In the 1820s, the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company amalgamated. The result was that many of the Métis who had worked for these companies were laid off. Many of them moved to the Saint-Norbert area where they took up farming. There was very little wood for building Read more…
The original Red River Floodway was built between 1962 and 1968 and cost $63 million. At the time, excavation of the floodway channel was the second largest earth moving project in the world (second only to the Panama Canal and larger than the Suez Canal project). Since 1968, it has Read more…
Father Joseph-Noël Ritchot promised the Metis that he would build a chapel if there was no bloodshed between the Metis and Governor McDougall during the Red River Resistance. Governor McDougall had come to the settlement to see about claiming the land for Canada but was met with resistance from Riel Read more…
Many efforts have been made to clear Louis Riel of his charge of treason in 1885. One of the first bills introduced to the House of Commons pertaining to the exoneration of Louis Riel was the Private Members Bill C-417 in the 36th parliament called, “An Act Respecting Louis Riel” Read more…
Many Métis people were hired by the Hudson’s Bay Company as freighters, tripmen or buffalo hunters. They manned the York boats that took supplies to and from the Hudson Bay as well as other locations serviced by the HBC. Gradually, due to increased rail lines in their territory, the HBC Read more…
On the 19th of October, 1869, a meeting was held at the St. Norbert parish that elected the Comité national des Métis with Louis Riel as the secretary. On October 20th, 1869, the Métis learned that Govenor McDougall from Canada was heading to them with arms and men. The Métis Read more…
The grey nuns were started by Marie-Marguerite d’Youville, a young widow, who founded the Sisters of Charity of Montreal. Mother d’Youville opened a house for the poor in Montreal and later took over the administration of the Hopital Général of Montréal. The general population of Montreal resented the change of Read more…
Les Soeurs de Misericorde (Sisters of Mercy), who arrived in Winnipeg in 1898, built a small hospital and a home for single mothers and infants. This hospital later became the Misericordia Hospital. In 1904, with assistance from Father Noël-Joseph Ritchot, the sisters founded an orphanage in St. Norbert and called Read more…
Jean-Baptiste Tourond was born in St. Boniface in 1838. He married a Métis woman, Angelique Delorme, daughter of Joseph Delorme. They lived and farmed in St. Norbert on lot 42 and had 10 children, two of whom died before their first birthday. On August 20, 1869, a survey party headed Read more…
Father Noël-Joseph Ritchot was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest at Collège de L’Assomption on the 22nd of December, 1855. In 1861, Ritchot volunteered to serve under Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché of the diocese of St Boniface and in early June, 1862, he was sent to the Red River Settlement in Read more…