The District of Saskatchewan in 1885 (within the black diamonds) included the central section of Saskatchewan and extended into Alberta and Manitoba.
The Southbranch Settlements are circled in black.
The Southbranch Settlements are circled in black.
Southbranch Settlement (French: Communautés métisses de la rivière Saskatchewan Sud) was the name ascribed to a series of French Métis settlements on the Canadian prairies in the 19th century, in what is today the province of Saskatchewan. Métis settlers began making homes here in the 1860s and 1870s, many of them fleeing economic and social dislocation from Red River, Manitoba. The settlements became the centre of Métis resistance during the North-West Rebellion when in March 1885, Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont, Honoré Jackson, and others set up the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan with their headquarters at Batoche.