The Métis Move West

The Métis Move WestThe Manitoba ActThe ScripThe Northwest Mounted Police

The Manitoba Act Seemed to Protect Métis Rights

English and French would both be official languages

both Protestant and Catholic schools

566, 580 hectares (1,400,050 acres)of farmland for the “children of the Métis”

the rights to their existing lands were protected.

Manitoba Under the Control of Ottawa• End of the Provisional

Government and Métis representation

• Macdonald sent troops to “Keep the Peace”

- Troops were Militia from Ontario and members of the Orange Order

- Militia want to avenge Thomas Scott

- Métis assaulted and murdered- no Militia man was ever

punished

Métis Still Optimistic about Manitoba• Métis assumed that

the government would protect them and their rights

- Confirm that they Métis owned the land they occupied

- Able to select land for their children once Manitoba was surveyed

The Manitoba Scrip To gain title to the land

reserved for them, the Métis in Manitoba were required to have scrip

- Each family granted a scrip- a piece of paper similar to money

2 Kinds of Scrip- Money scrip could be converted

to cash- Land scrip could be sold or

exchanged fro a homesteader’s land grant or sold

- $160 and $240 based on value of farmland

Problems with Scrip• Métis were

cheated out of their scrip by land speculators

•Most Métis:- did not understand that

paper documents actually proved land ownership.

- could not read or write.- had oral traditions…not

written.

More ProblemsScrip not issued until late 1875 - slow land surveys

Adult Métis got $160, Children $240- Children’s land hard to farm- Open Prairie land 6km away from the river Land distributed by lottery- no control over where land grant was located

Government Wants Métis LandThe provincial

government clearly supported the speculators and pressured the Métis to sell their scrip

- Militia intimidate Métis - White land speculators con

Métis to sell Scrip cheap- passed a law forcing Métis

to sell scrip if white person wanted the land

- prison terms to those who resisted

Métis Move West Frustrated Métis

sell their land titles (scrip)

- Too many problems- Bison decreasing•Métis sold scrip

cheap 30- 40$- Far less than actual worth

By mid 1970s many Métis left Manitoba, some settled in present day Saskatchewan

1873 the Canadian government created the NWMP

• To enforced the law and established a Canadian presence in the wild Northwest

- paramilitary force - positive relations with

Aboriginals

•Specifically created to combat:

- The American threat- The Whiskey trade

Cypress Hills Massacre 1873•American wolfers

attacked a group of Nakoda camping in Cypress Hills

- Killed 20 because they thought the Nakoda stole horses

Reaction - People feared the West- prompted the NWMP to step

up their efforts to clear the prairies of American traders

The Great March•An effort to establish order in the lawless prairies

- Winnipeg to Fort Whoop-Up- 300 NWMP- Their job was to suppress

the whisky trade and bring law and order to the west

- to protect the First Nations

Arrived at Fort Whoop-Up• First Nations groups

were starving• American traders had

fled• The First Nations, for

a time, welcomed the protective presence of the NWMP

• Continued to patrol the North-West Territories for the next 30 years