Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Manitoba
In the beginning, the province of Manitoba
was occupied by several Aboriginal groups.
It was they who gave the province its name:
Manitou was a highly revered spirit among
the First Nations who lived there, and the
rapids of Lake Manitoba were believed to be
his voice. Once the English and French ar-
rived, however, the story of Manitoba swiftly
became the story of a running feud between
two rival fur-trading companies: the English-
owned Hudson's Bay Company on the one
hand and the French-Indian North West
Company—which emerged later and, for
a time, successfully competed against the
British—on the other. This French infl uence
is still evident today, most notably in Saint-
Boniface.
The Metis made up a considerable part of
this French-speaking population. The des-
cendants of French trappers and Aboriginal
people, the French-speaking, Catholic Metis
lived at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine
Rivers, in settlements which were annexed
to Canada in 1869. Fearing for their lan-
guage, education, land and religious rights,
they were led by Louis Riel in their pursuit
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