Metis lands in Manitoba /

Canadian historians have long suggested that the Metis were willfully deprived of land granted them under the Manitoba Act. Working under contract for the Department of Justice, Flanagan supplies a rejoinder: the government's view regarding the land transactions. Using all the available evidence land records, contemporary letters, mortgages, powers of attorney, court orders, affidavits and the like Flanagan attempts to destroy allegations of government fraud, deception, and corruption. He points out the provisions of the Manitoba Act and the British North America Act that followed. He shows that the Dominion government distributed 1.4 million acres of land to the Metis under the Metis Children's Land Grant and describes how the eligible recipients were located, the land divided by lottery, and title awarded through letters patent from the Crown. But the Metis gave up many of their acres willingly. Small-scale farming and holding large parcels of land was not the Metis way. The Metis yearned for the west hunting on the prairie, trapping, freighting and trading. Selling their land would enable them to earn the expenses for the move. Flanagan makes a very strong case. Maps, documents, tables, and a fine bibliography support the research. The volume is scholarly, well-written, informative, but is not recommended for the neophyte. See D.N. Sprague's Canada and the M'etis, 1869-1885 (CH, Feb'89); The New Peoples, ed. by J. Peterson and J.S.H. Brown (CH, Jun'86); and Flanagan's own Louis 'David' Riel: Prophet of the New World (CH, Sep'79) for further insights.-D. Jacobson, Michigan State University