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In 1779 the Metis Nation (half Native half French people) allied with the English at Montreal to make another fur trading company. They called it the NorthWest Trading Company. It was easier for the natives to trade with the Nor'Westers at a convenient trading post in the Athabasca country than to go all the way to Hudson's Bay. Trade at the Hudson's Bay Company dropped dramatically. The Hudson's Bay Company still had control of the port at Hudson's Bay. The base of the NorthWest Company was in Montreal. The NorthWest Company had to move their furs down rivers to Lake Winnepeg, down the Winnepeg River to the Lake of the Woods, then East along the Ontario/Minnesota border to Montreal. Then finally, shipping the furs to England.
The NorthWest Company made many attempts to get the Hudson's Bay Company's route. In 1804 it tried to buy the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1805 it offered the Hudson's Bay Company 2000 pounds for the right to use the route. In 1808 the NorthWest Company tried to buy shares of the Hudson's Bay Company owned by Lord Selkirk. All the offers they made were refused.
The NorthWest Company and the Hudson's Bay Company continued their rivalry; building trading forts next to eachother west to the Rockies, then to the Pacific. Both the NorthWest Company and the Hudson's Bay Company employed the Metis people. The Metis began to settle along the Assiniboine and the Red Rivers.
Lord Selkirk, a major shareholder in the Hudson's Bay Company wanted a new colony so he got 116 thousand square miles which is now Southern Manitoba. Colonists arrived and in 1812 tension began to mount. However, the Metis stood up for their rights.
The Metis were processing and selling pemmican. In 1814 the Hudson's Bay Company tried to muscle in on the pemmican trade. This resulted in a huge clash between the Metis and the Lord Selkirk colonists. There were many struggles including a battle fought in 1816. Eventually, the Metis became stronger partners in the government.
The end of the NorthWest Company came on March 26, 1821, when it merged with the Hudson's Bay Company under the name the Hudson's Bay Company.