Early Settlement
The first significant influx of Europeans was the result of French fur trading activity in the Great Lakes region. In the mid-17th century the Métis, descendants of these Frenchmen and Cree tribes people (in addition to other First Nations peoples), settled in the valley. These people, in addition to many First Nations people in the region, were hunters and traders involved in the fur trade. Soon interest in the region for its fur production led to the establishment of the Red River Colony by Lord Selkirk in the early 19th century.
Read more about this topic: Red River Valley
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or settlement:
“...to many a mother’s heart has come the disappointment of a loss of power, a limitation of influence when early manhood takes the boy from the home, or when even before that time, in school, or where he touches the great world and begins to be bewildered with its controversies, trade and economics and politics make their imprint even while his lips are dewy with his mother’s kiss.”
—J. Ellen Foster (1840–1910)
“The difficult and risky task of meeting and mastering the new—whether it be the settlement of new lands or the initiation of new ways of life—is not undertaken by the vanguard of society but by its rear. It is the misfits, failures, fugitives, outcasts and their like who are among the first to grapple with the new.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)