Metis History

For many years the Metis National Council and its affiliates have pursued a rights based agenda with the federal and provincial governments of Canada. This annotated bibliography has been developed to assist university students who wish to learn more about the struggle for Metis rights in Canada. This paper is now out dated and does not cover the Powley Case on Harvesting, the SCC decision on the MMF Land Claim or the more recent Daniels decision.

Fort Lac la Biche (Buckingham House, Greenwich House):
This Metis community in northern Alberta became home to many Metis who left Red River after the Resistance of 1869-70 and left Saskatchewan after the 1885 Resistance. It was founded in 1798-99 as a result of the competition between fur trade companies. By 1872 it was a well-established Metis community with more than fifteen times the population of Edmonton. It is second to Fort Chipewyan as the oldest settlement of Alberta.

(Cet exposé n'est qu'une esquisse sans pretention) (This presentation is simply an unpretentious sketch)
Métis Unions & Weddings in Quebec; is an analysis of researches conducted from 2006 to 2009 containing the results of genealogical researches from people requesting the Aboriginal Status and / or Métis status in connection with the records of membership of some Band Councils in Quebec. It was conducted by Eric Pouliot-Thisdale, graduate in social sciences and member of the Faculty of Human Science from University of Quebec in Montreal, during university studies and involvements in a student association.

Eric Pouliot-Thisdale is a researcher since 15 years in the field of public archives of various sources, including historical and demographic archives who conducted several researches for Band Councils political land claims, as well as for particulars. Presently researcher for the Band Council of his community, Kanesatake, and a contributing writer and historical columnist for the weekly paper from the Kahnawake community, award winner of the best business, education stories from the Quebec Community Newspaper Association on 2016.

The People of the Metis Nation is a biographical collection intended to give the reader an overview of Metis History through the biographies of a very diverse cross-section of North America's Metis people.
    Often known as founders of the fur-trade, the Metis of what was to become the Canadian and American Northwest participated as trappers, guides, interpreters, factors, dock and warehouse workers, voyageurs, coureurs de bois, canoe and York boat operators, couriers of the first postal services, and Red River cart teamsters. The Metis were essential in commercializing both the fur trade with the invention of the York boat, and the buffalo hunt with the invention of the Red River cart.
    Within this volume, well-known Metis personalities as well as the unsung heroes of Metis communities and families are documented. Day-to-day events as well as historical turning points are recounted. Achievements in the arts, sports and literature are included. We also attempt to correct the oversight of previous historical treatments which have failed to document the lives of Metis women. The accounts herein cover the past as well as contemporary Metis figures.

At a two-day open-air meeting in January 1870, Hudson's Bay Company Governor Donald Smith promised to communicate the concerns of the Métis people of Red River to Canada. A convention with 20 English-speaking and 20 French-speaking representatives met between January 25, 1870 and February 10, 1870 and agreed upon a list of demands to take to Ottawa. At this point the Convention of Forty proclaimed itself a provisional government with Louis Riel as its President. It was the crowning point in the history of the resistance, bringing together both the English- and French-speaking halves of the community under a single government.

On November 15, 1839, Governor Simpson wrote to Chief Factor Duncan Finlayson at Red River to begin recruiting “steady, respectable half breed and other settlers” to go to the Columbia in the Oregon Territory. The inducement to move was an offer of land, the use of common pastureland, an advance of livestock and the expenses of erecting farm buildings. These Metis settlers were to staff the HBC farms and dairies. In 1821 the HBC had set up a subsidiary company, the Puget Sound Agricultural Company.

Finlayson contracted with James Sinclair and 23 Metis families; 23 men, 22 women and 75 children; 121 people in all, to leave Red River and settle in the Oregon Territory with the hopes that this would maintain the land north of the Columbia River in what is now Washington State in British and Hudson’s Bay Company control.

Many Metis entered  the numbered treaties in the Canadian Northwest long before the land had been selected for the various reserves. Thus by the time the reserves were selected and surveyed many Metis found that they had built their houses and/or farms outside of their Band’s reserve. Thus many decided to withdraw from treaty and take their Metis scrip to apply against the land they were living on and farming.

British-Canadian Boundary Commission, 1873-74: The Metis Armed Escorts and Scouts, Members of the 49th Rangers:
    The Treaty of Ghent in 1814 and a subsequent agreement established the Canadian-American boundary from the northwest corner of the Lake of the Woods south to the 49th parallel, thence west for 853 miles to the Rockies. During 1873 and 1874 the Commission surveyed from Pembina to the Rocky Mountains. The British Commission employed William Hallett and 30 armed Metis guides and scouts, the subject of this monograph.

Louis Riel conducted a Parochial School in connection with St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Mission located just west of Cascade, Montana. It was in the spring of 1883, weeks after becoming an American citizen, Riel accepted a teaching position at the Catholic mission of St. Peter's on Montana's Sun River. He and his family shared the house of James Swain while there. He remained there until 1884 when the Metis, led by Gabriel Dumont,  summoned him to Saskatchewan.

The apex of Metis statesmanship and governance was achieved June 24, 1870 when the Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia voted to join Canada. Manitoba is the only province brought into Confederation by Aboriginal people—the Metis. The authors review the basis of Metis self-governance and legal traditions as derived from Plains Indian customary law and social control mechanisms. The underlying values, principles and basic concepts of Metis legal traditions are discussed.  First we examine historic Metis practice, then we look at the customary law of the Plains Cree and Plains Ojibwa as it developed in the Old Northwest of North America. Lastly, there is an examination of Metis customary law as it developed in the same area.

The Metis Homeland is extensive: This monograph gives an overview of some representative historic Metis communities in Manitoba. The original place names used by Metis and First Nations people are retrieved in this account. Communities that were established around the earliest Fur Trade forts are described. Geographical place names that are of significance to the Metis are also listed in this monograph.

This is a brief overview of how the Métis were displaced and ended up living on Crown Land or Road Allowances in Manitoba. This preliminary investigation simply lists and describes the affected communities. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Metis “fire bags” now called octopus bags are based on the animal skin bags made by the Algonquian Indians. These are case-skinned bags which the Saulteaux of Manitoba used to call “Many Legs Bags” because the legs and tail were left on and were quill-worked or beaded. Shown below are otter skin bags used in Midewiwin ceremonies. Although otter
pouches such as these are often associated with the Midewiwin or Medicine Society of the Great Lakes region, they were also widely used on the Plains as tobacco and pipe containers.

The town of Pembina, located on the Red River just south of the 49th parallel is the former heart of the Metis territory and homeland. Once the border was drawn at the 49th parallel and it was found that Pembina was in the United States and not in Canada many of the Metis migrated north to St. Boniface, St. Vital, St. François Xavier and Fond du Lac (now St. Laurent). The first fur trading post was established at Pembina in 1797.

A large number of Metis men who were voyageurs with the North West Company (NWC), fur traders or Indian Department employees participated in the War of 1812, fighting on the Canadian/British side of the conflict. Thus the Metis saw service in the Corps of Canadian Voyageurs, Caldwell's Western Rangers, the Mississippi Volunteers and the Michigan Fencibles.

This textbook was written to provide a primer on the socio-political events relating to the Métis struggle for sovereignty in self-governance in Manitoba. The focus is on the creation of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) as the political representative of the Métis Nation in Manitoba. The second half of the book features biographies of the Métis people who worked to establish MMF and other memorable Métis people who have contributed greatly to the life of the Métis community in Manitoba. This is in effect an overview of “Métis history through biography.” This text was specifically written to support the MMF staff training in Métis History and Culture that has been developed over the past ten years.

The Metis Dictionary of Biography is intended to give the reader an overview of Metis History through the biographies of a very diverse cross-section of North America's Metis people. An earlier iteration of this work was published as The People of the Metis Nation in 2011.
    Often known as founders of the fur-trade, the Metis of what was to become the Canadian and American Northwest participated as trappers, guides, interpreters, factors, dock and warehouse workers, voyageurs, coureurs de bois, canoe and York boat operators, couriers of the first postal services, and Red River cart teamsters. The Metis were essential in commercializing both the fur trade with the invention of the York boat, and the buffalo hunt with the invention of the Red River cart.
    Within this volume, well-known Metis personalities as well as the unsung heroes of Metis communities and families are documented. Day-to-day events as well as historical turning points are recounted. Achievements in the arts, sports and literature are included. We also attempt to correct the oversight of previous historical treatments which have failed to document the lives of Metis women. The accounts herein cover the past as well as contemporary Metis figures.

The Battle of Seven Oaks, or the Victory of the Frog Plain (la Victoire de la Grenouillère), took place 19 June 1816. The battle was a culmination of the Pemmican Wars and the escalating fur trade disputes between the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and the North West Company (NWC). Pemmican was the food supply that the fur traders depended on to carry out operations. On the day of the battle, a party of about 60 Metis and First Nations men, led by Cuthbert Grant, was heading west of the Forks to deliver pemmican to the NWC canoe brigades on Lake Winnipeg. They were confronted at Seven Oaks by HBC Governor Robert Semple and 28 men (mostly HBC officers and employees). 

See also: Paashkiiyaakanaan daan la prayrii di la Goornouyayr: We Won at Frog Plain (2017).

Up until recent years, historical writings have focused on the Selkirk Settlers who were killed (only three) whereas there is barely a mention of the seven Irish HBC labourers who were killed in the battle. No one has commented previously on the relative youth of Cuthbert Grant (age 23) and his men: Francois Deschamps Jr. was 12 or 13 years-of-age; Joseph Letendre dit Batoche, the only Metis killed in the battle was 16, and Baptiste Lafontaine was sixteen.

This thesis explores how nineteenth century Métis concepts of family and community have found expression in post 1930s urban development, governance and political activism. In this study, genealogical methods and participant interviews have been used to examine the social, economic and political role of women in 19th century Métis families and communities in order to determine the extent to which these traditional roles were carried forward into an urban context prior to World War II. Based on this research, it was concluded that female kinship relationships were central in structuring and determining the bounds of this Métis community despite economic changes, community movement, physical relocation and political upheaval in both traditional and contemporary contexts. By organizing in ways that were familiar and consistent with past practices, urban Métis women in the early twentieth century had the opportunity and flexibility to informally politicize community issues and recruit organization participants. Over time, the political role played by women evolved and they began to take leading roles in the day-to- day operation of programs and services. By the 1960s-70s, urban Métis women began to formally assert their political will and move from “behind the scenes” into a more public leadership roles. Throughout this evolution, concepts of family, kinship and tradition remained the core organization concept for this community. Through the expression of these 19th century traditions, Métis women have
made a significant contribution to post-1930 urban development, governance and political activism.

The Red River parish of St. Charles was west of St. James parish. It straddled the Assiniboine River and was located both north and south of the river. The southern portion became present day Charleswood. This was a French speaking community. The cart trail from Baie St. Paul ran through Chalreswood along the Assiniboine River and crossed to the north side of the river at a shallow bison crossing known as "The Passage."

Itinerant Metis groups from Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota had been travelling across the Northern USA as far as the west coast since the early 1700s.
    Long before the Treaty of Ghent in 1814 set the border line between the USA and Canada, the Metis people crisscrossed the Old Northwest as guides, hunters, traders and freighters. Thus by the time the “Medicine Line” was established the Metis had well-established roots both north and south of the line. Many were born in western French and Spanish Territory before the USA made the Louisiana Purchase. Many children of buffalo hunting brigades were not sure which country they were born in.

The first attempt to subvert Metis self-government by Canadian military forces took place in late 1869. The Lieutenant Governor designate William McDougall travelled to Red River via the United States with enough arms to take control of the territory. Colonel J. S. Dennis was already at Red River supervising the surveys and Captain D.R. Cameron accompanied William McDougall.
    On September 17, 1869 McDougall submitted a memorandum to cabinet requesting arms and ammunition. This was approved on September 22 and on September 28, 1869. The Department of Militia and Defense issued a memorandum to ship 100 Spencer carbines, 250 Peabody rifles complete with bayonets and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. This was far in advance of any Metis threat or actions to stop the surveys.

This  battle  took  place  between  a  Metis  buffalo  hunting  party  from  St.  François  Xavier, led  by  Jean  Baptiste  Falcon  and  the  Cut  Head  (Pabaksa)  Yanktonai  (Ihanktonwanna), Dakota, led by Chief Medicine (Sacred) Bear, on July 15 to 16, 1851.

The Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia (LAA) was the first democratically elected government in Manitoba. It replaced the Council of Assiniboia a group appointed by the HBC. The LAA was formed by Louis Riel’s Provisional Government and arose out of the Convention of Forty. The Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia functioned between March 9, 1870 and June 24, 1870. 21 of the 28 members were Metis. This was the government that voted to join Canada in Confederation.

Traduction de l'anglais. La question de l'identité métisse au Canada est un sujet polémique. Si les Métis de l'Ouest ont réussi à imposer, dans la trame historique canadienne, une conception de la nation qui leur est propre, l'affirmation de l'identité des Métis de l'Est remet en question le dogme selon lequel l'identité métisse est absente hors du groupe se revendiquant une descendance avec la colonie de la Rivière Rouge (au Manitoba). Faisant face aux partisans d'un néonationalisme métis 1 , les Métis des provinces de l'est du Canada ont actuellement à réagir à diverses critiques à leur endroit, allant de l'opportunisme politique, à la fraude ethnique, en passant par des allégations de redéfinition raciale de nature usurpatrice (race-shifting). Ils se font aussi expliquer par les partisans de cette 1 Dans ce chapitre, nous utilisons le terme néonationalisme selon deux significations interreliées. Premièrement, nous utilisons d'abord le terme pour décrire une position idéologique qui consiste à réduire les conditions de possibilité pour toutes les ethnogenèses métisses (et/ou les expressions culturelles) à un seul discours basé sur l'historiographie classique des événements politiques de la Rivière Rouge. Nous utilisons ensuite le terme néonationalisme métis pour distinguer celui-ci du nationalisme métis davantage inclusif articulé par le leader métis Louis Riel. Par « néonationalisme », nous identifions en ce sens une position idéologique postulant que seuls les descendants des Métis des Prairies (et de la Rivière Rouge en particulier) sont de « vrais » Métis. Les autres Métis hors-Prairies ne seraient par conséquent que de simples descendants de « sang-mêlés » (only mixed).

As Manitoba Metis were dispossessed of their land the diaspora moved south and west, many had moved into their traditional hunting territory of the Cypress Hills and south into the Milk River basin in what is now Montana. This monograph documents people who were either born or died in the Cypress Hills or were living there when they applied to the Canadian government for their land inheritance under the Manitoba Act of 1870 or with the subsequent scrip commissions of Assiniboia in the Northwest Territory.

Charles Trottier was born December 4, 1839 at St. François Xavier, the son of Andre Trottier1 (b. 1874) and Marguerite St. Denis dite Paquette. Andre and his family were enumerated in the Pembina census of 1850 as family # 84; he is listed as a hunter.

The Red River Métis are a distinct and often misunderstood population in nineteenth-century Canadian history. They are also the producers of a rich art style in the medium of beadwork. However, despite reference to their influence on the art of other Amerindian populations little is said about the factors which influenced their own unique style. The purpose of my research was twofold: to establish the historical context which

In 1849, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) Chief Factor John Ballenden arrested Pierre Guillaume Sayer, André Goulet, Hector McGinnis and Norbert Larond of Grantown as they were about to leave on a trading trip to Lake Manitoba. They were subsequently charged with breaching the HBC monopoly on fur trading and brought to trial before the General Quarterly Court of Assiniboia on May 17, 1849.

While there have many excellent studies of Great Lakes métis communities, smaller métis settlements such as Milwaukee often have been overlooked.  Métis identity was complicated by the fact that métis persons were of European and American Indian ancestry, although the boundaries between these racial categories was quite fluid in métis communities.  Large scale Anglo-American settlement in the region of present-day Wisconsin from the 1830s onward brought new racial attitudes that forced many métis persons, such many of those in Milwaukee, to be categorized as American Indians.

Rooster Town was an urban Métis community in south west Winnipeg between 1901 and 1960. It was known as a community as early as 1909 – the newspaper referred to it as the “French settlement”. The Metis residents used to call this area Pakan Town (Michif/Cree) after the abundance of hazelnuts that grew in the area.  Occasionally other ethnicities resided there, but for most of its history it was mainly a Métis community. Rooster Town – the last known Metis Road Allowance Community in Winnipeg was situated between what is now Grant Ave. and the CNR railway line which runs south of what is now Taylor Ave in south west Winnipeg.

The years leading up to the 1885 Resistance were ones of near-starvation conditions for many of the Metis and First Nations people of Saskatchewan. Little has been written about the women of Batoche to document their courage, dedication and support during the fighting. The local people were aware of the coming battle, some fled the area, and others sent their wives and children away. Those women that chose to stay were loyal to the cause and their husbands knew that their help would be needed. Throughout the battle Metis women endured many hardships and faced danger constantly.

The Pembina Region also referred to as the Pembina District and Pembina Department, is the historic name of an unorganized territory that was ceded to the United States. The area included parts of what became North Dakota. The eastern boundary was the Red River and included the Pembina River area. The region was formerly part of British Rupert’s Land (controlled by the Hudson’s Bay Company), that encompassed an area then known as the Assiniboia District, from 1763 to the signing of the Treaty of 1818. The treaty transferred the region that was south of the 49th parallel from the British to the United States. Several attempts at formal recognition and naming failed to pass Congress. In 1849 Father Georges Antoine Belcourt described the area, referred to as Pembina district or department, as a country about 400 miles from north to south and more than five hundred miles from east to west. The region was considered unorganized from 1818 until March 3, 1849, when the region was absorbed into the Territory of Minnesota. When Minnesota became a state on May 11, 1858, and the boundary was set at the Red River, the region became unorganized.

Among the most iconic images from Manitoba history is a photograph of Louis Riel and thirteen men thought to be “councillors” in his Provisional Government. This article questions conventional interpretations of the group portrait, revealing that not all the men surrounding Riel supported his cause and that using the image in a celebratory way masks violations of Métis people's rights in the aftermath of Manitoba's entry into Canadian Confederation.

These communities are characterized as ones where the Métis lived on unused Municipal or Crown land or on the road allowances. In a 1959 report Jean Lagasse refers to “Métis living on the fringe of white settlements” where the communities are unwilling or unable to provide housing for the Métis population.  These Road Allowance communities were characterized by racial segregation, the nearby community refusal to provide adequate education by voting against money by-laws or by sending their own children to be educated elsewhere; and high mobility of Métis moving in and out of the community. The communities were also characterized by inadequate housing, little no collection of taxes, and scarcity of Municipal or Provincial services

In February 2020 the Fort McKay Métis Nation (FMMN) was the first Métis community to “credibly assert” its Métis Aboriginal rights under the process outlined by the Government of Alberta.  In so doing, it joined the Alberta Métis Settlement’s General Council as the only Métis organizations authorized to negotiate with the Crown in the province and for which consultation may be legally required.  The decision was lauded by many in the Métis community who are also seeking to be recognized, and criticized by others who have a different conceptualization about who should represent Métis community rights.  This paper is meant to share FMMN’s experience, providing their position on what they believe effective Crown consultation will look like moving forward and asserting that this recognition is a first step toward becoming a self-governing Métis Nation.

Originally published Feb 2021 at http://fortmckaymetis.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Fort-McKay-Metis-Nation-Consultation-Position-Paper-2021.pdf