The Red River Colony has been changing…

The Red River Colony has been changing rapidly during the late 1860s.

Historically, the population had been composed mainly of Francophone (Michif-speaking) Métis, along with a minority of English-speaking mixed-race people known as the "country born" (also as Anglo-Métis), and a small number of Presbyterian Scottish settlers.

More Anglophone Protestants have begun to settle there from Ontario.

The new settlers are generally insensitive to Métis culture and hostile to Roman Catholicism, and many ware advocates of Canadian expansionism.

At the same time, many Americans have migrated there, some of whom favor annexation of the territory by the United States.

Against this backdrop of religious, nationalistic, and racial tensions, political uncertainty is high.

To forestall United States expansionism, the British and Canadian governments had been for some time negotiating the transfer of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company to Canada.

The Rupert's Land Act 1868 had authorized the transfer.

The District of Assiniboia is a name used to describe the Red River Colony, mainly for official purposes, between 1812 and 1869.

Nominally the district includes all of the territory granted in the Selkirk Concession, however much of this had been ceded to the United States in 1818 and in 1838 the district had been redefined as the circular region within 50 miles of the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.

The actual area of settlement, centered at present day Winnipeg, is limited to the Red River valley between Lower Fort Garry and Pembina, ND and the Assiniboine River valley between Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

The District is governed by a Hudson's Bay Company appointed Governor of Assiniboia who is advised by members of the Council of Assiniboia.

In 1869, the Canadian federal government arranges to buy the Hudson Bay Company’s territories for the sum of three hundred thousand pounds and title to one-twentieth of the land in the “fertile belt” (the region south of the Saskatchewan River.)

Rupert's Land, including the District of Assiniboia, is transferred to Canada without consultation of the residents of the settlement.

In anticipation of the transfer, the minister of public works, William McDougall, who along with George-Étienne Cartier had been instrumental in securing Rupert's Land for Canada, has ordered a survey party to the Red River Colony.

Catholic Bishop Taché, the Anglican bishop of Rupert's land Robert Machray, and the HBC governor of Assiniboia William Mactavish have all warned the government that such surveys will precipitate unrest.

Headed by Colonel John Stoughton Dennis, the survey party had arrived at Fort Garry on August 20, 1869.

The Métis are anxious about it, as many do not possess clear title to their lands.

In addition, the lots had been laid out according to the Seigneurial system, with long, narrow lots fronting the river, rather than the square lots preferred by the English.

They take the survey to be a forerunner of increased Canadian migration to the territory, which the Métis perceive as a threat to their way of life—more specifically, they fear losing their farms.

The larger fear is for losing their language and Catholic religion, and facing marginalization and discrimination in what has been their home territory.