06/19/2026
in 1816, food shortages, the Pemmican Wars, and struggles for control of the fur trade between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company culminated in the Victory at Frog Plain, also known as the Battle of Seven Oaks. On route to deliver Pemmican to the NWC, a group of around 60 mounted Métis and First Nations men led by Cuthbert Grant were confronted at Seven Oaks by Governor Robert Semple and 28 HBC officers and employees on foot. 22 people were killed in a resounding victory for Grant and his men. The Victory at Frog Plain is recognized as the birthplace of the Métis Nation and the first assertion of Métis independence.
On the same day 75 years later in 1891, The Manitoba Historical Society unveiled the Battle of Seven Oaks monument, which is the oldest historic marker in Western Canada and a National Historic Site. This monument was championed in part by the Hon. Colin Inkster, one of the founding members of the MHS, and Mary “Marak” Inkster, who donated the section of her land where the monument still stands along Main Street, near Seven Oaks House.🏡
🖼️Images:
1. A pen and ink depiction of the Battle of Seven Oaks, 19 June 1816, by C.W. Jefferys, Library and Archives Canada.
2. The Manitoba Historical Society unveils the Seven Oaks Monument, 19 June 1891, Archives of Manitoba.
