Impact of European Colonialism on Native Peoples in Canada

Canada 1870

Impact of the Fur Trade on People of the North West

• Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Cree, Chipewyan – Worked as Trappers and middlemen for the Fur

Trade• Trade with NWC and bring furs to HBC forts• Success led some to leave their traditional lifestyle

– As fur trade increased Europeans moved further west, meeting and interacting with more and more Native groups• HBC stayed within drainage basin of Hudson’s Bay• NWC pushed further west

• NWC Trappers began to Winter with Natives– Exposure to Disease• Small pox, Measles, etc• Evidence suggests some Colonialists traded blankets

infected with small pox to try and wipe out the natives– Example of Genocide

– NWC Trappers began to marry Native women• Marriages brought about trading treaties• Children born of French Fathers and Native mothers

were known as Metis

– Many Metis rejected by both communities• Formed their own settlements near the Red River

The Red River Settlement

• A Scottish Noble, Lord Selkirk, was concerned for poor crofters (farmers) in Scotland– Bought land in present day Manitoba to settle

Scottish Farmers– The land was in the Red River Settlement the

Metis had been living on for years• First Year the Scottish Farmers were they almost

starved to death but were sold Pemmican by the Metis– The next year the sale of pemmican was banned under the

Pemmican Proclamation of 1814 and the metis were forced to give it to the settlers for free

• As more Scottish Farmers came to settle there was more and more tension between the Metis and the new settlers

• In a show of power the settlers burned down a NWC trading fort– Metis were convinced it was threat– Raided an HBC fort and stole back their pemmican

• Both sides prepared for War• Battle of Seven Oaks 1816– After stealing back their pemmican the Metis were

traveling to a NWC fort to sell it– They were stopped by a group of settlers, HBC traders

and the governor of the Red River Colony, Robert Semple

• It is unknown who shot first• 22 Settlers died, including the Governor, 1

Metis was killed• For the next 50 years the Settlers and the

Metis lived on inconsistent terms, sometimes working well together, sometimes fighting