1860s, eventually forming an agricultural settlement in the Judith Basin by 1880. This settlement eventually disintegrated, with most Métis leaving or identifying more strongly either as "white" or "Indian". Metis often participated in interracial marriages. The French in specific, viewed these marriages as sensible and realistic. Americans, however, viewed interracial marriages as unsound as the idea of racial purity was seen as the only option. Although it was legal, the result of these marriages generally resulted in the loss of status for the spouse of the highest social class, as well as for any children produced during the marriage. The French, however, seemed to motivate fur traders to participate in interracial marriages with Indian tribes as they helped to be beneficial to the fur trade business and also to spread religion. Generally speaking, these marriages were happy ones, that lasted and brought together differing groups of people and benefitted the fur trade business. Current population Mixed-race people live throughout Canada and the northern United States but only some in the US identify ethnically and culturally as Métis. A strong Prairie Métis identity exists in the Métis Homeland which existed in most of Rupert's Land, but also extends south from Canada into Minnesota, Montana and North Dakota,.A number of self-identified Métis live in North Dakota, mostly in Pembina County. Many members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (a federally recognized Tribe) identify as Métis or Michif rather than as strictly Ojibwe. Many Métis families are recorded in the U.S. Census for the historic Métis settlement areas along the Detroit and St. Clair rivers, Mackinac Island and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, as well as Green Bay in Wisconsin. Their ancestral families were often formed in the early 19th-century fur trading era. Métis persons have generally not organized as an ethnic or political group in the United States as they have in Canada, where they had armed confrontations. The first "Conference on the Métis in North America" was held in Chicago in 1981, after increasing research about this people. This also was a period of increased appreciation for different ethnic groups and reappraisal of the histories of settlement of North America. Papers at the conference focused on "becoming Métis" and the role of history in formation of this ethnic group, defined in Canada as having Aboriginal status. The Metis peoples and their history continue to be extensively studied, especially by scholars