Metis people were bridges between white and Native American communities - A Unique Culture
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The term "metis" [m-t(s)] has more than one meaning.
One references a person with bi-ethnic ancestry ( metis means "mixed" in French) and is usually written with a lowercase "m." For example, in Minnesota before statehood, having one Dakota parent and one Scottish parent made one metis. Government officials kept special census records, like the "Sioux Metis rolls," of bi-ancestry persons.
Another meaning of the term identifies present-day members of the Metis Nation of Canada. This specific bi-ancestry group practices distinct ways of life. People representative of both groups — the metis and the Metis Nation — were involved in the fur trade era in pre-territorial Minnesota and around the Great Lakes.
Mothers of Metis and bi-ancestry children of the Great Lakes region came from the Dakota and Ojibwe nations as well as the Menominee, Potawatomi, Meskwaki, Sauk, Ho Chunk, Odawa, Cree, and Assiniboine. Scottish, Irish, French, and British fathers lived during the French, British, and American periods of colonization. They were coureurs de bois (French or metis traders), voyageurs, artisans, merchants, soldiers, officers, and government workers. Additionally, some bi-ancestry children had one Black parent and one Native parent.
Historical accounts describe marriages of men with African ancestry with Native women. James Thompson (eventually freed from slavery) married a Dakota woman in 1833. Joseph Godfrey escaped slavery and married a Dakota woman named Takanyeca in 1857. Pierre Bonga, a free man, married an Ojibwe woman, and their son George Bonga married Ashwewin, who was Ojibwe as well. These men lived and died in close association with their wives' communities.
Marriages with Native women allowed the men to build bonds with their wives' extended families. These husbands tapped into new economic opportunities, accessed hunting areas, influenced trading and benefited from the many skills and kinship ties of their Native wives. The women themselves also gained social status, influence, and access to resources. Some of these marriages were a la facon du pays , French for "according to the custom of the country." In some cases, the European and American colonial powers legally recognized marriages as well as divorces. Some fathers were committed to raising their bi-ancestry children; others abandoned them.
Historically, metis lived with complicated identities. In pre-territorial and territorial Minnesota, bi-ancestry people acted as translators, guides, teachers, farmers, traders, missionaries, and entrepreneurs. The metis were able to use different parts of their identity in order to survive day to day. This made for a variety of life stories.
Jane Lamont, the Scottish and Dakota granddaughter of the Dakota leader Mahpiya Wicasta (Cloud Man), lost both her parents before she was 19 years old. She was at first a teacher, then chose homesteading and marriage to the nephew of the missionary Samuel Pond. On the other hand, Mary Taliaferro Woodbury, another metis woman, lived with her children in St. Paul. She lost her husband, a soldier, in 1863, then moved her family to a reservation in 1887 or 1888 to live with her Dakota relatives.
In the 1820s, the number of bi-ancestry families and children in Minnesota soared. This began to change in the mid-to-late 1800s, when the need for the metis as go-betweens declined. At this time, metis faced increasingly negative reactions from society for being persons of dual ancestry. Social options for the metis became more limited. Some tried to join mainstream, Euro-American ways of life (at least outwardly). Others moved with Native relatives to reservations.
Native nations often looked after their bi-ancestry relatives. Pelagie Faribault, a woman of multi-ethnic Dakota ancestry, received land through an 1820 treaty with the Dakota. Roughly between 1830 and 1851, the Lake Pepin region contained land set aside by treaty for bi-ancestry families. Much of it was lost to white colonists or exchanged for land certificates (scrip) in other locations. A draft of a U.S. treaty with the Pembina and Red Lake Ojibwe — written in 1851 but never ratified — included a sum of money for dual ancestry relatives.
Various bi-ancestry families usually lived near fur-trading sites from the late 1700s into the 1800s. Many raised children next to each other. Some lived near Fort Snelling and in Mendota, Prairie du Chien, and, later, Lake Pepin (on the Mississippi River). Many of them knew the Red River and Pembina Metis and often interacted with them.
International and state borders shifted during the 19th century so that the Pembina Metis community was sometimes in Canada and at other times in Minnesota, Dakota, and Iowa Territories. Minnesota played a geographically important role to the culturally distinct Metis in Canada. The distinct Plains Red River Metis, or "La Nation," routinely traveled on oxcart routes starting in the 1820s. These routes went through what is now Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin, Fort Snelling in St Paul, Pembina in North Dakota, and the Red River Colony in Manitoba, Canada.
These Metis traded and conducted business of various kinds. Minnesota Territory, before statehood, actually included Pembina. Pembina also had a Minnesota Territorial representative, Joseph Rolette, who had married into a culturally Metis family.
Brigades of Metis hunters with ox-drawn wooden carts went after buffalo until the mid-19th century. The hunting of buffalo sometimes caused conflict with nearby Native American nations. A form of seasonal food gathering continues to the present day in Metis communities.
Louis Riel, the famous leader of the Canadian Red River Metis, visited a relative in Minnesota in 1878 and, for a short time, lived in St. Paul. He approached John Ireland, the city's Roman Catholic Bishop, and asked for help in resettling "Canadiens" to the United States. Some were probably Metis.
Ireland did not help Riel. In 1885, the Canadian government ordered his death for his role in organizing Metis armed resistance. The French Canadian town of Gentilly, Minnesota, mourned the execution as a symbol of the oppression of French speakers.
In the Red River Valley and Pembina, Metis intermarried and passed on a culture combining what their parents had brought from their own backgrounds. Certain symbols persist in the present day as markers of Metis life. Brightly colored sashes and the sash dance, floral beadwork, and the infinity symbol flag are symbols of Metis culture. Metis music and dance traditions include jigging, fiddling, and tunes such as the Duck Dance Fiddle Song. Some Metis families celebrate Easter and maple sugar season with specific foods, like crepes with maple syrup. Linguists recognize the French Metis language and Michif as official languages spoken in the United States and Canada.
As of 2017, Canada and the United States maintain different metis policies. Canada formally recognizes some Metis groups as having legal rights. The United States does not view metis peoples as a distinct group. Nonetheless, metis people in several states have formed organizations based on cultural heritage and metis rights.
For more information on this topic, check out the original entry on MNopedia.
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The Metis (May Tee) are a unique culture and race to themselves and are recognized in Canada as one of three indigenous groups in Canada. The Metis are not recognized as an indigenous groups in the US and that dates back to the 1870s and the ‘’Old Crossing Treaty’’. Within the LIttle Shell Tribe of Montana the citizens there are Ojibwe, Cree and Metis. Turtle Mountain in ND has the same mix and there are Metis people on reservations in MN, WI and MI. Many famous people from MN, and Manitoba Canada are of Metis heritage. If your heritage is mixed French/indigenous or any other European mix with Canadian indigenous does not make you Metis. You must trace your ancestors to the Red River Settlement in Ruperts Land also known as New France and later the province of Manitoba to be an accepted original Metis. They are mostly French and Ojibwe, Cree or Nakoda and it started with the fur trade that bloomed for decades in Canada and the the currents states of MN, WI, MI and ND.
My mother is Ojibwe and I always thought that my father was Ojibwe with a bit of French from a few centuries ago and were both members of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe of Northern Minnesota. My father never said anything about Metis or any other tribal blood. It wasn’t until a few months ago from a phone call that I found out the impressive history of my father and his side of the family. Beside being Ojibwe he has Dakota (Sioux), Cree, and a direct descendent of Chief Wabasha line of Dakota and Chief Little Shell line of Ojibwe and then came the real shockers, a direct descendent of the first Metis leader, Cutberth Grant and also Jean Baptiste Bottineau along with many of the original Metis of the Red River Settlement. The Metis society of Canada, the Canadian government, St. Boniface historical society and St. Francis Xander have records such as birth, marriage, death, etc going back to the 1500 for the Metis and one of the most important to have to become a Metis citizen, Script which was issued by the Canadian government to Metis and First Nations people for land.
Loving history this opened up a whole new world for me to investigate and have I ever been doing just that.
I have posted a few articles on it, one being the battle of Seven Oaks between the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest company over the fur trade. The two battles between the Metis and the Canadian government when the Metis fought for their rights and I have so far traced that side of the family back the the late 1400s.
This is just a taste of what the Metis people were and are today,
There is a lot of rich history during the pre settlement fur trapping days, but unfortunately in the later years it's my understanding the Metis were discriminated as 'half breeds' on both sides. Many tried to suppress their native ancestry to avoid discrimination. It's great to see that this has been turning around and people are reconnecting with their history and traditions.
I love reading your stories. There is so much here that points me to places and people to learn about. So a sincere personal thank you for all the years of online friendship making me a more educated person. I could spend a lifetime just studying the history of the area prior to statehood and be a happy man.
That is true and throughout MN there are a number of settlements in Anoka county (Centerville) New Canada St. Anthony falls that have generations of Metis that are reviving the culture. In Canada many of the tribes aligned themselves with the Metis in the Red River uprising and the Battle of Batchoe and Seven Oaks. The Dakota and Metis fought a huge battle in which the Metis defeated the Dakota but all and all the Indians were much more favored towards the Metis than whites since they have established family and clan connections. One of the most unique things that I discovered was I have two grandfathers that are brothers one being Dakota, Chief Wabasha and the other brother being Ojibwe named Chief Big Foot. It’s a long story but like the civil war it was for a moment brother against brother and it ended in a peace that lasted for decades.
This photo was taken around 1870 at the Red River Settlement, they are all fur traders and buffalo hunters. The Red River Carts are famous for their carrying ability up to two tons of good can be carried in those carts.
seems like a few chapters of american history were missing from my education. thanks for filling in some of the missing pieces.
Your welcome, Devan it is a fascinating history and culture and language that is a mix of French and Cree and a bit of Ojibwe.
I think those guys chased my relatives out of canada and south across the st lawrence river 300+ years ago ...
All the way to Colorado?
pennsylvania and virginia ...
Are you saying we might be related?
... probably not, that side of the family could keep their clothes on in the daylight. it's the hillbillies farther south that were usually humping anything with a pulse. the civil war shootings in my family lasted for 7 years after lee surrendered ...
From my history lessons when I was in school in Hamilton, Ontario, my recollection was that the Metis were mostly a mix of French and native, and that they were located mostly in Alberta and Saskatchewan. My connection with Metis people was that two of the employees in my father's factory were Metis, Yvonne and Yvette. When I was very young Yvette babysat me many times.
So you have a connection to the Metis, one was your baby sitter now that is kind of cool.
She wasn't just a babysitter, she was a long-time valued competent employee in my father's factory.
Is this you, Buzz.
Nope, when I was little I had long blond hair.
The woman looks like the main star in the Osage movie.
She does, but it isn’t. The photo is from 1860s in the Red River Settlement, Manitoba.
Little blonde kids got their heads shaved, to WASP looking…LOL
I may be W, but I'm not ASP.
Good comeback, Buzz.
The Metis National Anthem.
That was my grampap's favorite song. I learned to play it on my clarinet and played it for him
My grandmother used to sing it to us in French and in Ojibwe.
The song was written in the 1870 by a Metis woman to her British lover. I have the history of it if you want me to post it along with the original words only a few have been changed because today that wording wouldn’t be accepted.
Let me know, Trout.
My grandmother used to sing it to us in French and in Ojibwe.
The song was written in the 1870 by a Metis woman to her British lover. I have the history of it if you want me to post it along with the original words only a few have been changed because today that wording wouldn’t be accepted.
Let me know, Trout.
http://http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/72/redrivervalley.shtmlwww.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/72/redrivervalley.shtml
there is a problem with the link. I’ll try and find another one that works.