For its part the Hudson's Bay Company was troubled by the approach of American settlement. As the time drew near for the drawing of the British American frontier by terms of the agreement of 1818, the company suspected that the Pembina colony -- its own post and Fort Daer -- was on American territory. Accordingly Selkirk's agents ordered the settlers to move north, and by October, John Halkett had torn down both posts, floating the timber to ``the Forks'' in rafts. ``I have done everything,'' he wrote, ``to break up the whole of that unfortunate establishment.'' Despite Company threats, duly carried through, to cut off supplies of powder, ball, and thread for fishing nets, about 350 persons stayed in the village. They would attempt to bring supplies from St. Louis or Prairie du Chien at ``great expense as well as danger.''

At Fort Garry some of the Swiss also decided to cast their lot with the United States, and in 1823 several families paid guides to take them to Fort Snelling. The disasters of 1825 -- 1826 caused more to leave. After heavy rains and an onslaught of mice, snow fell on October 15, 1825, and remained on the ground through a winter so cold that the ice on the Red was five feet thick. In April came a rapid thaw that produced high waters which did not recede until mid-June. On June 24 more than 400 families started the three month trip across the plains to the Mississippi. By fall, 443 survivors of this arduous journey were clustered about Fort Snelling, but most of them were sent on to Galena and St. Louis, with a few going as far as Vevay, Indiana, a notable Swiss center in the United States. In 1837, 157 Red River people with more than 200 cattle were living on the reservation at Fort Snelling.