Métis and other native groups
Métis and other native groups
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]During the Gathering of the Nations, many tribes and nations came to fight for the British against the Americans. When they did so, they saw differing ways of life from what they were used to, and saw what white society was capable of (steamboats, more iron tools than you could shake a stick at, etc.). If they didn't realize the full extent of the coming change (many didn't really understand how different London or Paris was than St. Louis, for instance), it was obvious to those with eyes to see that that change WAS coming. Some of the nations didn't see/refused to see/ or couldn't convince elders back home of the coming change. Others saw fellow natives, possibly speaking a language they could recognize as related, growing crops and even raising some farm animals (although that was pretty new at that time). So, when they go home they try out a few of those innovations. What's wrong with having a village were the elderly can rest, and grow a few vegetables and some corn? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]However, the Métis, with their existing relations supplying the fur companies, and with mixed European heritage were ready and able to absorb more of the new ideas, try them out, and pass them on to their own allies. Growing potatoes and other vegetables, and oats and rye and field peas increases their available food supply. Of course, the buffalo hunt is the pinnacle of the year and their whole society, still, having a couple of pigs and a flock of sheep and goats, not only varies the meat supply, but allows for things like cheeses and wool. They still grow a bit of wheat for the fur trade companies, but the Manitoba Métis are really too far north for it to be a really reliable crop, at all. The increased food means they can afford to raise more children (which pleases their priests, too[1]), and the culture expands. They even move west and set up a few settlements along the Souris and Qu'appelle Rivers, first, and then the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers, as well as extending south, some, along the Red River. However, over the years, white settlement moves up the Red River, and it is more useful for the Métis to move west, rather than south. In fact, some of the mixed-bloods from the south come and join them, as their land gets encroached upon by whites. (Of course, others of the mixed-bloods in what in OTL would be called the US Midwest adopt fairly fully whiteman's ways, and mostly disappear into the white population.) The Scots at the Selkirk settlement form a separate community from either the francophone Métis or the Anglo/Gaelic Countryborn (as the HBC Scots-Indian mixed blood were called). However, since much better land is available elsewhere, no more Scots join the Selkirk group, and some of them drift south to warmer lands.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The various Métis settlements provide very convenient services for the local plains Indians, even if they don't want to settle down themselves yet, they regularly visit the settlements which have blacksmiths, stores, and a priest. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The move to more farming does get a rough start with the first several years being very bad for farming, first the 'year without a summer' in 1816, then plagues of locusts in 1818 and 1819. Still, the advantages of a mixed farming economy slowly become obvious. Again, the massive flood of the Red River that happens in 1826 is more of a speed bump (and an encouragement to move to the new western settlements) than it is a real brake on the development of agriculture.[2] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Over the decades, small numbers of young white men looking for a more 'exotic' life join them from the farmlands of the south and east, and retiring fur trade employees often settle down with them, too. (Especially in the eastern areas on the Red River that are a bit more European in flavour). Plains Cree and Nakota interested a more 'modern' life also join them (especially in the western settlements that are more native in flavour). Thus the Métis society grows more quickly than just natural increase.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As the Buffalo[3] (the staple of both Plains nations and the Métis) thin out over the years, more and more of the Métis' food comes from the settled farms. And more and more of the plains Indians join them, either in the Métis settlements or their own. However, there are no organized parties of hunters deliberately wiping out buffalo, unlike OTL, so the buffalo hunt is able to survive rather longer.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Also, since warmer, wetter land to the south is available, the Orange Lodge Scots that OTL came from Ontario and essentially took over OTL Manitoba never arrive (certainly not in such numbers), the Métis and allies are left alone somewhat longer.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Some Métis take up ranching/farming beef cattle in the 1830s, although it takes a while for it to take off. A few of the cows are impregnated by bison bulls and the Métis find they like the resulting meat much better than plain beef. Although the first generation hybrids are less fertile than regular cattle (the males are all sterile, for instance), the resulting animals are hardier, bigger, and taste better, so they do some deliberate breeding to get what they want. By the 1850s and 1860s, when markets for meat in the south start opening up, they have their own breed of cattle that lives very well on the cold northern prairie. Cattle drives going south, although not as famous as the Tejas ones coming north, start, and that adds to the income of the area. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A Trappist monastery is established in 1837[4] in the Red River settlement, and the monks' cheeses and bee keeping are a useful addition to the local agriculture. While the Métis are quite lactose intolerant, and haven't been able to use milk, the addition of cheese making allows them to broaden their economy and diet some more. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 OTL the first priests appeared in 1818. Here, with the significantly increased number of priests starting with the French royalists, they've gotten into the habit of supplying more priests to local communities, and there has been one living with the Métis for some years now.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 butterflies shouldn't affect locust plagues or large scale weather patterns yet. These disasters were OTL.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]3 Bison, of course. But NO ONE back then called them bison, so when referring to 'buffalo hunts' that is what I will call them. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]4 Much, MUCH earlier than OTL. The Roman Catholic Church is being more active in supporting her flock, iOTL. Again, this STARTS with the added priests at the beginning of the TL, but once in the habit, continues the missionary/support work.
5 Nakota: a Siouxan nation in southern Manitoba. Also known as Assiniboians or Stoneys. The name is cognate with 'Lakota' and 'Dakota'.
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