| |||||
| Capital | St. Boniface | ||||
| Largest city | St. Boniface | ||||
| Language official |
French, English, Michif | ||||
| others | Cree, Assiniboine, Ojibwe, others | ||||
| Religion | Catholic | ||||
| Ethnic Groups main |
Metis | ||||
| others | Anglo-Metis, Ukrainian, German, Italian, Icelandic, Canadian, British Americans | ||||
Assiniboia is an American state in Northern north America. To the west is the state of Absaroka, to the south are Minnesota and North Dakota and to the east are the states of Canada and Ontario. It is the largest mixed race state in the union, most of it's population is Metis, meaning mixed between French and Native.
History[]
France controlled a large territory in the New world, from Louisiana to Canada. Coureurs des bois and Voyageurs (runners of the woods and voyagers) were hired to explore the vast lands and integrate into aboriginal tribes to open up trade.
North-west of Lake Superior was La pays d'Haux (The high country), where the aforementioned groups had children with Cree, Assiniboine and Ojibwe people, creating the Métis people. This process was called Marriage à la façon du pays (Marriage in the way of the locals).
Métis comes from the Spanish word Mestizo, meaning half-blood. But Métis people were highly regarded, they understood both the European and native cultures and could act as a bridge between them. They were skilled hunters, trappers and translators, many became quite wealthy.
After 1763, Britain took control of the territory and put the land under the Hudson's bay Company (Similar to how India was owned by the British East India company). In 1801, Alexander Mackenzie (a Scottish explorer and fur trader) explored the region and the expedition acquired the attention of Thomas Douglas, the Earl of Selkirk. Following the Jacobite Uprising and Highland Clearances, Douglas determined that Scottish people could no longer prosper in Scotland, and that they should emigrate to other nations.
The American war of independence complicated the Red River Colony's existence, since much of British North America had gained independence, either as the United States or the Republic of Canada, although the two nations soon joined into one. With the British presence in North America greatly diminished, they wanted to cede the province of Quebec (1774 borders) to the United States in exchange for other concessions, but couldn't do that since it would mean the loss of valuable fur trading routes and a possible location for the settlement of 500,000 United Empire Loyalists. The 1790 Treaty of Hanover gave the Province of Quebec to the United States, while the Maritimes and Rupert's Land remained British. The Canadian Voyageurs and Coureurs des Bois who still lived in British territory would come under the control of a new Montréal-based Company, the Northwest Company.
Douglas bought shares in the Hudson's Bay Company, asking for land for an agricultural settlement in return. The Hudson's Bay Company granted Selkirk 300,000 km2 (five times the size of Scotland) in 1811. The Scottish settlers arrived after the possible harvest season, meaning they had to hunt bison like the native and Métis people did. Wildfires, disease and depletion of the bison population meant that the colony started to experience food shortages. Also, contrary to the desires of Douglas, many of the English and Scottish settlers intermarried with local Aboriginals, as well as Métis to create the Anglo-Métis group. A Scottish-based language called Bungee was created around this time but soon was replaced by English and Michif.
During this time the colony was populated with Natives, Métis, recent British colonists (called "Gardeners" by the natives due to their practice of agriculture), Freemen (fur traders with no contracts to either of the two fur trading companies), and finally the two largest fur trading companies: Hudson's Bay (based out of London) and Northwest (mainly consisting of Canadians, based out of Montréal).
Due to the Red River Colony's ongoing food shortages, they passed the Pemmican Proclamation, which banned the export of Pemmican from the territory (Pemmican is a mix of bison meat with dried berries). The Hudson's Bay Company agreed to enforce the ban, despite protest from the Northwest Company, who depended greatly on Pemmican, while the Hudson's Bay imported their provisions from England.
The Red River Colony and Hudson's Bay Company soon began cooperating on a blockade of the territory. Ships carrying Pemmican were seized, Métis hunting camps were blockaded and roads used by the NWC had barriers put on them. The US government soon got involved, calling the blockade a deliberate attempt by the British to starve out their American commercial rivals, who were permitted by the Treaty of Hanover to be there.
Both sides began to raise troops while the Métis and Cree offered to support the Northwest Company in any actions against the British. The Ojibwe sent their own warriors to the Red River Colony, claiming that their presence would discourage any attack by the Cree, but left after two weeks when they discovered that they would not be paid for their support.
The rivalry escalated into the Pemmican War
The third wave was Russian Mennonites who were looking for new land. They did not mix with anyone. The English government created the bloc colony system for them.
The final wave was Americans, these new immigrants were hostile to Catholicism and advocated for annexation by the US. Against this backdrop of religious, nationalistic, and ethnic tensions, political uncertainty was high.
When the United States purchased the area in 1869, a Métis leader named Louis Riel led the Red River Rebellion. After a year the conflict was over and Louis fled to London.
As payment for helping in the Civil war, the US gave the rebellious, Catholic territory of Assiniboia to Canada. A wave of new immigrants arrived in the region, Quebec decided to expand the bloc settlement system to all of Assiniboia to prevent ethnic violence.
A group of Métis moving West with their handcarts
Many Métis relocated to the Great Plains in the West, where they established farms and homesteads. Transcontinental railroads increased the number of international visitors to the area. They rebelled again in 1885. For his leadership in both uprisings, Louis Riel was put to death. Following the failed uprisings, the majority of Metis moved back to Assiniboia, however a sizeable diaspora still lives in Absaroka, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.
Geography[]
Economy[]
The state's economy is largely based on it's natural resources. Oil and coal are both large exports. Agricultural products, chemicals and manufactured goods are all exported through ports on lake superior.
Government[]
Demographics[]
Metis people are the majority, despite being only 35.4%. Cree, Assiniboine and Ojibwe groups are a large portion of the population. Saint Boniface even has the largest urban native population in the country. Anglo Metis mostly live in the eastern and northern regions.
In the South and central region there are large amounts of people who have Ukrainian or Icelandic ancestry. Assiniboia is home to the largest Ukrainian American population of any state, having nearly twice as many as second place, New York. The town of Gimli also has the largest concentration of Icelanders outside of Iceland. Italians mostly live in little Italy in Saint Boniface, and are the descendants of Italian miners, railroad workers, farmers and store owners, most of them were either Sicilian immigrants or Italian Americans from the East coast. Canadians largely live in the far South-west. There is a region is South-Central Assiniboia called New Pennsylvania. New Pennsylvania was settled by German-speaking Anabaptists first moved from the Volga region of Russia, they were joined by American-born Anabaptists from Pennsylvania. Assiniboia has one of the highest numbers of Russian mennonites in America. The region of New Pennsylvania today remains religious, conservative and German-Speaking.
| Métis | 587,545 |
| Ukrainian | 251,905 |
| Ojibwe | 250,742 |
| German | 242,313 |
| French | 148,810 |
| Anglo-American | 135,146 |
| Cree | 121,078 |
| Icelandic | 31,090 |
| Italian | 23,205 |
| Assiniboine | 3,500 |
White: 832,469 (46.36%)
Mixed: 587,545 (32.72%)
Indigenous: 375,320 (20.90%)
Total: 1,795,334