Differences Between The Red River Settlement Between 1860 And 1870

Textbook Rewrite

Changes: The Red River Settlement between 1860 and 1870

In the 1860’s an increasing amount of settlers came to the Red River area in the hopes to find land. This influx was caused by the the growing population, as well as the lack of farmable land within Canada West. Most of these settler were part of the Orange Order, a protestant group with anti-French views originating from Ireland. One example of an anti-metis settler is a man known as Dr.John Christian Schultz. He ran the Norwester, a newspaper company, which he used to spread anti-metis propaganda. One fear the metis faced upon seeing the settlers, was the fact that they didn’t have any “official” land claims, even though they have been living in Red River Valley for a number of years. Additionally, in the 1860’s, the Metis were forced to take longer trips with their Red River Carts in order to hunt the dwindling

This made it harder to collect fur for trade, and with the addition of crop failures, the valley’s economy was in an undesirable situation. Additionally, the HBC began to lose interest in Red River because the fur trades were declining, leading to further economic damage. Tensions were high, and the poor state of the economy made it harder for the metis to continue their original way of life. Furthermore, People like Dr. Schultz, and the Orange Order continued to increased the tensions within the metis community.

Louis Riel and Canada’s Purchase of Rupert's Land

In his earlier years Louis Riel was sent to Montreal to obtain a more formal education and to study for Priesthood. Riel never finished his studies to become a priest, and returned to Red River Valley in 1868, where he found himself in the midst of growing tensions. With the newly appointed Lieutenant Governor William McDougal and writer Charles Mair, a new anti-metis campaign was born in order to expand Canada’s