population, compared to the French-speaking Métis people who settled further upriver at St. François Xavier, Manitoba and along the east banks of the Assiniboine River. Before the province of Manitoba was created in 1870, Assiniboia—named after the river that runs by it, itself named for the Assiniboine First Nation—was governed by the Council of Assiniboia (1835–1870). In 1853, the Church of England was given a grant of land from the Hudson's Bay Company from which they formed the Parish of St. James. Following the creation of Manitoba, the area of the Parish of St. James was administered by the provincial government; municipal incorporation soon followed. When Treaty 1 was signed in 1871 with the Chippewa (Anishinabe) and Cree Indigenous Peoples, settlement into the region increased and municipal development likewise accelerated. Within a decade, in 1880, the Province of Manitoba divided its entire area into municipalities, creating the Rural Municipality of Assiniboia and two other municipalities that surrounded the City of Winnipeg. The first council for the RM of Assiniboia met that year, with William Tait as warden. This new municipality encompassed the former parishes of St. James, Headingley, St. Charles, and part of St. Boniface. The development of these communities as residential suburbs of Winnipeg began in the early 20th century and was greatly enhanced by the extension of streetcar service to Deer Lodge in 1903, the opening of Assiniboine Park in 1904 and its location along Portage Avenue, and proximity to downtown Winnipeg. In 1921, the RM of Assiniboia was partitioned, wherein it maintained its rural parts while its more urban area was incorporated as the Rural Municipality of St. James. The first council for the RM of St. James met that year, with J. W. Godkin as reeve. The following year, the RM of Assiniboia was further divided with the creation of the Rural Municipality of Brooklands. The area grew rapidly from 1945 to 1970 with the construction of the Silver Heights and Birchwood subdivisions in the 1940s and 1950s, and Westwood, Crestview, and St. Charles in the 1960s. In 1956, the RM of St. James became the City of St. James. The first council for the new city met on that year on April 17, with T. D. Findlay as mayor. The late 1960s saw the three communities of Assiniboia, Brooklands, and St. James finally join together again: in 1967, Brooklands was merged into St. James, followed