| Summary: | In the mid-nineteenth century Métis society re-established itself west of Red River in the Saskatchewan country. This thesis tells the long overlooked story of the English Métis of the Prince Albert Settlement, beginning with James Isbister’s initial farm in 1862 and the wave of Métis who followed him west in search of a better life. Questions of Identity, Politics, and Religion are answered to place the English Métis in the historical context of the Métis nation and the events of the Canadian state’s institutional expansion onto the Western prairies. The place of the English Métis vis-à-vis their French, First Nations, and Euro-Canadian neighbours is examined, as are their attempts to secure a land base and continued collective identity under pressures from hostile state and economic forces. Their importance in the events of the period which would have long lasting national and local significance is also examined. A survey of the community and the changes it went through is given from the initial settlement period to the dissolution of the English Métis as a recognizable collective force following Louis Riel’s uprising.
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