Countryborn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A community of the Métis people ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tis_people_%28Canada%29 )of Canada, the Countryborn (see also "Anglo-Metis" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Metis ) were children of the fur trade; typically of Orkney, Scottish or English paternal descent and Aboriginal maternal descent.
Forming communities in Red River and the Saskatchewan Valley, they generally claimed fewer problems with the expansion of the Canadian state westward during the 19th Century having chosen to identify with their British ancestry. However, due to racism and land claim disputes raised by eastern Anglo settlers and the Federal government the Countryborn along with their francophone brethren were displaced from their traditional lands. In response the Anglophone and Francophone Metis communities stood as one nation against federal government injustice in both the Red River Uprising of 1869 and the Northwest Uprising of 1885.
The Countyborn were culturally quite similar to the French Métis differing mainly in their language and Protestant religion. Most Countryborn were Anglican or Presbyterian. They were involved in a mixed economy of subsistence farming and bison hunting throughout most of the 19th century; they also found employment with the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company.
The Countryborn were often known in the 19th century as "mixed-bloods", "Black Scots" or "halfbreeds," a term now considered pejorative. Thus, they gradually came to see themselves as little different from their French Métis brethren. In the 20th Century and today, the two groups have become politically indistinct, and are commonly known on the Canadian Prairies simply as Métis.
Prominent Countryborn include James Isbister, and John Norquay, the Premier of Manitoba from 1878 to 1887.
