RED

RIVER

See also:

• SETTLEMENT
• SETTLEMENT, ACT OF

SETTLEMENT  , a Scottish colony founded in 1811 near the present city of Winnipeg by a philanthropic Scottish nobleman, Lord Selkirk, who at that time controlled the Hudson's Bay Company . Quarrels soon arose with the French and half-breed employes of the North-West Fur Company, and were fostered by its officials . On June 19, 1816, in a fight between the rivals, Governor Semple of the Hudson's Bay Company and twenty of his twenty-seven attendants were killed, an affair known as the Battle of Seven Oaks . New settlers were sent by Selkirk, and founded the village of Kildonan, now part of Winnipeg . In 1821 the rival companies united, and in 1836 repurchased from Selkirk's heirs all rights to the territory . In 1821 and in 1835 two forts, known as Lower and Upper Fort Garry, were built to command the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, and around them grew up a mixed population of Scots, French and Indians . The purchase in 1869 of the territorial rights of the Company by the Dominion of Canada led to a rebellion, and the setting up of a provisional government under Louis Riel, which was dispersed by a force of British regulars under Colonel (later Lord) Wolseley . See CANADA (History); also George Bryce, Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company (1900) .