<><><><> Meti's Nation of Canada <><><><>

   What is Metis? The Metis people are mixed bloods. Being half of another culture, and some Native American blood like when the different white people came here to Turtle Island and married into the Native cultures that made them Mixed bloods.

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   The Metis (pronounced "MAY tee", IPA: ['mejti], in French [me'tis] or [me'tsis], in Michif [mi'cif]), also historically known as Bois Brule, mixed-bloods, Country born (or Anglo-Metis), are one of three recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada.     Their homeland consists of the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, as well as the Northwest Territories. The Metis Homeland also includes parts of the northern United States (specifically Montana, North Dakota, and northwest Minnesota). The Metis Nation consists of descendants of marriages of Woodland Cree, Ojibway, Saulteaux, and Menominee aboriginals to French Canadian and/or British/Celtic settlers. Their history dates to the mid-seventeenth century. Historically, many (but not all) Metis spoke a mixed language called Michif. Michif is a phonetic spelling of the Metis pronunciation of Metif, a variant of Metis. The Metis today predominantly speak english, with french a strong second language, as well as numerous aboriginal tongues. The encouragement and use of Michif is growing due to outreach within the provincial Metis councils after at least a generation of decline. The word Metis (the singular, plural and adjectival forms are the same) is french, and cognate of the spanish word mestizo. It carriers the same connotation of "mixed blood"; traced back far enough it stems from the latin word mixtus, the past participle of the verb "to mix". Countless Metis over time are thought to have been absorbed and assimilated into the mainstream more dominant surrounding populations making Metis heritage (and thereby Aboriginal ancestry) far more numerous than currently known. Recent DNA and research has often shown forgotten Aboriginal lineages in many people of french canadian and acadian decent.

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     The most famous Metis was Louis Riel who led what are usually depicted as two rebellions, the Red River Rebellion in 1869 in the area now known as Manitoba, and the North-west Rebellion in 1885 in the area now known as Saskatchewan. Reasonable doubts may be raised about whether either of these events was a rebellion. For example, the actions concidered rebellions in 1869 were undertaken by Riel as the leader of a government recognized by Canada as in legitimate control of territory that did not belong to Canada; Canada negotiated the Manitoba Act with this goverment. After these "rebellions", land speculators and other non-Metis effectively deprived the Metis of land by exploiting a goverment program for this purchase, with the goverment perhaps turning a blind eye. The province of Alberta distributed land to Metis in 1938 to correct what it believed to be an inequity, but Saskatchewan and Manitoba have not folled Alberta's lead.

    Two other famous Metis leaders were Cuthbert Grant and Gagerial Dumont.

    Born in 1940, in northern Saskatchewan, Metis writer/filmmaker Maria Campbell brought the struggles of mordern-day Metis and Aboriginal people into the public mind through her breakthrough book, Halfbreed (1973), and the collaborative play, Jessica (1982). She has captured the sound and song of tradional stories through her work in dialect, Stories of the Road Allowance People (1996).

    On May 7, 2004, Metis Todd Ducharme was appointed as a judge of the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice.

    Other well known Canadians of Metis decent are Sharon Bruneau, a Canadian female bodybuilder and fitness model, and Kevin O'Toole, 1996 North American Lightheavyweight bodybuilder champion.

    NHL star defenceman Sheldon Souray is of Metis ancestry.

    Former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is of Metis ancestory.

    Architect Douglas Cardinal is of Metis and Blackfoot ancestory.

    Novelist Sandra Birdsell is the daughter of a Metis man and a Russian Mennonite woman and based her award-winning novel Children of the Day in part on her parents experiences in Manitoba in the 1920s-50s.

    Canadian Professional Wrestler Ben Saulnier, better known for his ring name Jake Benson, is a Metis from Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada.

    Jesse Hicks is Metis.

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  Metis culture is an amalgamation of cultures of the First Nations, French Canadian, English, and Orkney/Scottish. The Metis are known for there love of fiddle playing, but traditional instruments also included the concertina, the harmonica, and the hand drum. This affection for the fiddle has been accompanied by a form of dancing referred to as jigging. Traditional, dancing included such moves as the Waltz Quadrille, the Square dance, Drops of Brandy, the Duck, La Double Gigue and the Red River Jig.

  Metis people were famous for their horsemanship and breeding of horses. The RCMP Musical Ride horses dance the Quadrille as begun by the Metis and their horses.

  As the Metis culture matured, a new language called Michif emerged. This language was a result of the combining of french nouns and Cree verbs. Though a distinct language, it is spoken by few people. Some estimates put the number of Michif speakers at about 1,000

   Of the clothing worn by the Metis in the 19th century, the sash or ceinture flechee is probably the most common. It is traditionally roughly three meters in length and is made by weaving yarn together with one's fingers. The sash is worn around the waist, tied in the middle, with the fringe ends hanging. Vests with characteristic Metis figurative beadwork are also popular. The Red River Coat is historically recognized as coming from the Metis culture.

   The Metis figured more prominently in Canada's past, having been very valuble and indispensable fur traders, voyageurs (coureur de bois), frontiersmen, pioneers, and middlemen whom communicated between the Fiest Nations People and Clultures and the European settlers and colonialists. Their large early contribution to Canada's evolution and formation as a nation has often been underestimated or downplayed by past historians.

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  *  Anglo-Metis  *  Metis people (USA)  *  Alberta Act  *  First Nations of Canada  *  Council of Diaspora Metis  *  Metis National Councils  *  Glossary of terms for multriaciality  *  Metis Bill of Rights.

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Western Metis

     *  Metis National Council  *  Metis Nation of Ontario  *  Manitoba Metis Federation  *  Metis Nation-Saskatchewan  *  Metis Nation of Alberta  *  Metis Provincial Council of British Columbia

Eastern Metis

     *  Metis Nation of Labrador  *  Quebec Metis Nation  *  New Brunswick Acadian Metis Indians  *  Metis Community of Eastern Canada

Government of Canada

     *  Metis National Council Historical Online Database  *  Canadian Generalogy Centre  *  Differing Criter for Metis  *  Congress of Aboriginal Peoples  *  Civilization.ca  *  Metis - The Kids Site of Canadian Settlement  *  Indian Country Newspaper on Canada 2006 Government and Native peoples

Other

     *  A History of Aboriginal Treaties and Relations in Canada. This site includes contextual materials, links to digitized primary sources and summaries of primary source documents.

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