The Métis were very important to the fur trade and possessed many skills. They could hunt, trap, farm, and trade. The Metis moved west with the fur trade, and by 1800, they had established their own territory in the Red River area where Winnipeg is today.

In 1868, the Métis settlement learned that the Canadian government intended to buy Rupert's Land from the Hudson Bay Company. They feared that many people from Ontario would soon move into their territory and they would lose their lands. They also feared that, like the First Nations, they would lose all of their religious and linguistic rights. 

They organized a resistance movement and were led by a man named

Louis Riel

Riel was born in the Red River colony in 1884.

He attended the St. Boniface College of Red River, and while there, he attracted the attention of Bishop Alexandre Taché. The bishop noted his intellectual gifts and his deep religious conviction and selected him for higher studies and possibly to be ordained as a priest. When Riel was 13, he was sent to the Montreal seminary, but in 1864, he left and returned home as his father had died.

He continued his education and studied law, but two years later, he encountered another personal tragedy when the girl he was engaged to marry passed away. He stopped his studies and went to work in the United States. In 1868, he returned to Red River, at the age of 24.
   
   
   

 In December, 1869, Riel and about 400 followers captured Fort Garry, the headquarters of the Hudson Bay Company. After this "Red River Rebellion," Riel proclaimed a provisional government and soon became its president. The Red River community wanted to join Canada as an independent province, and it asked the federal government to recognize their property rights to the lands that they had cultivated for years.

Red River cart, transported belongings, floated in the river, and could be tipped over for protection against attackers

The Canadian government would not agree to this but did receive the Métis delegates when they arrived in Ottawa. In May, 1870, the government accepted most of the Métis proposals, and the Manitoba Act was passed. This Act recognized the Red River settlement and a territory of 600,000 hectares around it as the new province of Manitoba. The government also promised to recognize all Métis property rights and to allow bilingual institutions and Catholic schools. The rest of Rupert's Land became part of the Northwest Territories.

However, in secret, the Canadian government already conspired to retract all its promises. Even while the Métis delegates negotiated in Ottawa, new and armed (British) troops and settlers were sent to the Red River area. An uprising began, and during the uprising, Riel's followers executed an Englishman. In August, 1870, the federal government sent 12,000 troops and British settlers from Ontario to the area, and gradually they expelled most of the Métis from their lands. Riel was declared a traitor, and he fled to the United States.
         
  French-speaking people and members of the First Nations saw Riel as a hero. Riel continued to be involved in politics for many years. After he led another rebellion at Batoche, in Saskatchewan, he was executed as a traitor.  

The debate as to whether Riel was a hero or a traitor continued for almost 100 years. In 1992, the Canadian government officially acknowledged that Louis Riel had an important role in Canada's history. He is now considered a hero, not a traitor.

Unfortunately, for many years, the Métis people stayed trapped between the First Nations and European cultures but identified with neither. Unlike First Nations, Métis people did not have their own lands. They also were not eligible for assistance from any government programs. Today, they are recognized as a distinct cultural group and have their own settlements.