of the
Battle of Batoche Métis people in Canada are specific cultural communities who trace their descent to
First Nations and
European settlers, primarily the French, in the early decades of the colonization of Canada. Métis peoples are recognized as one of
Canada's Indigenous peoples under the
Constitution Act of 1982, along with First Nations and
Inuit. On April 8, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada
Daniels v Canada appeal held that "Métis and
non status Indians are 'Indians' under s. 91(24)," but excluded the
Powley test as the only criterion to determine Metis identity. There is no relation whatsoever to this sentence and the Brandi Morin / Al Jazeera article ---> The
Acadians of eastern Canada, some of whom have mixed
French and
Indigenous origins, are not Métis according to
Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and other historic Indigenous communities. This viewpoint sees Métis as historically the children of French fur traders and
Nehiyaw women of western and west central Canada. While the Métis initially developed as the
mixed-Ancestry descendants of early unions between First Nations and colonial-era European settlers (usually Indigenous women and male French settlers), within generations (particularly in central and western Canada), a distinct
Métis culture developed. The women in the unions in eastern Canada were usually
Algonquin and
Ojibwe, and in western Canada they were
Saulteaux,
Cree, Ojibwe,
Nakoda, and
Dakota/
Lakota or of mixed descent from these peoples. Their unions with European men engaged in the fur trade in the Old Northwest were often of the type known as
marriage à la façon du pays ("according to the custom of the country"). After
New France was ceded to Great Britain's control in 1763, there was an important distinction between
French Métis born of
francophone voyageur fathers and the
Anglo-Métis (known as "country born" or Mixed Bloods, for instance in the 1870 census of
Manitoba) descended from English or Scottish fathers. Today these two cultures have essentially coalesced into location-specific Métis traditions. This does not preclude a range of other Métis cultural expressions across North America. Such polyethnic people were historically referred to by other terms, many of which are now considered to be offensive, such as
Mixed-bloods,
Half-breeds,
Bois-Brûlés,
Bungi, Black Scots and Jackatars, the latter term having meaning in a Newfoundland context. While people of Métis culture or heritage are found across Canada, the traditional Métis "
homeland" (areas where Métis populations and culture developed as a distinct ethnicity historically) includes much of the present-day
Canadian Prairies along with parts of Northwestern Ontario, British Columbia, and the Northwest-Nunavut Territory. The most well-known group are the "Red River Métis", centering on southern and central parts of
Manitoba along the
Red River of the North. Closely related are the
Métis in the United States, primarily those in border areas such as
Northern Michigan, the
Red River Valley and
Eastern Montana. These were areas in which there was considerable Aboriginal and European mixing due to
the 19th-century fur trade. However, they do not have a federally recognized status in the United States, except as enrolled members of federally recognized tribes. Although Métis existed farther west than today's Manitoba, much less is known about the Métis of Northern Canada.
Identity Self-identity and legal status In 2016, 587,545 people in Canada self-identified as Métis. They represented 35.1% of the total Aboriginal population and 1.5% of the total Canadian population. Most Métis people today are descendants of unions between generations of Métis individuals and live in urban areas. The exception are the Métis in rural and northern parts that exist in close proximity to First Nations communities. Over the past century, countless Métis have assimilated into the general
European Canadian populations. Métis heritage (and thereby Aboriginal ancestry) is more common than is generally realized. Unlike among
First Nations peoples, laws concerning the Métis make no distinction between Treaty status and non-Treaty status. The Métis did not sign treaties with Canada, with the exception of an adhesion to
Treaty 3 in Northwest Ontario. This adherence was never implemented by the federal government. The legal definition is not yet fully developed. Section Thirty-five of the
Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes the rights of Indian, Métis and Inuit; however, that text does not define these groups.
View of identity The most well-known and historically documented mixed-ancestry population in Canadian history are the groups who developed during the fur trade in south-eastern
Rupert's Land, primarily in the
Red River Settlement (now Manitoba) and the
Southbranch Settlements (Saskatchewan). In the late 19th century, they organized politically (led by men who had European educations) and had confrontations with the Canadian government in an effort to assert their independence. This was not the only place where some degree of intermixing (
métisser) But the strong sense of ethnic
national identity among the mostly French- and
Michif-speaking Métis along the
Red River, demonstrated during armed resistance movements led by
Louis Riel, resulted in a specific use of the term "Métis" throughout Canada. Continued organizing and political activity resulted in "the Métis" gaining official recognition from the national government as one of the recognized Aboriginal groups in
S.35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, which states: Section 35(2) does not define criteria for an individual who is Métis. This has left open the question of whether "Métis" in this context should apply only to the descendants of the Red River Métis or to all mixed-ancestry groups and individuals. Many members of First Nations may have mixed ancestry but identify primarily by the tribal nation, rather than as Métis.
Lack of a legal definition In contrast to the
Indian Act, which creates an
Indian Register for all (Status) First Nations people,
settler-colonial definitions of Métis, Metis and metis have at times been at odds with the definitions of the communities themselves. All three factors must be present for an individual to qualify under the SCC Powley Test, for members of the Métis National Council. The SCC never provided a definition of Métis. The Powley case did not adjudicate all Indigenous inherent rights; analogous rights; or historical Treaty rights. The SCC did state that Debates as to whether Métis have
treaty rights; is an issue created by First Nations. It has been improperly stated that "only First Nations could legitimately sign treaties with the Canadian government so, by definition, Métis have no Treaty rights." However, the term "First Nations" is a recent descriptor created after the Canada Constitution Act 1982. The historic term used by the Crown in 1850, was "Indian". One historic treaty names Métis in the title: the Halfbreed (Métis in the French version) Adhesion to
Treaty 3. Another, the
Robinson Superior Treaty of 1850, listed 84 persons classified as "half-breeds" in the Treaty, so included them and their descendants. The present Indian Act remains silent regarding Métis issues. If prior ammendments to the Indian Act included Métis, the sections have since been repealed and would be of no force; as they would be irrelevant. Métis Chief Mius signed the annexed Hopson Treaty 1752. This Treaty has been the subject in SCC R. vs. Simon (1985); and R. vs. Marshall ( 1999). In both cases, the SCC confirmed that the Hopson Treaty 1752 is valid and binding. In the 1850 / 1 Upper & Lower Indigenous land laws created by the British Crown, the term "Indian" included all mixed Ancestry Indigenous peoples & their Kin. The discriminatory Indian Act 1876 thereafter split the people & their Kin, as a way to assimilate and cause genocide, which is improper.
Definitions used by Métis representative organizations Two main advocacy groups claim to speak for the Métis in Canada: the
Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) and the
Métis National Council (MNC). Each uses different approaches to define Métis individuals. The CAP, which has nine regional affiliates, represents all Indigenous peoples in Canada who are living off-reserve, including Métis and
non-Status Indians. It does not provide a definition of "Métis", but instead leaves each affiliate determine its own membership criteria. Due to the exclusion of a Métis representative among the Native Council of Canada's two seats at the Constitutional Conference in 1983, the
Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), the Association of Métis and Non-Status Indians of Saskatchewan (AMNSIS) and the Métis Association of Alberta (MAA) withdrew from the NCC (CAP's predecessor) and formed the
Métis National Council. Its political leadership of the time stated that the NCC's "pan-Aboriginal approach to issues did not allow the Métis Nation to effectively represent itself". In December 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a commitment to the leaders of the
Assembly of First Nations, the
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and the Métis National Council to have annual meetings. He also committed to two other initiatives aimed at heeding the Calls to Action of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) which examined abuses at Indian Residential Schools. The Crown openly mandated to engage with MNC & MMF via distinctions. However, in several United Nations instruments binding the Federal Crown, all distinctions are discrimination. Thus the MNC & MMF have advanced their positions & obtained funding via discrimination. The UN instruments are tantamount to international treaties. In response to the Powley decision, Métis organizations are issuing Métis Nation citizenship cards to their members. Several organizations are registered with the Canadian government to provide Métis cards. The criteria to receive a card and the rights associated with the card vary with each organization. For example, for membership in the MNA, an applicant must provide a documented genealogy and family tree dating to the mid-1800s, proving descent from one or more members of historic Métis groups.
Cultural definitions Cultural definitions of Métis identity inform legal and political ones. The 1996 Report of the
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples stated: Traditional markers of Métis culture include use of Aboriginal-European languages, such as
Michif (French-Cree-Dene) and
Bungi (Cree-Ojibwa-English); distinctive clothing, such as the arrowed sash (
ceinture flêchée); a rich repertoire of
fiddle music, jigs and square dances, and practising a traditional economy based on hunting, trapping, and gathering. However, these cultural markers do not exclude Métis that do not partake in them. The majority of these fur traders were French and Scottish; the French majority were
Catholic. These marriages are commonly referred to as
marriage à la façon du pays or marriage according to the "custom of the country." At first, the Hudson's Bay Company officially forbade these relationships. However, many Indigenous peoples actively encouraged them, because they drew fur traders into Indigenous kinship circles, creating social ties that supported the economic relationships developing between them and Europeans. When Indigenous women married European men, they introduced them to their people and their culture, taught them about the land and its resources, and worked alongside them. Indigenous women paddled and steered canoes, made moccasins out of moose skin, netted webbing for snowshoes, skinned animals and dried their meat for pemmican, split and dried fish, snared rabbits and partridges, and helped to manufacture birchbark canoes. Intermarriage made the fur trade more successful. The children of these marriages were often introduced to Catholicism, but grew up in primarily First Nations societies. Many of the first generations of Métis lived within the First Nations societies of their wives and children, but also started to marry Métis women. By the early 19th century, marriage between European fur traders and First Nations or Inuit women started to decline as European fur traders began to marry Métis women instead, because Métis women were familiar with both white and Indigenous cultures, and could interpret. The Métis played a vital role in the success of the western fur trade. They were skilled hunters and trappers, and were raised to appreciate both Aboriginal and European cultures. Métis understanding of both societies and customs helped bridge cultural gaps, resulting in better trading relationships. The Métis peoples were respected as valuable employees of both fur trade companies, due to their skills as
voyageurs, bison hunters, and interpreters, and for their knowledge of the lands. By the early 19th century, European immigrants, mainly Scottish farmers, along with Métis families from the Great Lakes region moved to the
Red River Valley in present-day
Manitoba. The
Hudson's Bay Company, which now administered a monopoly over the territory then called
Rupert's Land, assigned plots of land to European settlers. The allocation of Red River land caused conflict with those already living in the area, as well as with the
North West Company, whose trade routes had been cut in half. Many Métis were working as fur traders with both the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. Others were working as free traders, or buffalo hunters supplying
pemmican to the fur trade. The buffalo were declining in number, and the Métis and First Nations had to go farther and further west to hunt them. Profits from the fur trade were declining because of a reduction in European demand due to changing tastes, as well as the need for the Hudson's Bay Company to extend its reach farther from its main posts to get furs. Most references to the Métis in the 19th century applied to the Plains Métis, but more particularly the Red River Métis. The Métis and the Anglo-Métis (commonly known as
Countryborn, children of First Nations women and
Orcadian, other Scottish or English men), joined forces to stand up for their rights. They wanted to protect their traditional ways of life against an aggressive and distant
Anglo-Canadian government and its local colonizing agents.---> During this time the Canadian government signed treaties (known as the "
Numbered Treaties") with various First Nations. These Nations ceded property rights to almost the entire western plains to the Government of Canada. In return for their ceding traditional lands, the Canadian government promised food, education, medical help, etc. While the Métis generally did not sign any treaty as a group, they were sometimes included, even listed as "half-breeds" in some records. In the late 19th century, following the
British North America Act (1867),
Louis Riel, a Métis who was formally educated, became a leader of the Métis in the Red River area. He denounced the Canadian government surveys on Métis lands in a speech delivered in late August 1869 in front of
Saint Boniface Cathedral. The Métis became more fearful when the Canadian government appointed the notoriously
anti-French William McDougall as the
Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories on September 28, 1869, in anticipation of a formal transfer of lands to take effect in December. On November 2, 1869, Louis Riel and 120 men seized Upper Fort Garry, the administrative headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company. This was the first overt act of Métis resistance. subsequently sent three delegates to Ottawa to negotiate with the Canadian government. This resulted in the
Manitoba Act and that province's entry into the
Canadian Confederation. Due to the execution of Scott, Riel was charged with murder and fled to the United States in exile. They organized and formed the
Provisional Government of Saskatchewan, with Pierre Parenteau as president and
Gabriel Dumont as adjutant-general. Riel took charge of a few hundred armed men. They suffered defeat by Canadian militia battalions and North West Mounted Police in a conflict known as the
North-West Resistance, which occurred in northern Saskatchewan from March 26 to May 12, 1885. Gabriel Dumont fled to the United States, while Riel, Poundmaker, and Big Bear surrendered. Big Bear and Poundmaker each were convicted and received a three-year sentence. On July 6, 1885, Riel was convicted of
high treason and was
sentenced to hang. Riel appealed but he was executed on November 16, 1885. The Métis today predominantly speak Canadian English, with
Canadian French a strong second language, as well as numerous Aboriginal tongues. Michif is most used in the United States, notably in the
Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation of North Dakota. There Michif is the
official language of the Métis who reside on this Ojibwe (Chippewa) reservation. After years of decline in use of these languages, the provincial Métis councils are encouraging their revival, use in communities and teaching in schools. The encouragement and use of Métis French and Michif is growing due to outreach after at least a generation of decline. The 19th-century community of Anglo-Métis, more commonly known as
Countryborn, were children of people in the Rupert's Land fur trade; they were typically of Orcadian, other Scottish, or English paternal descent and Aboriginal maternal descent.
Flag The
Métis flag is one of the oldest patriotic flags originating in Canada. The Métis have two flags. Both flags use the same design of a central
infinity symbol, but are different colours. The first red flag was flown by
Cuthbert Grant in 1815 near
Fort Espérance alongside the North-West Company (an unsubstantiated rumour reported by James Sutherland claimed that it was a gift from the North-West Company, but no evidence corroborates this). Days before the
Battle of Seven Oaks, "La Grenouillère" in 1816,
Peter Fidler recorded Cuthbert Grant flying the blue flag. The red and blue are not cultural or linguistic identifiers and do not represent the companies.
Cultural genocide In 2019, the final report,
Reclaiming Power and Place, by the
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls stated "The violence the National Inquiry heard amounts to a race-based genocide of Indigenous Peoples, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis, which especially targets women and girls."
Land ownership Issues of land ownership became a central theme, as the Métis sold most of the 600,000 acres (2430 km2) they received in the first settlement. During the 1930s, political activism arose in Métis communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan over land rights, and some filed land claims for the return of certain lands. Five men, sometimes dubbed "The Famous Five", (
James P. Brady,
Malcolm Norris, Peter Tomkins Jr., Joe Dion, Felix Callihoo) were instrumental in having the Alberta government form the 1934 "Ewing Commission", headed by
Albert Ewing, to deal with land claims The Alberta government passed the
Métis Population Betterment Act in 1938. The Act provided funding and land to the Métis. (The provincial government later rescinded portions of the land in certain areas. In 2017, the Fort McKay local of the Metis Nation of Alberta purchased some land outright. However, it is doubtful that all such individuals would meet the objective tests laid out in the Supreme Court decisions
Powley and
Daniels and therefore qualify as "Métis" for the purposes of Canadian law. Data from this section is from the
2016 Canadian Census by Statistics Canada.
Métis settlements of Alberta The Métis settlements in Alberta are the only recognized land base of Métis in Canada. They are represented and governed collectively by a unique Métis government known as the
Métis Settlements General Council (MSGC), also known as the "All-Council". The MSGC is the provincial, national, and international representative of the Federated Métis Settlements. It holds
fee simple land title via Letters Patents to 1.25 million acres (5060 km2) of land, making the MSGC the largest land holder in the province, other than the Crown in the Right of Alberta. The MSGC is the only recognized Métis Government in Canada with prescribed land, power, and jurisdiction via the
Métis Settlements Act. (This legislation followed legal suits filed by the Métis Settlements against the Crown in the 1970s). The Métis settlements consist of predominantly Indigenous Métis populations native to Northern Alberta – distinct from those of the Red River. However, following the Riel and Dumont resistances some Red-River Métis fled westward, where they married into the contemporary Métis settlement populations during the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century. Historically referred to as the "Nomadic Half-breeds", the Métis of
Northern Alberta have a unique history. Their fight for land is still evident today with the eight contemporary Métis settlements. Following the formal establishment of the Métis settlements, then called Half-Breed Colonies, in the 1930s by a distinct Métis political organization, the Métis populations in Northern Alberta were the only Métis to secure communal Métis lands. During renewed Indigenous activism during the 1960s into the 1970s, political organizations were formed or revived among the Métis. In Alberta, the Métis settlements united as: The "Alberta Federation of Métis Settlement Associations" in the mid-1970s. Today, the Federation is represented by the Métis Settlements General Council. Originally, the first Métis settlements in Alberta were called colonies and consisted of: • Buffalo Lake (Caslan) or Beaver River • Cold Lake • East Prairie (south of Lesser Slave Lake) • Elizabeth (east of Elk Point) • Fishing Lake (Packechawanis) • Gift Lake (Ma-cha-cho-wi-se) or Utikuma Lake • Goodfish Lake • Kikino • Kings Land • Marlboro • Paddle Prairie (or Keg River) • Peavine (Big Prairie, north of High Prairie) • Touchwood • Wolf Lake (north of Bonnyville) In the 1960s, the settlements of Marlboro, Touchwood, Cold Lake, and Wolf Lake were dissolved by Order-in-Council by the Alberta Government. The remaining Métis Settlers were forced to move into one of the eight remaining Métis Settlements – leaving the eight contemporary Métis Settlements. The position of
Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians was created in 1985 as a portfolio in the
Canadian Cabinet. The
Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development is officially responsible only for
Status Indians and largely with those living on
Indian reserves. The new position was created in order provide a liaison between the federal government and Métis and non-status Aboriginal peoples, urban Aboriginals, and their representatives. == Organizations in Canada ==