Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian province located in the centre of the country, bordered by
Saskatchewan and
Ontario. The province was founded on the traditional territories of the Assiniboine, Dakota,
Cree, Dene, Anishinaabeg, and Oji-Cree peoples.
Early European exploration began as early as
1612 by Thomas Button in
Hudson Bay lowlands, north of Manitoba. With the fur trade expansion in the latter half of the
1600s by French Canadians, there was a push for the establishment of the
Hudson's Bay Company around this area -- what was called
Rupert's Land. Between
1682 and
1812, European settlement in Manitoba consisted of various forts set up by the
HBC and the Northwest Company.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, the British government sponsored expeditions
in order to assess the potential of “
Rupert's Land” for further agricultural settlements, which had begun in
1812. In the late
1860s, conflict arose when the Canadian and British government looked to westward expansion
which consisted of the unauthorized selling of Indigenous (primarily Métis) land to
the Dominion government. This was the beginning of what is known as the “Red River
Resistance,”
1869-70 led by
Louis Riel.
Due to the resistance, the Manitoba Act of
1870, which created the new province of Manitoba, guaranteed Métis title to their lands
along the
Red and Assiniboine Rivers. The Canadian government broke this promise. Manitoba saw
the arrival of 40,000 immigrants between
1876 and
1881, slowing down by
1890, which overwhelmed the Indigenous population. Today, Manitoba is the fifth most populous
province in Canada.
- 1. T.R. Weir, Manitoba, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 8 August 2012.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.