Although Metis people had been living in communities and establishing the customs and governance of their nation for many years previous to this incident; this is considered the historic moment when the Metis stood up as a nation and fought off the oppression and encroachment of England through the Hudson's Bay Company.

Historians continue to report this incident portraying the Metis as the aggressors contrary to the evidence. The Metis were cleared of wrong doing in a report prepared by William Bachelor Coltman who was appointed to investigate the battle. Coltman's report clearly indicates that the Metis were not the aggressors in the battle and that it was very unlikely that the Metis fired the first shot. Historians of the past have chosen to show the Metis as savages (as they have with most Aboriginal Nations) and as an unorganized, unkempt, slovenly and lazy people.

The Metis were employed by both the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. Metis people began to settle along the Assiniboine and Red Rivers. In 1811, a major shareholder in the Hudson's Bay Company, Lord Selkirk requested and received land for settlement. It included 116,000 square miles much of which is now Southern Manitoba. With the arrival of settlers in 1812 new tensions began to surface and the Metis asserted their rights within the region. By 1800, the Metis had consolidated themselves as a cultural group on the western prairies.

By 1810, the Metis had begun to supply fur trading forts with pemmican provisions. At this time, the gross national product value of the Metis Nation was far more significant than either fledgling nation of Canada or the U.S.A. The Metis had contracts with both governments to supply their armed forces with the much needed food staple, pemmican. At this time, the value and necessity of pemmican to the settlers and governments far outweighed any other issue of the day. This is the period of time when the Metis became known as the "Buffalo People". (See my page on the buffalo hunt).  This monopoly of the pemmican trade by the Metis became one of the reasons for the eventual systematic slaughter of the buffalo.

When Lord Selkirk's settlers came into hard times in their first few winters it became evident that Fort Douglas required provisions for itself. The then Governor of Assiniboia, Miles Macdonnell, in January 1814 issued a proclamation prohibiting the export of pemmican from Assiniboia. The Pemmican Proclamation of 1814 seriously threatened the economic livelihood of the Metis because they depended on the pemmican trade for their own livelihood. Many Metis and the employees of the NorthWest Company were in opposition to this Hudson's Bay Company proclamation. A second proclamation ordered the stop of "running buffalo" at the Red River Settlement. The Metis felt that they were the true owners of the North West and need not obey these laws. The Nor'Westers were, after all the "New Nation" and the buffalo was a huge part of their culture and social lives..

Cuthbert Grant, Peter Pangman, William Shaw and Nicholas Montour were appointed "Captains of the Metis". In March, 1816, the Metis appointed Cuthbert Grant as "Captain - General of all the Half-Breeds" (Metis). In March 1816, as part of the ongoing fur trade war, the Hudson's Bay Company seized Fort Gibraltar, the North West Company's post at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers (known as the Forks). The Hudson's Bay Company now had control of the Forks, under the command of Governor Semple. Semple, in order to enforce Macdonnell's proclamation restricting the export of provisions from the Assiniboia region, ordered a gunboat to patrol Lake Winnipeg at the mouth of the Red River and set up battalions of men along the river banks.

In an attempt to break the blockade, Grant and his men seized the Hudson's Bay Company supply of QuAppelle pemmican. The Metis then proceeded to transport the confiscated pemmican to the Red River, where they intended to sell it to the North West Company at a prearranged meeting place fifteen kilometres above the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. The Metis planned to dock the boats before reaching the Forks and march past Fort Gibraltar and Fort Douglas. Upon hearing reports of the approaching Metis, Governor Semple sent out a force of men. His intention was to prevent the Metis from delivering their pemmican. Grant's route took him within 2.5 kilometres of the Fort. On June 19, Semple intercepted Grant's forces at a ravine known as Seven Oaks. A skirmish ensued, in which twenty-one settlers and one Metis were killed. Grant later surrendered to W. B. Coltman, a royal commissioner sent on behalf of the English Crown to investigate the incident. Grant was charged for his part in the confrontation and taken to court, but the charges were dismissed.

In 1821 the rival fur companies merged under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company, ending years of conflict between the two. Only one trading post was required where previously there had been two and many Metis, including Cuthbert Grant, found themselves out of work. With the reputation of being a loyal friend and dangerous enemy, Grant was courted by the HBC. In 1828 Grant was appointed Warden of the Plains by Governor Simpson of the Hudson's Bay Company. His job entailed policing the fur trade and general business of the area. Although this position placed Grant in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, he maintained his role as leader of the Metis by general consensus. The Hudson's Bay Company gave Grant a large tract of land west of the Red River Settlement at White Horse Plains.

Grant began to focus his energy on the establishment of a Metis community which he called Grantown. Here the Roman Catholic Church established a mission called St.Francois-Xavier. This later became the name of the town, which is located on the White Horse Plains on the outskirts of present-day Winnipeg. St.Francois-Xavier became a central base for the Roman Catholic Church, which took an active role in the daily life of the community. The priests often went on the buffalo hunts with the Metis. They also began the formal education of the children. The lives of the Metis of Grantown developed a pattern similar to that of Pembina (a Metis community established in 1780 and situated in present day North Dakota). They hunted buffalo in the spring and fall and farmed during the summer.

For the next thirty years, Grant led the buffalo hunts, served as a magistrate for the settlement and on the Council of Assiniboia (the local government of the Settlement). He died in 1854 from injuries he suffered after being thrown from a horse.