Indigenous and Métis Peoples

June 2020

Indigenous Peoples. Our reliance on written history has led to the notion that this part of the country didn’t have any notable history or heritage prior to the arrival of Europeans. Archeological evidence and recognition of the value of oral histories has begun to rectify this ethnocentric approach to our past.

Our histories now begin with accounts of the arrival of the first human emigrants to North America across the Bering Straits land bridge sometime between twelve and seventy thousand years ago. They spread gradually across the continent, inhabiting this region only after the retreat of the Ice Age glaciers. The earliest human artifacts located in southern Manitoba date from about 11000 to 9000 B.C. Evidence of a diversified culture based on gathering, fishing and hunting is found from around 5000 to 2000 B.C. This coincided with the drainage of Lake Agassiz and emergence of a land of prairie grasslands, rivers, lakes and tree-covered parkland. Check our local museums for collections of early artifacts from this area.

For an informative overview of local geology and lives of our first inhabitants, you might wish to locate a copy of the Miami Museum’s ‘Pembina Country: a Land of Promise’ published by D.W. Friesen & Sons, Altona, 1974.

Last month we referred you to Gerald Friesen’s history ‘The Canadian Prairies: A History’ for a more balanced insight into the workings of the western fur trade than most of us learned about in our early schooldays. The chapters on the early history of the western Indigenous cultures and their role in the fur trade are especially helpful in understanding the people and their activities in this region prior to 1870.

Here in brief are some of his insights, points we often miss when we think about the early inhabitants of this land:

1. Diversity of Culture – Early “Indians” often are viewed as a single cultural group, tinted in part by a stereotypical “wild-west” image. Rather like assuming “Europeans” all share the same language and culture. In fact, some 200 language groups were found across North America along with lifestyles adapted to the local environment. These ranged from the migrant hunting/ gathering groups in the north-west to more settled agricultural-based communities in some southern and eastern areas of the continent. Three main linguistic groups were represented in the north-west area of the continent. Over the centuries, different groups relocated or extended their range within this general region. One cultural aspect Indigenous North Americans appear to have shared was a close spiritual connection with the natural environment.

2. History of Trade. Trading goods within a band, between bands of the same culture or amongst other groups with whom they had diplomatic alliances was part of the early Indigenous lifestyle. Plains hunters, for example, migrated long distances to exchange pelts, beadwork or other artifacts for agricultural products produced by Mandan settlements far to the south. These gatherings were occasions for ceremonies, games and social interaction. Some of these practices carried over into the European fur trade.

3. Change on Contact. During the first two centuries of contact in the West (1640–1840), arrival of European fur trade had little impact on Indigenous lifestyles. Trade with the European companies was carried out largely though Indigenous middlemen who travelled to the posts, traded pelts for goods and made the journey back to the local bands. Blankets, cloth, and metal goods replaced the earlier technologies but did not change the lifestyle of the indigenous cultures. Seasonal migration patterns continued, and surplus furs were traded for more desirable goods. The companies in turn had furs delivered to their posts.

4. Approaching 1870. As competition between the fur trading companies evolved, lives of the original inhabitants began to change. Company trading posts were moved inland, Indigenous middlemen were replaced by company employees and canoeists. These changes led to an increased demand for food, especially for pemmican, the staple of the canoeists diet. The traditional buffalo hunt, now more efficient thanks to introduction of the horse and gun, responded to the new demand. Soon the increasing demand for pemmican and buffalo robes, growing competition from US traders and widespread introduction of horses and guns to the buffalo hunt led to rapid depletion of herds in traditional hunting areas. Outsiders also brought diseases. Measles and the smallpox epidemics of 1781 and 1836 took a heavy toll on non-resistant communities. After 1870, homesteaders began to arrive, reducing the size of the seasonal hunting and foraging areas.

As a result, the local Indigenous population experienced a reduction in numbers from starvation, disease, and migration to new hunting territories. The census taken in 1870 as part of the union with Canada recorded only 558 persons classified as “Indian” from a total of over 11,900 persons then living in the ‘postage-stamp’ Province of Manitoba.

After 1870, changes in the local lifestyle accelerated. The traditional hunting/gathering/trade-based economy of previous centuries rapidly changed to an agricultural-based market economy. Indigenous members of the population learned that the European concept of land ownership had replaced their understanding that the land and its resources were for all to use. In future, they would live on reserves.

We’ll continue next month with our rather superficial but hopefully pertinent look at the local pre-1870 population of this region we now call Manitoba.