ONTARIO MÉTIS FACTS

Telling Our Stories and Histories.

Learn the facts about rights-bearing Métis communities in Ontario. All the images, videos, and original source materials you need with none of the spin.

Featured Stories

Sara Mary Moore: Métis Matriarch

Sara Mary Moore was born in Moose Factory in 1818. Her Métis father, George Moore Jr., was a steersman with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), who had entered the company’s employ as a labourer half a decade earlier. George and his wife, Emma, raised Sara Mary within the vibrant Métis fur trade world of traders, guides, and woodsmen along western James Bay. In 1833, George briefly moved east “to Canada” before retiring to the Red River in 1834. Then, about 16, Sara Mary moved

Threading the Needle at 90

Métis across the Homeland have consistently demonstrated pride through significant accomplishments and simple everyday actions. Many Métis individuals have shared stories that reflect these points of pride in contributions to their Métis family and community life. Elizabeth Longlade (née Dusome) was one such Métis matriarch from the Georgian Bay Métis Community, centred at Penetanguishene, in the Upper Great Lakes, who shared her life’s story and points of quiet personal prid

Métis Women Harvesters of the Abitibi Inland

Métis women played an essential role in provisioning the fur trade posts of the Abitibi Inland and western James Bay regions. Métis women from the Abitibi Inland Métis Community are documented hunting, trapping, and snaring a variety of birds and game, including geese, partridges, beaver, martins, and rabbits. Fishing—especially for whitefish—was common too. In addition to hunting, snaring, and fishing, Métis women actively participated in maple sugar production, as well as o

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Newest Stories

Métis Marriages: The Labattes

Louis George Labatte is often remembered for his advocacy and resilience: serving at the capture of Mackinaw during the War of 1812; enduring the relocation from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene after the British surrender of the island; signing the 1840 Penetanguishene Halfbreed Petition; and building the historic Labatte House at Thunder Beach, which still stands today as a testament to Upper Great Lakes Métis history in Georgian Bay. Yet his legacy extends beyond these m

Métis Marriages: McDonell & Ferris

Métis couple, Annie McDonell and Walter Ferris, were married on July 28, 1864, in the Mattawa region. Annie McDonell was born around 1844 in Moose Factory to Mary Ann (nee McKay) and Alexander McDonell, a lifelong Métis Hudson’s Bay Company employee whose career and connections spanned the Métis Homeland, including the Swan River, Lac la Pluie, and Abitibi Inland regions. By 1848, Annie and her four siblings had relocated to the Mattawa region with their parents, where they b

Métis Marriages: John Saunders & Frances Swanson

On May 18, 1870, John Saunders married Frances Swanson in Moose Factory. Their union of proud Métis families both reflected and continued to strengthen the enduring kinship networks of their Métis fur trade community in the Abitibi Inland region. Frances herself came from a Métis fur-trading family, making the union of the two families a continuation of a familiar way of life shaped by shared work, culture, and community ties. John Saunders was born in 1845 in Matawagamingue