The third supporting question, “What was the Red River Colony (also known as the Red River Settlement or the Selkirk Colony)?” helps students use primary sources to unwrap the context of the time and topic being examined. Originally settled in 1811 by the Scottish Lord Selkirk on land obtained through an HBC land grant, the community was known as the Red River Colony or the Selkirk Colony. Intended to be an agricultural colony, organized to provide the HBC with a less expensive source of food in the region, Selkirk recruited Irish and Scottish settlers. The settlers struggled to establish the colony and produce enough food to either support themselves or the regional demands of the fur trade. The creation and growth of this colony also led to a great deal of political strife and outright rebellion by the Metis people. Despite resistance by the Metis, this community continued to grow over the years, and today is the modern city of Winnipeg, Canada.
Complete the following task using the sources provided to build a context of the time period and topic being examined.
Formative Performance Task 3
Write a brief summary that answers the following questions:
- What types of sources did you find (letters, photos, maps, diaries, etc.)?
- What is going on in these sources (what kind of information do they contain?
- Who created each of these sources?
- Who was the intended audience for each source?
- Why were these sources created?
- When were the sources created?
- What do the sources tell us about the complexity of the culture and politics in the Red River area of the northern Great Plains?
- What was the Pemmican Proclamation, the Pemmican War, and The Battle of Seven Oaks?
- What where the Red River and the North-West Rebellions?
- Who was Louis Riel?
Featured Sources 3
For this section, students will be required to find additional sources themselves. Using school and public library resources, and the internet, they will need to search for newspapers, periodicals, journals, books, interviews, photographs, and other primary and secondary sources to find evidence to support their arguments and claims.