Homeland to hinterland :

"Most writing on Métis history has concentrated on the Resistance of 1869-70 and the Rebellion of 1885, without adequately explaining the social and economic origins of the Métis that shaped those conflicts. Historians have often emphasized the aboriginal aspect of the Métis heritage, stereotyping the Métis as a primitive people unable or unwilling to adjust to civilized life and capitalist society. In this social and economic history of the Métis of the Red River Settlement, specifically the parishes of St Francois-Xavier and St Andrew's, Gerhard Ens argues that the Métis participated with growing confidence in two worlds: one Indian and pre-capitalist, the other European and capitalist. Ens maintains that Métis identity was not defined by biology or blood but rather by the economic and social niche they carved out for themselves within the fur trade. Ens finds that the Métis, rather than being overwhelmed, adapted quickly to the changed economic conditions of the 1840s and actually influenced the nature of change. The opening of new markets and the rise of the buffalo robe trade fed a "cottage industry" whose increasing importance had significant repercussions for the maintenance of ethnic boundaries, the nature of Métis response to the Riel Resistance, and the eventual decline of the Red River Settlement as a Métis homeland." -- Provided by Publisher