A'PERFECT FREEDOM': RED RIVER AS A SETTLER SOCIETY. 1810-1870 by Norma Jean Hall A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies In Partial Fulfilment of the Re[uirements for the Degree of Master of Ans Department of History University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba @ Norma Jean Hall.2003 THE I.INTVERSITY OF MANITOBA FÄCIILTY OF GRADUATE STTJDIES coPYRrc"t #lässroN PÄcE A'PERtr'ECT FREEDOM': RED RTVER AS A SETTLER SOCIETY. 1810-1870 BY Norma Jean Hall A ThesislPracticum submitted to the Facultv of Graduate Studies of The Universitv of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts Norma Jean Hall @ 2003 Permission has been granted to the Library of The University of Manitoba to lend or sell copies of this thesis/practicum, to the National Library of Canada to microfilm this thesis and to lend or sell copies of the film, and to University Microfïlm Inc. to publish an abstract of this thesis/practicum. This reproduction or copy of this thesis has been made available by authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research, and may only be reproduced and copied as permitted by copyright laws or with express written authorization from the copyright owner. To persons past and present, de qui j'ai apprendu de la vie, na cho ro eile, dewch pan fynnoch, croeso pan ddeloch, megwich ABSTRACT Colonial era settlements in Newfoundland and Red River manifested quasi-stateless settler society identities for unusually protracted, approximately equal, and reasonably congruent spans of time. Reading the history of the Red River Settlement along the lines that Neurfoundland has emerged in recent rereading of that historiography resolves problems attributable to investigation being carried out in isolation from other frames of reference. Settler societies formed during the Colonial era shared circumstantial similarities but displayed developmental variations. The endowment of each location profoundly influenced the kind of society that could be superimposed upon it. Yet, Red River accords with the description of quasi-stateless settlement dynamics outlined for Newfoundland in that the contradictory social relationship between producers and procurers entailed mutual dependence as well as mutual force. Métis settlers, a free and active element motivated to enhance community development, applied solutions devised through cooperative association built on consensus. Their quasi-stateless condition did not prevent development; merchant creditenabled development by providing a solution to the absence of money; and focus on the fur trade did not prevent agricultural development from becoming as extensive as the community could handle. By 1869, the Métis were a primed population, well positioned to benefitfrom a substantial increase in development once enhanced transportation systems allowed immigration and consequent market expansion to take place. That this did not occur supports the contention that the dissolution of the Red RiverMétis community was due to the application of external force, not to internal weakness. CONTENTS ABSTRACT CHAPTER 1. Introduction 2. Historiography 3. Interpreting quasi-stateless societies . 27 4. Integration of Aboriginal and European values in the Red River Settlement 53 5. The mutual dependence and mutual force of producers and procurers 83 6. The myth of non-development tt4 7 . The'thrust of communitv intention into the future' r42 8. Conclusion 772 BIBLIOGRAPHY 173 lntroduction The history of settlement at Red River has yet to be fully explored. Undertaking a comparative approach to studying the society which formed at that location from 1810 to 1870 constitutes a move toward addressing this lack. Members of the Métis community, affiliated with both the Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies, sought the formal establishment of a settlement prior to the colonization attempt of Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk.l By 1810, Métis settlers were scattered along lake shores and rivers throughout Rupert's Land. People identified in Cree as Otípayrusoowuk -- gens libres or Freemen, their Aboriginal wives and Métis children -- engaged in farming at the forks of the Red River.2 The largest community was gathered at Pembina.3 Members of families who had cultivated acreage opposite the mouth of the Assiniboine River from at least 1808, witnessed the arrival of Selkirk's first settler group in 1812.+ In 1814, Miles Macdonell, 1 W.L. Morton, Maniroba - a History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1957), 68. J.G. MacGregor, Peter Fidler: Canada.'s Forgotfen Su.rveyor 1769-1822 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1966), 181, describes the earliest record of potential settlers as taking the form of a petition, submitted by William Auld to the London Office, listing HBC personnel. Provincial Archives of Manitoba [PAM] MG2 41, Selkirk Papers, "Miles Macdonell to the Earl of Selkirk," 1 Ocl 1811,49-50, reports that Auld, along rvith William Hemmings Cook, reaffirmed the interest in permanent settlement, and extended it to include members of the Métis community associated with the NWC. 2 W.L. Morton, Maniloba Z;Barry Kaye, "Some Aspects of the Histoncal Geography of the Red River Settlement from 1812 to 1870," M.A. Thesis, University of Manitoba, 1961,22-23; Robert J. Coutts, The Roa.d tu tlrc Rapids: Nineteentlt Century Clutrch and Society at SÍ. Andrew's Pqrish, Red Ri.ver (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2000), 23; E.S. Russenholt, Tlæ Heart of tlæ Continent: Being a History of Assíniboia -- tlrc lrulry rrypical Canadìan comnwnity (Winnipeg: MacFarlane Communications Services, 1968),4'7-Æ. See also, "Chapter 4," X n. 15, this thesis. 3 Kaye, 39. D.N. Sprague and R.P. Frye, Tlrc Geneal.ogy of the First MeIis Nation: Tlrc Development and Dispersal of tlw Red River Settlement 1820-1900 (Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications, 1983), 12. a Donald Gunn/Charles B. Tuttle, History of Mønitoba lront tlrc Earliest SettletnenrlAnd from 1835 to tlte Ad¡nissiort of the Province inro ilte Dominion (Ottawa: Mcl-ean, Roger and Company, 1880), 73,77: ArthurS. Morton, AHistoryof theCanadianWestto 1870-TI,BeingaHistoryof Rupert'sl-ønd (Tlrc Hudson's Bay Comparry TerriÍory) and of the Norrh-West Territory Qncluding the Pacific Slope) (Toronto: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1939), 54+45; W.L. Morton, Manitoba,480 n. 17; Russenholt, 24- 26,28, see also, Sprague and Frye, Genealogy, D 4266;Kaye,23. 2 Selkirk's agent, estimated that the colonists, numbering about 200 individuals, could count an equal number of multi-person Métis households in the immediate vicinity as their , neighbours.s Successive influxes of migrants internal to North America, including large numbers of Métis, continued to arrive while the Settlement remained under the auspices of Selkirk's estate. During the 1820s, at least 181 former employees, whose positions had been cut in the 1821 merger of the two fur trade companies, were free to 'retire' with their Métis families to Red River.6 In 1823, some 50 families relocated from Pembina to the White Horse Plain west of Red River, and to the Settlement proper. These were followed by approximately 100 more in 1824.t Family groups continued to arrive from remote areas of the fur trade to the end of the decade.s By comparison, the number of migrants external to North America to arrive in Red River during this period was considerably smaller.e Population figures supplied by the records of the Hudson's Bay Company |HBC] consist largely of informal enumerations scattered throughout Company correspondence.l0 As these were usually incorporated to bolster arguments either for or against encouraging the settlement of external migrants, the possibility of exaggeration or under reportage exists, and may in part explain the wide s W.L. Morton, Manìtoba,49. Russenholt,28,35,37, puts the total "'populace' whose lives centred at the 'Forks' " on a "more or less " permanent basis at "perhaps, 2000. " 6 Donald Gunn,226, asserts that "The influx of families, from the fur trade, in 1822, and the following summer, exceeded in number those who represented the onginal colonists brought in from all quarters by his L,ordship. " See also, Sprague and Frye, Genealogy, 15; Russenholt, 52. 7 See, Margaret Arnett Macleod, and W.L. Morton, Cuthberl Grant of Granlowrl: Warden of tlæ Plains of Red Rlver (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1963),86-88, 94. Sprague aad Frye, Genealngy, 15. George Simpson, quoted in Russenholt, 57. 8 Donald Gunn,24O-41,26I,268, and Margaret McWilliams, Manitoba Milestones (Toronto: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1928),61, note the arrival of an additional sixty families "of the Company people" from James Bay in 1829. 9 See, Donald Gunn, cited in Russenholt, 55. i0 Sprague and Frye, Genealogy, 29 n.71, note that "About thirty such inventories are found in the SelHrk Papers. " 3 variation exhibited in the historiography.tt As well, a degree of confusion can be attributed to the fact that those recruited in Europe were not all destined to be settlers, did not , necessarily board the ships bound for Rupert's Land, survive the journey, or continue on to Red River once they had arrived.lz Depending on the secondary source consulted, the declared size of the first Selkirk party to actually arrive in Red River in 1812 ranges from 78 to ?3 individuals in August. A supplementary arrival of from 7I to I2O settlers took place in October. The third party of 1814 is most often broken down into two smaller groups of from 4L to 5I, and 15 to 32 individuals respectively.13 A final contingent of between 80 to 84 Selkirk colonists arrived in November i815. The numbers of former de Meuron and de Watteville soldiers to arrive in 1816, followed by Swiss settlers in 1821, are equally imprecise. ia Few authors supply a total of the external migrants to arrive, although in one instance the observation is made that there was "perhaps a total of 500-520 Scots, Irish, Swiss and de Meuron."15 However, depending on how the figures from various sources are handled, it is possible to arrive at a number closer to 350.