News Letter Excerpts

The "Battle of Seven Oaks" marks the birth of the Metis Nation. Historians have chosen to interpret this particular battle in a negative light, showing the Metis as the aggressors contrary to the evidence. Historians of the past have chosen to show the Metis as the savages, and therefore as the ones who fired the first shot and afterwards mutilating the bodies. But, a more careful read of history indicates that it was unlikely that the Metis fired the first shot and the Metis themselves did not mutilate any of the bodies. The Metis were cleared of wrong doing in a report prepared by William Bachelor Coltman who was appointed to investigate the battle. Coltman's report clearly indicates that the Metis were not the aggressors in the battle and that is was very unlikely that the Metis fired the first shot. Before we go further it is necessary to look at the events leading up to the battle.

As employees of both the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, the Metis began to settle along the Assiniboine and Red Rivers. In 1811, a major shareholder in the Hudson's Bay Company, Lord Selkirk requested and received land for settlement. It included 116,000 square miles which included much of what is now Southern Manitoba. With the arrival of settlers in 1812 new tensions began to surface which ultimately would force the Metis to establish themselves as a force in the region. By 1800, the Metis had consolidated themselves as a cultural group on the western prairies.By 1810, the Metis had begun to supply fur trading forts with pemmican provisions. When the settlers came into hard times in their first few winters it became evident that Fort Douglas required provisions for itself. The then Governor of Assiniboia, Miles McDonald, in January 1814 issued a proclamation prohibiting the export of pemmican from Assiniboia. The Pemmican Proclamation of 1814 seriously threatened the economic livelihood of the Metis because they depended on the pemmican trade for their own livelihood. Many Metis and the employees of the Northwest Company were in opposition to the Hudson's Bay Company's proclamation. When Cuthbert Grant and some of his men were seen trying to avoid Fort Douglas on their way to Fort Bas de la Riviere on Lake Winnipeg, Governor Semple and twenty-four of his men rode out to intercept Grant and his men. A shot was fired and twenty minutes later twenty settlers lay dead while only two of Grant's men were killed.

A historian, Lyle Dick, from Parks Canada in a recent article on the Battle of Seven Oaks reviewed Coltman's report and stated that first; the first shot was fired by the Selkirk Settlers, second; that the Hudson's Bay Company and settlers had a high attrition rate because they were "standing together in a crowd, unaccustomed to the use of fire-arms, or any of the practices of irregular warfare," while the Metis were "all excellent marksman, advantageously posted in superior numbers around their opponents, and accustomed as huntsman, and from the habits of Indian warfare, to every device that could tend to their own preservation, or the destruction of their enemy" and third; in respect to the mutilation of the bodies afterward, Coltman concluded that the individuals responsible were a French Canadian and his three sons.

Many people today still believe that the Metis "massacred" the settlers in a savage manner and that ultimately the battle was the fault of the Metis because they fired the first shot even when there is evidence to the contrary. We as Metis people need to start writing our own history and reviewing past historical writings to ensure the truth is put forward. By understanding our past we can become stronger in the future.

References:

Dick, L. "The Seven Oaks Incident and the Construction of a Historical tradition, 1816 to 1970," Journal of the CHA 1991 REVUE DE LA S.H.C.
Macleod M. & Morton W. Cuthbert Grant of Grantown: Warden of the Plains of Red River. McClelland and Stewart Ltd. 1963.

"Battle of Seven Oaks" sketch courtesy of Public Archive of Canada
"Cutberth Grant" portrait courtesy of Manitoba Archives