The spring maple sugar harvest has been an important seasonal Métis community tradition for generations. For many, the annual maple sugar harvest has involved the entire family.  In a late March 1853 journal entry, for example, Mattawa postmaster Colin Rankin noted of the Métis Langevin family that it was “Mme. Langevin and family” who “started out to their sugary”. This built upon earlier entries, including one from early January 1849 in which the Langevin family was noted a

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

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

Georges LeClaire (Leclerc) was born June 7, 1886, into Mary Cecilia Ferris and Frank Benjamin Leclerc’s growing Métis family. Born only five years after the railroad's arrival, Georges LeClaire's childhood unfolded during a time of rapid growth and rising tourism in Mattawa.  In 1908, Georges married Mary Vanasse, and three years later, their only child, Margaret Ida, was born. Georges was working as a guide in Mattawa when he voluntarily enlisted for service overseas during

Métis people have long used their deep place-based knowledge to secure gainful employment and earn a livelihood for themselves and their...

On October 7, 2004—exactly three months after the signing of the Métis Nation of Ontario’s landmark interim Harvesting Agreement—Ontario...