For more information on the history of the provisional districts, see also Districts of the Northwest Territories (Old) District of Assiniboia The District of Assiniboia was a name used to describe the
Red River Colony, mainly for official purposes, between 1812 and 1869. Nominally the district included all of the territory granted in the
Selkirk Concession. However, much of this was ceded to the United States by the
Treaty of 1818, and in 1838 the district was redefined as the circular region within of
Fort Garry, which was at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. The actual area of settlement, centred at present-day
Winnipeg, was limited to the Red River valley between
Lower Fort Garry and
Pembina, and the
Assiniboine River valley between Winnipeg and
Portage la Prairie. The district was governed by a
Hudson's Bay Company-appointed Governor of Assiniboia, who was advised by members of the
Council of Assiniboia. In 1869
Rupert's Land, including the District of Assiniboia, was transferred to Canada without consultation of the residents of the settlement. This, and the arrival of Canadian surveyors, led to the
Red River Rebellion, in which a provisional government and
Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia was established by
Métis leader
Louis Riel to negotiate the admission of the district as a province of Canada. The original proposal, which suggested that the new province consist of all of the fertile belt between Winnipeg and
British Columbia, was rejected by the Canadian government as it conflicted with their plans to manage the settlement of the
North-West Territories directly. As a compromise, a small part of the district, consisting mainly of the settled areas, was admitted to Canada as the
Province of Manitoba in 1870, though the federal government retained control of Crown land and natural resources until 1930. In some accounts of the history of Manitoba, the term
Old Assiniboia is used to describe the pre-1870 settlement, though the terms
Red River Colony, Red River Settlement and
Selkirk Settlement are more common.
District of Assiniboia The (Second) District of Assiniboia was later created (1882) as a regional
administrative district of Canada's
North-West Territories. Most of it was absorbed into the Province of
Saskatchewan in 1905, except for the westernmost quarter, which became part of
Alberta. The east boundary of the district coincided with the modern Manitoba–Saskatchewan boundary, the line between the 29th and 30th ranges west of the First Meridian of the
Dominion Land Survey. This boundary has jogs at each correction line. Any roads built on this boundary are now designated Road 174 West under the Manitoba system or Range Road 1300 under the Saskatchewan system. The north boundary was the 9th Correction Line, approximately 52° north, now also designated Township Road 350. The west boundary was the line between the 10th and 11th ranges west of the Fourth Meridian. This line, now designated Range Road 110, has jogs at each correction line. The northwest corner of the Assiniboia District is commemorated by a cairn 10 km south of
Coronation, Alberta. Between 1876 and 1883, Battleford (in the
District of Saskatchewan) was the territorial capital of the North-West Territories. The territorial capital was moved to
Regina, in Assiniboia, in 1883, and on the formation of the province of Saskatchewan in 1905, Regina became the capital of the province. Its location was chosen by
Edgar Dewdney, the territorial lieutenant-governor. Dewdney had reserved for himself substantial land adjacent to the
Canadian Pacific Railway line on the site of what became the town, and thereby considerably enriched himself. This was the occasion of a considerable scandal in the early days of the Territories. The District of Assiniboia survived in its original geographical configuration as the Anglican
Diocese of Qu'Appelle until the 1970s when the portion of the diocese (and former District of Assiniboia) lying within the province of Alberta was ceded to the Diocese of Calgary. ==See also==