The New Nation, The Métis

From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Third Series, Section II, Volume XXXIII. Arthur S. Morton was a professor of History at the University of Saskatchewan as well as the University’s Librarian. In this article, he claims that the “racial consciousness” of Canada’s Métis people – and their self-conception as a new nation – was stoked and exploited by fur trading companies like the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company (137). By characterizing each other’s spread across western Canada as a threat to Métis national sovereignty, both companies surreptitiously challenged one another by encouraging Métis aggression. For Morton, this tactic resulted in Métis resentment towards the Dominion’s imposition of government rule in the North-West, leading to political conflict in the 1870s and beyond.