English traders and French-speaking voyageurs used different methods to obtain goods from First Nations. The English Hudson’s Bay Company tended to build large fortified outposts on Hudson’s Bay to receive delegations bringing furs. While the Canadien and French voyageurs plunged further inland and established diplomatic and economic ties with First Nations bands. It was common practice for a voyageur to settle for the winter and enter into a “Country Marriage” with an indigenous woman who stayed in her community to raise their children. They learned traditional knowledge from their mother and followed religious and language instruction through the influence of the father. Gradually, these relationships have rise to a generation of Métis people with a unique blended identity. In the example of language, a Métis may speak nehiyawawin (Cree) or Ojibwe, French, or an amalgam called Michif. Eventually, a diverse Métis nation with its own political and economic agenda emerged. The most famous Métis man in history is Louis Riel, hanged for treason after bringing Manitoba and the North West into Canada into an attempt to protect Métis language, religious and property rights.
