Red River Colony - History

History

Selkirk had become interested in the concept of settling the area after reading Alexander Mackenzie's 1801 book on his adventures in what is today the west of Canada. At the time, social upheaval in Scotland due to the introduction of sheep farming and the ensuing Highland and Lowland Clearances had left a number of Scots destitute. Selkirk was interested in giving them a chance at a better life in a new colony he called Assiniboia.

He purchased a controlling interest in the Hudson's Bay Company and set up the land grant. His idea was to gain control of the area to take control of the West from the company's rivals, the Montreal-based North West Company. With a colony in place, the Métis trappers' supplying the North West's fur traders, the Nor'Westers, would be displaced, cutting them off from areas further west.

He sent out a small group of Scots to the area in 1811, but they were forced to pause for the winter in York Factory. When they finally arrived in 1812, they built Fort Douglas, but by the time it was done, the growing season was over. The settlers hastily set about hunting buffalo for food.

When farming started the next spring, the results were less than expected. Selkirk had to ban anyone from taking food out of the colony. This may have been to ensure food for the colony, or a business move to cut off the Nor'Westers. Either way, the move touched off the Pemmican War. The Nor'Westers, who relied on pemmican supplied to them by local Métis, were so upset that they destroyed Fort Douglas and burned down all the buildings around it. The fort was later rebuilt and relations settled down for a time.

Selkirk heard of the problems and sent out a new governor, Robert Semple, to take over. When he read a proclamation ordering the fighting to stop, the Battle of Seven Oaks broke out, Fort Douglas was destroyed for a second time, and the settlers were forced off their land. Selkirk then sent in a force of about 100 soldiers from the British Regiment de Meuron to enforce the peace and eventually become settlers themselves, while also capturing the Northwest outpost at Fort William. There, Selkirk arrested numerous significant managers of the North West Company including NWCo. Chief Director, William McGillvray. The actions left Selkirk almost bankrupt. The two companies were forced to merge in 1821, thus ending the problems for good.

The Treaty of 1818 set the boundary between the United States and British North America along the 49th parallel of north latitude from the Lake of the Woods to the "Stony Mountains" (now known as the Rocky Mountains). Thus, the southern portion of Selkirk's grant went to the United States.

The colony was never particularly successful agriculturally, but the lure of free land added new settlers every year.

In 1841 James Sinclair guided 200 settlers from the Red River Colony west in an attempt to retain the Columbia District for Britain. The party crossed the Rockies into the Columbia Valley, near present day Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia; then traveled south. Despite such efforts, Britain eventually ceded all claim to land south of the 49th parallel of latitude west of the Rockies to the United States as resolution to the Oregon boundary dispute.

By the 1850s, the Hudson's Bay Company lost interest in paying for the settlement. By the 1860s, the Métis outnumbered the Scots. This led to a second period of unrest in 1869 and 1870 called the Red River Rebellion, which led to the creation of Manitoba.