The home life of a Métis family near the fort was a busy one! Running a household in the fall meant there was lots to be done, from harvesting crops and checking on the traps, to bison hunting and trading goods with the fort. And of course, there’s always laundry! Some things never change!

From the front doors of the fort, walk roughly 10-20 meters toward the hill directly ahead (to the South). Point your device toward the hill to see the Métis homestead.

The Red River Métis are a unique nation. Born of a specific set of economic, social, and political circumstances, they went from being a group of people with a shared history and land-based customs to a nation that wielded immense power in the 19th century. Generally (though not always) the Métis were the descendants of French, Scottish, and English labourers, clerks, and partners and of Anishinaabe, Ininew (Swampy Cree), Nacoda (Assiniboine), and Nehiyâw (Plains Cree) women. When the men’s contracts ended, they had a choice: stay on to take another contract or retire as a Freeman and stay with his family. He could also take his family with him back to England, Scotland, the US, or the Canadas, or abandon his family completely. Those who chose to stay, along with their Indigenous wives and families, became the progenitors of the Red River Métis.

The mid to late 18th century saw a trickle of French independent traders coming to the Red River region and establishing small posts to trade for marten and beaver furs. These traders sometimes set up temporarily for a few years, but many stayed on. Records on these men and their posts are scant, except for complaints from HBC factors; these interlopers were disrupting the trade networks upon which they relied to bring furs up to the Bay. Nevertheless, some stayed, married into Indigenous communities, and established small one-room post-on-sill homes (at least by the standards of European observers). They also cultivated local crops like corn and potatoes, and even planted and tending and harvesting wild rice in the Interlake. Not surprisingly, they also supplemented their diet with hunting and fishing and sold the surplus to fur trade companies in need in provisions. Despite pemmican’s importance to the companies, hunting and fishing for fresh meat on a smaller scale was highly valued labour, especially for the wintering partners and clerks who tired quickly of preserved foodstuffs.

The Métis lifestyle was a highly seasonal one and depended on the migrations of the animals they hunted and changes in weather patterns. Their physical and social proximity to First Nations communities allowed them access to trading networks and their familiarity with the European companies and their motivations made them a powerful new force on the prairies. Learning how to hunt, fish, provision, and farm from their mothers, some of the young métis men were able to take advantage of their fathers’ interests, infiltrating their social circles and gaining capital (both social and economic) within the companies, in the Red River settlement, and beyond in places like Lower Canada and the United Kingdom. The North West Company forged close relationships with this emerging Métis Nation at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. The NWC occasionally contracted out tasks to this growing population such as freighting goods and provisions, and over time several Métis people held positions of authority within its ranks. Usually, these men were the children of company clerks or partners who had been educated in Montreal or, in exceptional cases, in Europe. Cuthbert Grant Jr was one of these men who worked at Fort Gibraltar and more importantly rose to become a leader of the Métis at Red River. Following the bison hunts, Métis were also able to use these trading networks to establish carting and freighting systems that would continue into the late 19th century. This allowed them to open up new relationships with Americans by going further south of the Pembina Valley, far from the reach of the HBC monopoly. This would eventually cause a new conflict between the company and the Métis which ended in the trial of Guillaume Sayer, a Métis free trader who was accused of trading outside the company’s monopoly. The trial ended, not with a guilty sentence, but an acquittal, as Sayer’s family and friends were waiting outside with firearms. With this victory, the Métis demonstrated once again that they were integral threads in the fabric of Red River society.

Written by Colin and Monique. Revised by Phil and Janet.