In 1869, the federal government purchased Rupert's Land, a vast territory located between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes, where, since 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company had held a monopoly on the fur trade. For the federal government, this acquisition was a simple financial transaction between a state and a private company, a necessary step in the project to extend Canada’s borders to the Pacific Ocean.  

However, for the First Nations of the Prairies, who had lived for thousands of years in this immense territory west of the province of Ontario, and for the Métis, who formed a nation there, this purchase was a violent, imperialist act. These groups of people felt dispossessed: they had not agreed to this transaction, nor were they consulted.

In reaction to this usurpation, the Métis formed the Red River Provisional Government and made their voices heard. The “Declaration of the People of Rupert’s Land and the North West” bears witness to this act. The signatories, John Bruce, president of the provisional government, and Louis Riel, its secretary, addressed white settlers without hesitating to appeal to principles of law and political philosophy. They asserted that the Métis had the right to self-determination.

The federal government resigned itself to negotiation. It was impossible to send troops quickly to take possession of the new territory by force since there was no rail link between Ontario and Rupert’s Land. Negotiations with representatives of the Red River Provisional Government led to the creation of the Province of Manitoba and its entry into the Canadian federation in 1870. Despite concessions granted to the Métis, thousands of European settlers flooded into the territory. Indigenous people found themselves marginalized, and the process of genocide against First Nations and Métis continued.