I examined the 19th century Métis dispersal from Manitoba by doing a detailed analysis of a specific Métis settlement. In Pointe à Grouette, lived nearly 70% of the Métis to be found south of the village of Saint-Norbert and north of the United States boundary. By 1900, Pointe à Grouette had become the village of Sainte-Agathe and the vast majority of its inhabitants were Francophone migrants. My basic working assumption for the thesis was that the dispersal had been the result of a situation of conflict and that 'conflict situations within groups and between groups can best be understood if examined as the competition for possession of desirable productive resources' (Leslie White, 1949:36). The theoretical framework which best complemented my basic assumption was the one outlined by Eric J. Hobsbawn (1968,1974a,1974b) a proponent of "Social History". The thesis documents two major causes to the Métis dispersal. First, (deliberate) changes to section 32 of the Manitoba Act seriously weakened the land claims of many Métis. They were thus made vulnerable to the activities of speculators, along with the Roman Catholic Church. Second, research revealed the existence of very serious cleavages within the Métis group of Red River based on their economic activity. The class to which Métis belonged to prior to 1870 had a direct impact on his ability to withstand both the changes in the Manitoba Act and the changes within Red River Society in the 1870's and 1880's.