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During the 19th century, the vast plains of Manitoba were the birthplace of a unique francophone people, the Métis. Born of the encounter between coureurs de bois and Native women, the Métis dominated the region and were instrumental in the creation of Manitoba as a Canadian province. What the Métis built, however, was dramatically destroyed over the course of the 20th century, and Métis influence quickly declined. Nevertheless, French Manitoba survived as a result of quiet resistance - an existence which forged the Métis character. During the 1960s, pulled one way by the dream of an independent Quebec and another way by the idea of a bilingual Canada, a Franco-Manitoban identity emerged. Today, while it is true that Franco-Manitobans are small in number, their culture - strongly influenced by 19th-century values of mixed-race unions and of tolerance - lies at the heart of the Canadian identity.
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