North West Company and Pemmican Proclamation

Hudson Bay Company: Leading up to the confrontation, there had been a corporate battle between the Hudson Bay Company and the North West Company, according to CBC. The tensions hit a new point with the Pemmican Proclamation, which had a huge impact on the Métis populations who relied on the food for nutrition and trade. On June 19, 1816 the Battle of Seven Oaks started a "spark of consciousness" for the country Métis population, according to Will Goodon, minister of Tripartite Self-Government Negotiations at the Manitoba Metis Federation. "This consciousness of nationalism was really sparked at that time," he said. The Pemmican Proclamation, issued by Miles Macdonell, governor Assiniboia, in 1814, banned the export of food from Red River and thereby prevented the North West Company from supplying its distant trading posts. "The Métis had been around and had been trading, had been developing the pemmican for years and generations, and then all of a sudden there were people coming from the east, coming from Europe, and putting down laws that really made no sense at the time other than to try to fill the coffers of certain fur trade companies," Goodon said, adding that there were outlying factors beyond the economic issues. The local governor Robert Semple decided to make a stand, Goodon said, around what is now West Kildonan near Main Street and Rupertsland Boulevard. "He was going to teach these guys a lesson. The day of the battle, Métis leader Cuthbert Grant and a group of mostly Métis people were travelling through the area to trade some pemmican. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.