Most people are aware of the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community’s deep and rich history. But did you know that it also has deep historical and contemporary connections throughout the Métis Nation Homeland? For example, Elzéar Goulet was second in command of the Métis militia under Louis Riel’s Provisional Government. He became a martyr of the Red River Resistance. He also had connections to the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community in the Upper Great Lakes. Goulet’s Métis grandmothe

The Roussain family, from the historic Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie, have been prominent advocates and organizers throughout Métis history, from the Upper Great Lakes to the Red River. In 1816, for example, Eustace Roussain rallied Métis in the Upper Great Lakes to support Cuthbert Grant’s efforts against Lord Selkirk’s troops in the Red River, culminating in the Battle of Seven Oaks. Eustace was later charged for his role in the conflict. Louise Roussain, another Saul

The Métis are connected by far more than discrete and singular moments of collective political action, like the Battle of Seven Oaks that took place within the course of an hour, the Mica Bay Incident that concluded in less than a month, and both of Louis Riel’s provisional governments that collectively lasted less than two years. A common Métis way of life developed across west central North America, from the Upper Great Lakes westward, that endured over the span of centur

The Métis Nation, its governments, and leaders have a long legacy of recognizing and uplifting the history and connection between the Upper Great Lakes Métis and broader Métis Nation, including the important historic Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie. In its intervention to the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Powley, the Métis National Council advanced the unanimous recognition that Métis Nation governments from Ontario-westward held for the Sault Ste. Marie Métis communi

By the time Pierre Guillaume Sayer retired from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1832, his family had grown and settled in Grantown (later renamed St. Francois-Xavier), a Métis farming settlement established by Métis leader Cuthbert Grant. Life in the Métis community revolved around buffalo hunting and pemmican production. Twice a year, Métis in Grantown would go buffalo hunting and the community became one of the HBC’s largest pemmican suppliers. In Grantown, Pierre Guillaume

Métis communities emerged in west-central North America from the initial marriages of European fur traders and First Nations women beginning in the late 1700s. Several generations of continuous intermarriage and community-building between the children of these unions gave rise to a new and unique culture—Métis culture—distinct from those of their European and First Nations forebears. The emergence of these distinct communities necessitated the use of new language to identif