Winnipeg takes its name from the Cree word
winnipee, or "muddy water." The area gained its first permanent colonial occupants in 1812 with the Red River Settlement, when Scottish Lord Selkirk began taking Scottish and Irish immigrants to the area where French-speaking fur traders and Metis people had been living since the late 1700s. (The Metis are those descended from unions between the Scots or French and the Native Americans.) Metis native son Louis Riel (after whom a provincial holiday in mid-February has been named) became a prominent local leader, heading a provisional government 1869-70 that eventually negotiated an act with the Canadian government to establish Manitoba as a province and to protect French-language rights. Riel, however, also led civil insurrections against a fledgling Canadian government in both southern Manitoba and neighboring Saskatchewan. Although hanged as a rebel in 1885, Riel later came to be recognized as the father of Manitoba.
Winnipeg was incorporated as a city in 1873, and the arrival of the railway in 1881 formalized the city's role as Canada's "Gateway to the West." Once called "Chicago of the North" for its early rail yards and meat-packing industry, Winnipeg today is Manitoba's largest city and its capital. It is also home to a growing biotechnology sector, with the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health (Canada's version of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control) and the National Research Council Institute for Biodiagnostics. Now one of Canada's largest cities, Winnipeg covers more than 145 sq mi/375 sq km.
