red River Colony was extremely difficult. Allow me to quote Wikipedia:

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. Due to persuasive efforts of the North West Company only 18 settlers actually arrived at Red River in August 1812. 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 in October.

(See the Red River Colony, or Assiniboia, Wikipedia.)

In short, although crofters —farmers, were excellent recruits to the great plains, they had to face hunger. They needed pemmican from the nearly extinct “buffalo.” Pemmican was the food of the fur trade and it would also be the food of explorers. Amerindians and Métis prepared pemmican for voyageurs. Voyageurs were customers.

However, newcomers faced not only hunger, but also the coldest and harshest winters in Canada, south of the Arctic. I lived in Regina, Saskatchewan, for a year and loved it, but it was cold. However, the worst our new Canadians had to cope with, other than memories of a lost land, were warring factions: the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), chartered in May 1670 (at first, a fur-trading company), and its rival, the North West Company (NWC), founded in 1789 and headquartered in Montreal.

The Red River and the Assiniboine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fort William (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Northwest Passage Routes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Regiments, Rindisbacher and Ermatinger

In the first edition of this post, I failed to note that, in 1816, several disbanded members of the Régiment de Meuron, or Meurons, “a regiment of infantry originally raised in Switzerland in 1781” and commanded by Charles-Daniel de Meuron, mercenaries (i.e. professional soldiers), chose to settle in the Red Riv er Colony. (See Régiment de Meuron, Wikipedia). They had seen action in India, as a British Infantry, in Canada, under Sir James Charles Prévost, at the Battle of Plattsburgh, during the War of 1812, and in the Red River Colony, as discharged soldiers in the Pemmican War.” In 1816, when the regiment was disbanded, half of De Meurons‘ 640-men strong infantry settled in Canada and many chose to live in the Red River Colony. So did members of the disbanded De Watteville’s Regiment.

Later, some of its [Régiment de Meuron] soldiers also served at the Red River Colony. Some 150 recently discharged soldiers from the Régiment de Meuron and De Watteville’s Regiment, still retaining their uniforms, participated in the Pemmican War. Rue des Meurons in the Winnipeg suburb of Saint Boniface is named after the regiment.

(See Régiment de Meuron, Wikipedia.)

Among recruits to the Red River Colony was the family of Swiss artist Peter Ridinsbacher, whose lovely watercolours depicting Aboriginals, Métis, and the Red River Colony are a precious legacy. The Ridinsbachers lived in Assiniboina or the Red River Colony. Their home was flooded in 1826, which was calamitous. Peter’s family decided to leave Assiniboina, or the Red River Colony, for the United States. (See 1826 Red River Flood, Wikipedia). They therefore moved to Wisconsin, but ended up settling in St. Louis, Missouri, where Peter died, “possibly of cholera,” (Wikipedia) at the age of 28.

Another inhabitant of Assiniboina was Swiss musician Edward Ermatinger, a Hudson’s Bay Company employee who ended up settling in St. Thomas, Ontario. His collection of the words and music of French Canadian folksongs, the voyageurs répertoire, as well as a “Red River March” he composed, may be the only connection to have come down to us.

Edward Ermatinger, Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Nancy Marguerite Anderson’s post Who is Edward Ermatinger? WordPress (7 December 2014)

The Battle of Seven Oaks by Charles William Jefferys (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Battle of Seven Oaks

Miles Macdonell
the Pemmican Proclamation (1814)
Robert Semple
the Battle of Seven Oaks (down the Red River)
settlers leave

Our fur trading companies competed not only for the best and the most pelts, but they also needed pemmican.

On 8 January 1814, fearing famine, Miles Macdonell, who was appointed first governor of Assiniboia, the Red River Colony, in 1811, issued the Pemmican Proclamation. The Pemmican Proclamation forbade the exportation of food from the Red River Colony (HBC territory), which angered both the Métis and employees of the North West Company. They believed it was a ploy on the part of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Six months later, Miles Macdonnell also issued a proclamation banning the “running” of buffalo with horses.

Hostilities culminated in the Battle of Seven Oaks (The Canadian Encyclopedia). A group of Métis had retrieved pemmican from the Hudson’s Bay Company, claiming it had been stolen. The canoes came down the Assiniboine escorted by Cuthbert Grant, an Anglo-Métis, who was the son of Cuthbert Grant père, a Nor’Wester from Scotland, and a Métis mother. Young Cuthbert was educated in Scotland.

On 19 June 1816, a band of Nor’Westers, Métis mainly, led by Cuthbert Grant (NWC) was returning from retrieving pemmican allegedly stolen by the Hudson’s Bay Company. They were to meet Nor’Westers at Fort William, but were intercepted by Robert Semple who had replaced Miles Macdonell. Semple was the governor of Rupert’s Land. A Nor’Wester, François-Firmin Boucher, was dispatched to speak to Robert Semple’s men. Someone fired a gun. Reports suggest the shot was fired by one of Semple’s men. A battle ensued which took 21 lives, including the life of Robert Semple. Only one of Cuthbert Grant’s men was killed, a 16-year-old. Discouraged, many settlers left the Red River Colony the very next day. François-Firmin Boucher spent two years in prison, but the Métis were exonerated by W. B. Coltman, a Royal Commissioner. (See The Battle of Seven Oaks, Wikipedia, Coltman’s Report, and Transcribing the Coltman Report – Crowdsourcing at Library and Archives Canada, posted on November 29, 2016.)

Métis songwriter Pierre Falcon wrote a song about the Battle of Seven Oaks: La Chanson de la Grenouillère, grenouille meaning frogs. (See The Minnesota Heritage Songbook.)

The Bison

The animal that roamed the great plains was often called a buffalo, which was a misnomer i.e. the wrong name. To tell the difference between the bison and the buffalo, Britannica suggests focusing on the three H’s: “home, hump, and horns.” Bison have a hump and their horns are shorter. Bison, not buffaloes, therefore lived in the great plains of North America. Interestingly, French Canadians call(ed) the buffalo a bison, which happens to be the correct name. For a very long time, I thought bison was the French translation of buffalo. It isn’t. The buffalo is un buffle in French and bison is both a French and an English word. Bison does not have a plural in English.

Conclusion

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 empowered Amerindians and Métis. We do not know whether or not Métis residents of the Red River took the Pemmican Proclamation seriously. But it could be they didn’t. As I suggested in Louis Riel, Hero or Rebel, it is altogether possible Louis Riel looked upon his government as genuine and the execution of Thomas Scott as legitimate. But he was blamed. He could not take his seat in the House of Commons and he hid for fifteen years. Rupert’s Land belonged to North-American Indians, but colonists felt entitled to land that did not belong to them but which they claimed and then sold. John A. Macdonald’s government bought Rupert’s Land.

As for the settlers who left the Red River after the The Battle of Seven Oaks, they made the right decision, but thousands of United Empire Loyalists, those who would not live in an independent United States, took refuge in the British colony immediately north of the fledgling United States.

Despite difficult beginnings, The Red River Settlement would be a permanent settlement. We have a Winnipeg and a Saint Boniface. In the late 1860s, when Canada or William MacDougall and surveyors entered their community, the varied inhabitants of the future Winnipeg lived peacably. The Earl of Selkirk died in 1820. His death allowed a merger of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company (1821), and ended a merciless conflict.

RELATED ARTICLES

Louis Riel, Hero or Rebel (20 March 2018)
The Red River Settlement (20 May 2015)
Louis Riel as Father of the Confederation (22 May 2012)

Sources and Resources

Métis Culture, Our Legacy
The Canadian West, Collections Canada)
Transcribing the Coltman Report – Crowdsourcing at Library and Archives Canada, posted on November 29, 2016 byBeth Greenhorn.
Coltman’s Report, Archives Canada
Peter Ridinsbacher, Beauty by Commission, Library and Archives Canada (Interview)
Journey to Red River 1821—Peter Rindisbacher – The Discover Blog, William Benoît
36 portraits saisissants de jeunes filles amérindiennes de la fin des années 1800 au debut des années 1900, Claire C. 14 juin 2016
Transcribing the Coltman Report – Crowdsourcing at Library and Archives Canada, 29 November 2016

Biographies

Lynne Champagne, “Lagimonière, Jean-Baptiste,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
George F. G. Stanley, “Gaboury, Marie-Anne,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
Lewis H. Thomas, “Louis Riel,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Love to everyone and Joyeuses Pâques, Happy Easter ♥
____________________

[1] Amy Tikkanen, What’s the Difference Between Bison and Buffalo? The Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-bison-and-buffalo

Landing_of_the_Selkirk_Settlers_Red_River_1812 (1)

Arrival of Settlers at the Red River (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Red River Settlement

30 Saturday May 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Métis, Voyageurs

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Hudson's Bay Company, Métis Leader Cuthbert Grant, Miles Macdonell, North West Company, Peter Rindisbacher, Robert Semple, The Pemmican Proclamation, The Red River Colony, The Seven Oaks Incident, Thomas Douglas 5th Earl of Selkirk

Colonists came …

Eventually, colonists came. It was inevitable. Generations of refugees and other immigrants found a home north of the 49^th parallel which would become, for the most part, the border dividing the United States and Canada. Much of the Earl of Selkirk‘s Assiniboia,[1] as the Red River Colony was named, would be North Dakota and spill somewhat beyond. It was the land of the Métis.

Colonists on the Red River in North America (1822) by Peter Rindisbacher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Assiniboia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(Please click on the map ↑ to enlarge it.)

Thomas Douglas, the 5th Earl of Selkirk (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

The Red River Settlement (1811 – 1815)

Thomas Douglas, the 5^thEarl of Selkirk
crofters
Assiniboia (the current Manitoba and North Dakota)
Miles Macdonell
the Hudson’s Bay Company

When he unexpectedly inherited his family’s wealth, Thomas Douglas, the 5^thEarl of Selkirk was motivated to find land for crofters. (See Highland Clearances, Wikipedia.) The “crofters” were being displaced by their landlords and many had nowhere to go. The Earl of Selkirk settled some crofters in Belfast, Prince Edward Island (1803) and others in Baldoon, Upper Canada (Ontario).

However, in 1811, he was granted 300,000 km²(116,000 square miles) of arable land by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and founded the Red River Colony. In fact, the Earl of Selkirk and members of his family had bought enough shares in the Hudson’s Bay Company to control it. The colony would be called Assiniboia.

Miles Macdonell

Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, appointed Miles Macdonell as governor of Assiniboia and the latter established his base at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, the current downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The first group of displaced crofters and some Irish immigrants travelled by way of the Hudson Bay and wintered at York Factory. They arrived in Assiniboia on 29 August 1812, escorted by its governor Miles Macdonell. A second group arrived in October and further groups followed every year until 1815.

Fur-trading country

The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC)
The North West Company (NWC)
The Métis

Not only had these settlers been sent to an area of Canada where winters were long and extremely harsh, which threatened their survival, but the Red River was home to Métis, many of whom were in the employ of North West Company or related to employees of the Montreal-based North West Company. The North West Company, established in 1779, was a rival to the Hudson’s Bay Company, established in 1670. But, as noted above and more importantly, the Red River had already been colonized by Métis: people of European origin, Frenchmen mainly, but also Scots and others, who had married Amerindians.

Many Métis originated from Lower Canada (Quebec), so the division of land along the Red River mirrored that of New France, down to the relatively narrow strips of land abutting the Red River. The “Red” constituted the Métis’ and other voyageurs‘ “highway.” One travelled by canoe, when the weather permitted, or toboggan, when the River was frozen.

Métis and Settlers

In short, it would be difficult for the inhabitants of the Red River to accept newcomers. Unknowingly, at that point in history, the Métis had developed a sense of community. In fact, the situation of the Canadien voyageurs resembled that of Jacques Cartier’s men dying of scurvy and saved by Amerindians. French settlers may not have survived without the assistance of Amerindians.

Similarly, voyageurs needed the skills Amerindians had developed. They also needed the food they prepared as well as their guidance in an unchartered territory. Moreover, fur-trading posts being a long distance away from the shores of the St. Lawrence River and other “homes,” voyageurs needed wives. A nation grew: the Métis nation.

Therefore, reticent Métis enticed many colonists back to Canada by promising better land. (See The Red River Colony, The Canadian Encyclopedia.) There were, no doubt, other shenanigans, a word the origin of which has yet to be determined, but which seems an Amerindian word.

The Pemmican Proclamation

At any rate, fearing a lack of food for the settlers, governor Macdonell forbade the exportation of pemmican out of Assiniboia. Amerindians and Métis prepared pemmican for the voyageurs. This is how voyageurs were fed. When he issued the Pemmican Proclamation, on 8 January 1814, Miles Macdonell acted recklessly.

The Pemmican Proclamation was not viewed by Nor’Westers as an unwise decision on the part of the rather “belligerent” Miles Macdonell. (See Miles Macdonell, The Canadian Encyclopedia.) It was viewed instead as a low blow dealt by the Hudson’s Bay Company, which does not appear to be the case.

Buffalo hunting in the summer (1822)

Assiniboine hunting buffalo on horseback (1830)

Peter Rindisbacher’s Swiss family was recruited by an agent of the Earl of Selkirk. Peter specialized in watercolours and his subject matter was Assiniboia. Later, he and his family moved to St. Louis. To my knowledge, we have few if any other sources of images from the Selkirk Settlement other than Rindisbacher’s art. Born in 1806, Peter died in 1834, at the age of 28.

Running of buffalo banned

Governor Macdonell then made matters worse by forbidding not only the exportation of pemmican out of Assiniboia, but also the running of buffalo with horses, a manner used by Amerindians to hunt buffalos. Buffalo meat was sustenance. How would voyageurs and other citizens of the established Red River area feed themselves and survive?

From Rivalry to Enmity: Macdonell arrested

Miles Macdonell had therefore transformed a rivalry between competing fur-trading companies into enmity. Nor’Westers feared the HBC was attempting to penetrate the Athabascan country to the north. Moreover, the HBC captured Fort Gilbratar (NWC) and the North West Company retaliated by taking Fort Brandon, led by Métis Cuthbert Grant.

Métis Leader Cuthbert Grant (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

Amerindians and Métis

By extension, Macdonell had also pitted the Métis nation against the immigrants. Intercepting “brigades” of canoes filled with provisions wasn’t an acceptable way of feeding impoverished crofters. In the end, in June 1815, Governor Macdonell had to surrender to NWC (North West Company) representatives, standing accused of “illegally confiscating pemmican.” He was sent to Montreal to be tried. (See the Pemmican Proclamation, The Canadian Encyclopedia.) However, there would be no trial and, according to Wikipedia, Miles Macdonell had resigned.

The Battle of Seven Oaks

Seven Oaks, 19 June 1816, is viewed as an incident, but there was some provocation. However, to be cautious, I will use the word “incident” because the clash at Seven Oaks seems unpremeditated. Nor’Westers, escorted by Cuthbert Grant, were retrieving pemmican stolen by HBC men to sell it to Nor’Westers, their customers. But accounts differ. The Métis may have been on their way to escort a “brigade” of canoes transporting pemmican. I have just, 30 May, added a quotation. It seems that when the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) took Fort Gilbratar (NWC), they exposed canoe brigades containing provisions.[2]

Be that as it may, the Métis accidentally crossed paths with Governor Robert Semple and settlers. Governor Semple was Miles Macdonell’s replacement and appointed by the Earl of Selkirk. Semple had left Fort Douglas where he was secure. In the battle that ensued, he and twenty of his men were killed. There were two Métis casualty.

The Earl of Selkirk’s Response

Some colonists left and a few settled in Saskatchewan. However, others settled in the current Manitoba. On 13 August, 1816, when Lord Selkirk heard of the incident at Seven Oaks, he seized Fort William and them recaptured Fort Douglas on 10 January 1817. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia,

“[w]hen Selkirk finally arrived that July, he distributed land and restored the settlers’ confidence, promising them schools and clergymen. Roman Catholic priests arrived in 1818, but not until 1820 did a Protestant missionary come, and John West was Anglican rather than a Gaelic-speaking Presbyterian, a source of grievance to the Scots settlers for years.” (See The Red River Colony, The Canadian Encyclopedia.)

That is another story.

Conclusion

The Aboriginal peoples of Canada are still protected by the Royal Proclamation of 1763. It was reaffirmed under Section 35 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, included in the Canada Act of 1982. (See Indigenous Foundations, University of British Columbia [UBC].) They are also protected by the Numbered Treaties, a series of eleven treaties signed after Confederation, from 1871 to 1921, by the Aboriginal peoples in Canada and the reigning British monarch, the Crown.

At the moment, the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, has a federated First Nations University. Programs such as Indigenous Foundations at the University of British Columbia also provide an examination of Canada’s varied past. I have noticed moreover that many aboriginals are moving to cities.

But let us return to the Earl of Selkirk.

After he seized Fort William, a trading post belonging to the North West Company, Lord Selkirk had to appear in court in Montreal to defend himself. He had acted hastily. In 1821, a year after the Earl’s death, at Pau, France, the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company were merged. The rivalry subsided.

As for the Métis, the Red River Settlement allowed them to realize they had become a nation.

RELATED ARTICLE

Louis Riel as Father of Confederation (22 May 2012)

With kindest regards. ♥
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[1] “Assiniboia”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 26 May. 2015
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/39349/Assiniboia>.

[2] “In the spring of 1816, the HBC officers and men seized and destroyed the Nor’Westers’ Fort Gilbratar at the forks, thus exposing the latter’s canoe brigades, just as the pemmican supplies were being moved down the Assiniboine to meet the Nor’Westers returning from the annual council at Fort William. The HBC’s Fort Douglas thus dominated the Red and denied passage both to the Nor’Westers and the provision boats of their Métis allies.” (Seven Oaks Incident, The Canadian Encyclopedia.)