Most writing on Metis history has concentrated on the Resistance of 1869-70 and the Rebellion of 1885, without adequately explaining the social and economic origins of the Metis that shaped those conflicts. Historians have often emphasized the aboriginal aspect of the Metis heritage, stereotyping the Metis as a primitive people unable or unwilling to adjust to civilized life and capitalist society.

In this social and economic history of the Metis of the Red River Settlement, specifically the parishes of St Francois-Xavier and St Andrew's, Gerhard Ens argues that the Metis...