History

The Métis Nation emerged during the seventeenth century as a result of the French and English fur trade – well before Canada would exist – through marriages between European fur traders and First Nation women – producing children of mixed ancestry, who eventually became known as Métis, Half-Breeds, or Country Born people.

Establishing relationships with Aboriginal women gave fur traders valuable contacts with tribal communities, and tribal communities received regular access to trade goods. The women were also able to teach the traders local languages, show them how to survive on the land, and tend to domestic affairs such as preparing food, constructing shelters, and making clothing. Daughters born from these unions usually carried on traditional roles taught by their mothers. Sons grew up to enter the fur trade, become hunters, trappers, or canoemen. Those with schooling were able to become clerks or interpreters at the trading posts. The development of a unique Métis culture began to unfold.

The spirit of the Métis and the spiritual practices of the Métis are as complex as the ancestral roots of their Indigenous and European culture and languages. During the time of the fur trade, the Métis became the essential middlemen, knowledgeable on both their fathers’ and mothers’ cultures.

Contemporary Métis people can trace their ancestry back to the Historic Métis Nation Homeland, which includes the three Prairie Provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta), as well as parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the Northern United States.

Today, the Métis are recognized as one of the three “Aboriginal peoples of Canada” under the Constitution Act of 1982, along with the First Nations and the Inuit.