Documenting Historic Métis in Ontario

Abstract

A recent court case has brought into focus, for the first time in Ontario (Canada), legal and historical questions concerning the rights extending from historic Métis communities in that province. Within this litigation context, research into the nature, extent, and definition of historic Métis in Ontario has remained the purview of applied historians and expert witnesses. This article brings such questions into the academic arena by identifying sources and methods for documenting historic Métis during the fur trade period in Ontario. It also presents an ethnohistorical discussion of social and cultural indicators of the Métis community and ethnogenesis evident in the fur trade records for Ontario.

Displaced mixed-blood : an ethnographic exploration of Métis identities in Nova Scotia

“…There is a strength that resonates in oral histories of Metis, particularly those of Metis women. It is through the continuation of oral traditions and historical document analysis of fur trade endogamy and the role o f women within fur trade forts where we find the significance o f women's role in the Metis Nation (Campbell, 1982;Reimer & Chartrand, 2004). Most recently Metis history in Ontario has traced oral traditions, genealogy and shared experiences o f this Metis culture to aid in Post-Powley recognition in the province (Reimer & Chartrand, 2004).…”

“…Metis identities developed though the continuation of these relations and the offspring being raised together in what became Metis communities along fur trade routes placing Metis women at the center of M6tis community creation (Reimer & Chartrand, 2004;Devine, 2004). Through these partnerships and relationships Aboriginal women were able to establish with European men, they were able to create family unions, relationships of marriage, alliance, and friendships as well as economic and social relationships between the Aboriginal populations and Europeans.…”