In the establishing years of the English Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the Scottish North West Company (NWC), male settlers were likely to have a First Nations or Metis spouse. Though only encouraged by the NWC for trade relations, it was a common practice among both companies due to the European colonial policy that only allowed white males to settle in the territory. When white women did eventually join the settlement, racial tensions were heightened due to the race and gender narrative they brought with them from Europe. The European ideology that women were to authorize and maintain white domestic spaces allowed for domesticity to create exclusion between themselves and the non-white women who lived in the colony. In being a part of upholding British morality, European men also had thoughts in regard to the differences between white and Indigenous women. Alexander Ross, an author who lived in Red River for a number of years, states in his book that a friend had often said that white women were graceful and that Indigenous women were exempt from this due to their bashfulness.