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      мллллллл  ллллллллн оллллллллн     ллл       лллллл
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 мл оллллллллллп  ллллллллл плм  плллмм    ммлллп ол олллн         ммлл
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    ппппп                ппллп      ппппп        ппппппппппппп
          ARRoGANT                CoURiERS      WiTH     ESSaYS

Grade Level:       Type of Work           Subject/Topic is on:
 [ ]6-8                 [ ]Class Notes    [Essay on the Metis,     ]
 [x]9-10                [ ]Cliff Notes    [A Partly French/Indian  ]
 [ ]11-12               [x]Essay/Report   [Tribe in the 1800s      ]
 [ ]College             [ ]Misc           [                        ]

 Dizzed: 12/94  # of Words:538   School: ?              State: ?
ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>Chop Here>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ
            The Metis            Mon April 5, 92
           ***********          =================

 The Metis were partly french and partly indian.  Their leader was called
Louis riel.

 Following the Union of the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company
in 1821, trading had been reorganized in order to reduce expenses.  Since
there was no longer competition in the fur trade, it was unnecessary to
have two or more posts serving a single trading district.  For this reason,
some posts had been closed and the number of brigades reduced.  This
reorganization had led to some unemployment amoung Metis who for years had
been working in the fur trade.  The Hudson Bay Company had attempted to
assist these these men by encouraging them to engage in farming in what is
now South Manitoba. A few families take to agriculture, but most of the
metis found it difficult.  To them, the excitement and the adventure of the
buffalo hunt held more appeal than farming.  Hundreds of Metis were content
to earn a living by hunting buffalo, making pemmican or finding employment
as freight drivers.

  After a while Canada bought Rupertsland from Hudson Bay Company. When the
Metis herd this they were alarmed.  They feared their religion,their
language, their lands and their old, free way of* life.  They had known for
some time that Canada was busy constructing a colonists highway from Lake
Superior to the Red River.  The situation became tense surveyors were sent
into the flow of settlers, and it was considered a wise move to have the
surveying well under way before settlement began in earnest.  It was
decided to use a system or land survey similar to that used in the western
part of the United States.  Townships were to be divided into thirty- six
sections, each containing one square mile or 640 acres.  The sections were
then to be divided into, the quarter-section was thought to be enough land
for each family settling in the North West. (An interesting aspect of the
survey system was the plan of the setting asside two sections in each
township for the future support of education. The idea to sell these
sections at a later date and use the money for the construction of
schools.) When th survey began, friction occured in those areas where the
french specking Metis had settled along the river, occupying long narrow
strips in the manner common in New France.  Attempts were made by the
surveyors to avoid disturbing the pattern, but in some cases the survey
lines crossed the narrow holdings, leading the Metis to believe the their
land was being taken away from them.

           Louis Riel              Mon April 5, 92
           ************            ===============

 Louis Riel was the leader of the Metis.  He was a black-bearded, handsome
young man, the son of the leader of a minor Metis revolt in 1849 against
the Hudson's Bay Company.  Born in the red River region in 1944, Riel had
been chosen as a possible candidate for the priesthood and had stidied at
the Jesuit College de Montreal. However, he failed to complete his
religious studies and returned to the Red River in 1868, looking for
employment.  His powers of eloquence and his hot-tempered nature soon made
him an outspoken defenter of the Metis.
