In January 1814, Miles Macdonell, governor of Lord Selkirk’s Red River Colony, issued a decree banning the export of pemmican and other provisions from the colony for one year.
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) claimed this was to ensure adequate food supplies for its settlers, but the Métis, who hunted bison and supplied pemmican to the North West Company (NWC) traders, viewed it as a direct attack on their economic lifeline.
Pemmican was a high-energy, non-perishable, food made of dried bison meat, tallow and dried berries. The ingredients were pounded into a paste and formed into compact cakes.
It was not just food—it was currency, a resource that sustained the fur trade and provided Métis buffalo hunters with autonomy and wealth.
The proclamation, however, aimed to monopolize resources for the HBC. By cutting off pemmican supplies to the NWC, Macdonell hoped to cripple its operations and solidify HBC dominance over the Northwest.
The edict ignited what would become known as the Pemmican Wars—a series of conflicts over control of pemmican, bison hunting grounds, and Indigenous economic autonomy.
Métis Resistance and Economic Strategy
The Métis responded with organized defiance. Led by Cuthbert Grant, they intensified their guerrilla tactics, sabotaging HBC supply lines and asserting control over bison-hunting grounds.
Métis hunters continued to produce pemmican, escorting convoys to supply NWC canoes bound for Lake Winnipeg and beyond.
Grant’s forces also seized strategic forts, such as Brandon House, to block HBC access to trade routes.
North West Company agents, like Duncan Cameron – a Scottish-Canadian fur trader – rallied Métis allies, declaring: “They will starve your families… you must assist me in driving away the colony.”
The Métis understood the stakes: without pemmican, the NWC would falter. More importantly, this would end the economic independence of the Métis and their way of life would be erased.
The Battle of Seven Oaks: Economic Warfare in Action
The confrontation reached its climax on June 19, 1816, at Seven Oaks (or la Grenouillère in Métis oral history).
A party of ~60 Métis and First Nations men, led by Grant, was transporting pemmican to NWC canoes when they were intercepted by Robert Semple, HBC governor, and 28 settlers. Semple demanded the Métis surrender their supplies.
What followed was a 15-minute firefight. The Métis, skilled riders and sharpshooters, outmanoeuvred HBC forces. Semple and 20 men died, while the Métis lost only one teenager, Joseph Letendre.
The battle was as much about securing pemmican convoys as it was about proving that Indigenous economies could not be controlled by colonial monopolies.
The Costs and Consequences
The victory at Seven Oaks briefly secured Métis access to pemmican routes, but tensions escalated. In retaliation, the HBC seized Fort Gibraltar and destroyed it, deepening the rift.
By 1821, the Hudson’s Bay Company absorbed the North West Company, ending the corporate rivalry. Yet the Métis faced new hardships: reduced demand for pemmican and marginalization from both companies.
Conclusion
The Pemmican Wars underscored the economic roots of Indigenous resistance. For the Métis, pemmican was more than a trade good—it was a symbol of their autonomy and connection to the land.
The battle at Seven Oaks confirmed the Métis’ willingness to fight for economic self-determination against colonial greed
