From these there sprang up in the valleys of the Red River and the Saskatchewan a singular race of half-breeds, with a unique semi-civilization of their own.

It was with these half-breeds, and not, as in the United States, with the Indians, that the settlers of northwestern Canada had their main difficulties.
In what now forms the United States, taking the country as a whole, the foes who had to be met and overcome were very much more formidable.

The ground had to be not only settled but conquered, sometimes at the expense of the natives, often at the expense of rival European races.

As already pointed out the Indians themselves formed one of the main factors in deciding the fate of the continent.

They were never able in the end to avert the white conquest, but they could often delay its advance for a long spell of years.