Manitoba Cultural Groups

Black Canadians
Many Black people migrated to Canada in search of work and became porters with the railroad companies in Ontario, Quebec, and the Western provinces or worked in mines in the Maritimes. Between 1909 and 1911 over 1500 migrated from Oklahoma as farmers and moved to Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
 * Black History Library and Archives Canada

First Nations

 * Indian Tribes of Manitoba, Native American Nations, Your Source for Indian Research

Icelandic
"In 1875, the eruption of the Askja volcano was the incentive for the migration of twenty percent of Iceland's population to North America. As Winnipeg became the most popular destination for Icelanders, the town's population reached 7,000 people during the 1880s. To this day, Manitoba remains North America's centre for Icelandic culture and activities. The localities of Gimli, New Iceland, Riverton, Lundar, Morden, Lakeview, Erickson, Baldur, Arborg, and Glenboro are known for their Icelandic cultural influence."
 * Icelandic Genealogy and Family History Library and Archives of Canada

Mennonites

 * Mennonite Genealogy and Family History Library and Archives Canada
 * Mennonites and Amish in Canada Church Records
 * [Composite Index of Heads of Household in the Mennonite Church Records of the Bergthal Gemeinde, Chortitzer Gemeinde, Reinlaender Gemeinde, Sommerfelder Gemeinde and Kleine Gemeinde]
 * Sommerfeld Gemeinde Buch: Cumulative Index - Volumes 1-5

A large wave of Mennonites from Ukraine were the first settlers to arrive in the new province of Manitoba in 1870. Within the next decade, more than 7,000 settled the regions of the East Reserve and West Reserve.

The Dominion Lands Act of 1872, which granted inexpensive and free land to settlers, the aggressive immigration policy publicized in Central Europe, and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway all contributed to furthering the establishment of Mennonite communities in Central and Western Canada. Over the last century, both the First World War, chiefly the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and the Second World War encouraged the mass migration of conscientious objectors to settle in North America.

Today, almost 200,000 Mennonites call Canada home. In 2010, the largest urban concentration of Mennonites was located in Winnipeg (20,000) making it one of the largest Mennonite cities in the world.

Métis

 * Métis Nation  Government of Canada
 * Métis Wikipedia
 * Métis Genealogy Library and Archives Canada
 * Voyageur Contracts Database Approximately 35,900 fur trade contracts signed in front of Montréal notaries between 1714 and 1830.
 * Hudson's Bay Company Archives
 * Resources
 * Name Indexes
 * Metis Population from 2001 and Metis Population from 2006 Census Maps
 * Genealogy of the First Metis Nation: the development and dispersal of the Red River Settlement, 1820-1900. WorldCatby D.N. Sprague and R.P.Frye: Winnipeg: Pemmican Publication, c. 1983. FHL Book 971.27 D2s


 * The Métis are a multi ancestral indigenous group whose homeland is in Canada and parts of the United States between the Great Lakes region and the Rocky Mountains. The Métis trace their descent to both Indigenous North Americans and European settlers (primarily French). Not all people of mixed Indigenous and Settler descent are Métis, as the Métis are a distinct group of people with a distinct culture and language. Since the late 20th century, the Métis in Canada have been recognized as a distinct Indigenous people under the Constitution Act of 1982 and have a population of 587,545 as of 2016.
 * During the height of the North American fur trade in New France from 1650 onward, many French and British fur traders married First Nations and Inuit women, mainly Cree, Ojibwa, or Saulteaux located in the Great Lakes area and later into the north west.
 * The majority of these fur traders were French and Scottish; the French majority were Catholic.
 * These marriages are commonly referred to as marriage à la façon du pays or marriage according to the "custom of the country."
 * At first, the Hudson's Bay Company officially forbade these relationships. However, many Indigenous peoples actively encouraged them, because they drew fur traders into Indigenous kinship circles, creating social ties that supported the economic relationships developing between them and Europeans. When Indigenous women married European men, they introduced them to their people and their culture, taught them about the land and its resources, and worked alongside them. Indigenous women paddled and steered canoes, made moccasins out of moose skin, netted webbing for snowshoes, skinned animals and dried their meat.
 * The children of these marriages were often introduced to Catholicism, but grew up in primarily First Nations societies. As adults, the men often worked as fur-trade company interpreters, as well as fur trappers in their turn.
 * Many of the first generations of Métis lived within the First Nations societies of their wives and children, but also started to marry Métis women.
 * By the early 19th century, marriage between European fur traders and First Nations or Inuit women started to decline as European fur traders began to marry Métis women instead, because Métis women were familiar with both white and Indigenous cultures, and could interpret.