EARLY RED RIVER CULTURE 



The annual meeting of the Manitoba 

 Historical and Scientific Society was 

 held in the Council Chamber, Winni- 

 peg, on the evening of Tuesday, 12th 

 February, 1901. 



Rev. Walter Burman, the president 

 of the society, occupied the chair, and 

 introduced Mrs. Bryce, the wife of the 

 Rev. Dr. Bryce, to read her paper : 



Mrs. Bryce said : 



The definition of culture ais connect- 

 ed with our subject must be a very 

 simple one. The Greek culture of 

 Plato may have made its way into the 

 enlightened minds of some of the 

 scholarly men that penetrated into the 

 wilds of the Northwest, but speaking 

 in a general way the culture of Goethe 

 or of Matbew Arnold would not be 

 dreamt of in the philosophy of Red 

 River. It will be sufficient for our 

 purpose to define the term as some- 

 thing analogous to making the best 

 of oneself under difficult circum- 

 stances. 



The Red River settlement, in a 

 great measure owed its origin to the 

 fur-trading companies, who, first of 

 white men were the explorers and set- 

 tlers of the remoter parts of British 

 North America. It would be well, 

 therefore, to extend our geographical 

 limits and give a short historical 

 sketch of the influences that affected 

 Red River and eventually made it the 

 centre of culture in the Northwest. 



It will be unnecessary to 

 go back to the time when 

 in 1670 the Hudson's Bay 

 Company received its charter and took 

 possession of the inhospitable shores 

 of Hudson Bay. Any evidences of 

 literary ability in that early period or 

 indeed in the following century, are 

 contained in the writings descriptive 

 of the contests of the company with 

 the French, who claimed the bay on 

 the plea of priority of discovery, and 



of explorations into the interior of the 

 country or in search of a Northwest 

 passage. These writings can hardly 

 be said to belong to the culture of the 

 Northwest. 



The reminiscent lore of Red River 

 gives us glimpses of the social cus- 

 toms that prevailed at the forts on 

 the lonely shores of Hudson Bay. 

 These forts, at first mere huts, sur- 

 rounded by stockades, grew in time to 

 be commodious and comfortable estab- 

 lishments. The denizens of one of 

 these forts would gather in a large 

 room of an evening. The immense 

 open fire place in use before the Car- 

 ron stove was imported, gave forth a 

 ruddy glow and comforting warmth. 

 The handsome polished mahogany fur- 

 niture brought out from England re- 

 flected and added to the brightness. 

 The evening was not infrequently en- 

 livened by dancing to the sound of the 

 violin. Most probably the dances in 

 vogue were >of the kind described by 

 George Eliot as "The angular dances 

 of our northern clime," meaning the 

 Scotch reel and strathspey. 



Troublous' Times. 



In the history of the fur trade there 

 arose a time of storm and stress when 

 the Hudson's Bay Company had to 

 contest with other companies from 

 Montreal the right to engage in the 

 fur trade in the interior of the North- 

 west. This period may be said to have 

 commenced in 1787 and closed in 1821, 

 when the two great companies that 

 survived the struggle, the Northwest 

 and the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 united their forces and became hence- 

 forth known as the one great fur- 

 trading company of the Northwest — 

 the Hudson's Bay Company. 



As may well be understood this period 

 was most unfavorable to culture, or 

 indeed to social advancement of any 



