Study Guide for Gerhard J. Ens, Homeland to Hinterland

Ens, Gerhard J. Homeland to Hinterland: The Changing Worlds of the Red River Metís in the Nineteenth Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

Our second text, Ens, is a work that not only treats a distinctive Canadian cultural group, the Metis, but also represents some distinctive aspects of Canadian scholarship. There are several things to note at the outset.

1. This book comes from the Red River Valley of the North. It is centered in Manitoba, with events and implications spilling into Saskatchewan, Alberta, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. A key reason I selected this text is that it brings Canadian history home to us in the valley.

2. Homeland to Hinterland deals with a distinctive people of the Canadian plains, the Metís. The Metís were and are the mixed-blood descendants of Europeans, generally associated with the fur trade, and the Indians who traded with them. The Metís settled in the Red River Valley and evolved a distinctive ethnic and regional society there. The intent of Ens is to describe the society and economy of the Red River Metís.

3. I would characterize this book as a product of what we call the New Social History. The New Social History is a social-scientific approach to the study of the past that became common among scholars from the 1960s into the 1990s. The New Social History looks at things from the grassroots, emphasizing the importance of the lives of everyday people. It also is inclined to be quantitative, that is, it draws on data and analysis to produce its insights. By now you likely have noticed that I am not this type of historian. I come from the Humanities tradition and emphasize narrative, or story, more than data. It seems to me a good idea, though, that you see this other way of doing History.

4. The book also shows the greater persistence of Marxist-influenced economic interpretations of history in Canada, as compared with the U.S.

Chapter	Comments	Questions
Introduction	It it’s your habit to skip introductions, don’t! This is where you find out what the author is trying to do with the book.	Find the thesis statement. What does the author set out to prove? What does Ens think of previous work on the Metís by Frits Pannekoek? Note the emphasis here on economic developments as key to explaining society. Where do such ideas come from? What are the main concepts to be applied? The new social historians commonly resort to case studies, to investigations of particular localities, in order to get at big questions on a small scale. What localities serve as case studies for Ens?
1. The Metís and the Formation of the Red River Colony	This first, background chapter is indicative of what type of history the author practices.	Explain the origins of the Metis society on the Red River. What are the economic elements forming this society? What are the cultural elements characterizing it? Right off the bat, what sort of historical explanation does Ens favor?
2. The Red River Peasantry: Metís Economy and Society in the 1830s	Here the author follows up on his predilection for economic explanations with a description of how the Metis lived.	What were the economic elements by which the Metis made their living? Based on these elements, what sort of society evolved? What were its salient features? What were sources of unrest in the society?
3. The Red River Peasantry: The Demographic Regime	By “demographic regime,” the author means a description of the Metis population, the “demographic counterparts” of political and economic structures.	What practices of marriage and family life characterized Metis society? What was the relationship of these things to the economic order? Have you ever read a history where “mortality” was established as a topic for focus? What point is made with Ens’s discussion of it here?
4. The Metís and the Transition to Market Capitalism, 1840-1870	Ens considers capitalism to be the agent of social change.	What were the capitalist elements influencing change among the Metis during this period? How did the Metis respond to these capitalist elements? What enterprises and trends took shape? How did they operate?
5. Metís Demography and Proto-Industrialism in Red River, 1840-1870	Here Ens considers how the “transition to market capitalism” influenced the basics of human life.	What was the capitalist effect of marriage and family? And how does m mortality figure into demography at this time? What were the causes of migration out of the Red River Valley at this time? Where did the people go? How would they make a living there?
6. Family, Ethnicity, Class, and the Riel Resistance of 1869-1870	Here the narrative comes to a climax with the rebellion of 1869-70.	How would Fritz Pennekoek explain the Metis rebellion? How does this differ from the explanation crafted by Ens? More specifically, what parts do social class and economic interest play in shaping the rebellion and determining its fate?
7. Homeland to Hinterland: The Dispersal of the Red River Metís after 1870	The founding of Manitoba determined “the future of the Metis,” Ens says, as the Metis were moved to leave the valley and disperse across the Prairies.	How did the Metis fit into the new political order of Manitoba? What economic changes prompted the dispersal of the Metis across the Prairies? How did land, its possession and dispossession, figure in this process?
8. Conclusion	The conclusion is where the author discusses significance and points out new findings. How does the work of Ens shape or change our interpretation of the Metis experience?

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