Métis

Out of the fur trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries grew a new nation on the prairies of western Canada and the northern United States: the Métis. Born of unions between European traders, mostly French, Scottish and English, and Indigenous women, above all Cree, they developed their own language, music, dress and political identity, centred on the Red River valley around today's Winnipeg. Canada's constitution recognises them as one of its three Indigenous peoples, alongside First Nations and Inuit.

The word comes from French and means a person of mixed parentage; it is related to the Spanish mestizo. With a small "m" it was long used loosely for anyone of mixed European and Indigenous descent. With a capital "M", Métis refers to a particular nation with a shared history. The Métis National Council's 2002 definition requires that a person self-identify as Métis, be distinct from other Indigenous peoples, descend from the historic Métis Nation and be accepted by it. Who counts as Métis remains contested, especially over newer groups in eastern Canada that recognised Métis bodies and many First Nations elders do not accept.

From the mid-seventeenth century French and later British traders in the interior often married Cree, Ojibwe and Saulteaux women "according to the custom of the country". Such marriages tied traders into Indigenous kinship networks, and women's skills in canoe travel, preparing hides and making pemmican were central to the trade. The North West Company encouraged these unions, while the Hudson's Bay Company at first forbade them. Over two or three generations the children of these families became a distinct community of voyageurs, interpreters, free traders and bison hunters who supplied pemmican to the fur brigades. Some argue that the nation was born politically at the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816; days before it, the Métis leader Cuthbert Grant was recorded flying a Métis flag.

When Canada prepared to take over Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company, the Métis feared for their lands. A census of 1870 counted 5,757 Métis and 4,083 English-speaking "mixed bloods" among the 11,963 people of the Manitoba area. In November 1869 Louis Riel and around 120 men seized Upper Fort Garry and formed a provisional government, whose negotiations with Ottawa led to the Manitoba Act and the creation of the province of Manitoba in 1870. The provisional government's execution of Thomas Scott forced Riel into exile in the United States.

As settlement moved west, many Métis relocated to the Saskatchewan valley. In 1885 they declared a provisional government at Batoche, with Gabriel Dumont as military leader and Riel returning to lead. Canadian militia and the North-West Mounted Police defeated them in fighting between 26 March and 12 May 1885. Found guilty of high treason, Riel was hanged on 16 November 1885, while the First Nations leaders Poundmaker and Big Bear each received three-year sentences.

Métis culture blends Indigenous and European elements. Many spoke Métis French or Cree, and some spoke Michif, a mixed language combining Plains Cree verbs with French nouns. The arrow sash, fiddle music, jigs and square dances are well-known markers, as are the two Métis flags, which share an infinity symbol on a red or a blue field and were both flown by 1816.

The 2021 census counted 624,220 Métis in Canada. Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognises Métis rights, and Supreme Court rulings in R v Powley (2003) and Daniels (2016) clarified hunting rights and federal responsibility. Alberta's eight Métis settlements hold about 1.25 million acres, the only recognised Métis land base. The Manitoba Métis Federation signed a self-government agreement with Canada in 2021, and Michif and Métis French are being taught again in schools and communities.

Our 1492 map draws the Métis homeland, labelled "Michif Piyii (Métis)" and "NWT Métis Nation", across the prairies and the Northwest Territories. This is a present-day territorial outline: the Métis people emerged only in the eighteenth century, from the fur trade. On that map it lies beside the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot Confederacy and Assiniboine.