Throughout the time that Metis people were a part of the Red River community they developed into several different identities, rather than just the common depiction of the bison-hunting French Catholic Metis. Metis identity, at that time as it is today, was diverse and complex due to the different livelihoods and practices followed. Metis who chose not to live on prairies and hunt buffalo for the winter remained on lakes such as Manitoba, Winnipegosis, and Winnipeg to ice fish. Over the course of the first half of the 19th century, up to forty households had developed on the lakeshore of Lake Manitoba. Fishing and trading had become year round practices and the Metis families involved would trade with HBC and ‘Freemen’- traders that did not work at the post.