The importance that the Métis attach to the land is clearly evidenced by the claims that lie behind their resistance to Canada's annexation of the Northwest in 1869.
Moreover, Louis Riel's provisional government demands that the Métis lands be recognised and protected. Under the Manitoba Act of 1870, the small Province of Manitoba is founded, and 1,400,000 acres of land are set aside for the families of Métis residents.
They are also entitled to occupy and retain their river lots. But there is no specific procedure for the method of granting and distributing the land. The following decades are marked by shadowy and fraudulent land policies and practices, and a number of Métis voluntarily give up their entitlements for several reasons (to settle in better, larger lands, to migrate permanently farther to the South, North or West, to earn needed money, etc.).
Within a decade, the Métis population of Manitoba is dispersed, either by being integrated into the dominant White society or being confined to the outskirts of the towns and reserves, condemned to a life of poverty and isolation.

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