First_Settlers_-_Grade_5-6

							The First St. Clements Settlers
      Who Were The First Explorers?

   The French were the first
    European explorers to come
    to the Red River.
   They were led by Pierre La
    Verendrye.
   The trail that they explored
    and left behind is called the
    La Verendrye trail.
    The Hudson’s Bay Company

   Next came the Hudson’s Bay
    Company workers.
   The English King Charles II
    gave two explorers named
    Radisson and Groseilliers a
    ship called the Nonsuch.
                                    King Charles II
   With this ship, they explored
    the land by Hudson’s Bay.


                                       Nonsuch
           Why Did They Come?

   They found lots of furs in the Red River area.
   They set up a trading camp to bring the furs
    to England and make lots of money.
   They were the first group of people to live by
    the Red River, who were not aboriginal.
          Settling Down

   They built their homes south of
    Selkirk/East Selkirk.
   Today this would be Winnipeg
    and Southern St. Clements.
   Many of these European settlers
    married and had families with the
    aboriginal peoples.
   These people were called the
    Métis.
      Who Was Lord Selkirk?


                Lord Selkirk was a
                 Scottish nobleman.
                His full name was
                 Thomas Douglas, the
                 Fifth Earl of Selkirk.
Lord Selkirk
        The Selkirk Settlers
   In the early 1800’s, Scottish peasants
    were in trouble.
   People were starting to raise sheep.
    They needed large fields for the sheep
    to live on.
   The peasants that used to live on the
    fields were cleared off and didn’t have
    a home anymore.
   Lord Selkirk saw this happening and
    didn’t like it. He wanted to help them.
       Where Did They Go?

   There was no land for the peasants to live
    on in Scotland so Lord Selkirk had to send
    them somewhere else.
   Lord Selkirk decided to send them to
    North America.
   The Hudson’s Bay Company gave Lord
    Selkirk a lot of land near the Red River.
   The first group of the Selkirk settlers
    arrived in 1812.
             Arguments
The town they built grew quickly.
The Métis people were still living in the
same area between Selkirk and
Winnipeg when the Selkirk settlers
arrived.
There were a lot of arguments between
them because the Métis didn’t like the
Selkirk settlers living on their land.
A big fight even happened called the
Seven Oaks Massacre.
The fighting stopped when Lord Selkirk
sent some soldiers from Scotland.
     Moving
►After a  while, the children of the Selkirk
 settlers wanted to move.
►The land they lived on kept flooding, and
 they didn’t like that.
►They moved to the Selkirk area in St.
 Clements because it didn’t flood here.
        Arriving in St. Clements


 The Selkirk Settlers
  created a town.
 They named the
  town Selkirk after
  Lord Selkirk.
              East and West Selkirk
   The town was supposed to be on the
    East Side of the River
   Plans changed and people built their
    homes on both sides of the river.
   West Selkirk became a town in 1882.
   East Selkirk became a town in 1883.
   By 1884, East Selkirk had over 400
    people, five general stores, four
    hotels, several quarries, brickyards,
    potteries, and a very busy harbour at
    Colville Landing.
         East Selkirk Roundhouse/
         Immigration Shed
   The Selkirk settlers built the East Selkirk
    Roundhouse/Immigration Shed.
   It was originally supposed to fix train engines but
    never did.
   Instead people moving here from other countries
    used it as a first house.
        This presentation brought to you by the St. Clements Heritage
                             Advisory Committee!

                                                   The End
         - “preserving our community’s heritage one story at a time” –

         Information Compiled/Presentation Created by Jared Laberge

                                  Bibliography
    St. Clements Historical Committee. East Side Of The Red. Winnipeg:
    Inter-Collegiate Press, 1984.
   Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Rebellion>
    Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson%27s_Bay_Company>
    <http://www.hbc.com>