The Métis Nolin family, originally from the Upper Great Lakes, have left a legacy across the Métis Homeland. This includes the Nolin sisters, Marguerite and Angelique. Marguerite and Angelique Nolin were the children of trader Jean Baptiste Nolin and his Métis wife, Marie Angelique Couvret. Raised on Michilimackinac, the birthplace of many Métis families in the region, the Nolins moved to Sault Ste. Marie in the late 1780s and quickly set down roots along the St. Mary’s River

Michilimackinac, or Mackinac Island, was “an eighteenth century nexus for the Great Lakes fur trade” where many Métis families like the Langlades, Cadottes, and Nolins emerged as leading families within the emerging Métis political consciousness in the Upper Great Lakes. Within that often male-dominated business world, Métis matriarch Madeline Laframboise was renowned for her entrepreneurial prowess and success. Laframboise was “a tall and commanding figure, and most dignifie

Rosette Boucher (nee Larammee) was born on a cold December 12, 1815 to Jaques Adam Laramee, North West Company employee and War of 1812 veteran, and Rosette Cloutier, a “half-breed woman” from Mackinaw Island in the Upper Great Lakes.  Rosette’s upbringing was grounded in her Métis community’s traditional way of life, including participating in the annual spring sugar camps common among Métis families throughout the Upper Great Lakes. In 1828, however, at just thirteen years

George Harvey was born on December 16, 1856 at Michipicoten on Lake Superior to a Métis mother, Jane Flett, and Scottish Hudson Bay Company employee, Alexander Harvey.  The next year, the Harvey family moved north to Moose Factory on James Bay, where the young George spent many of his formative years deeply engrained within the region’s bustling fur trade economy and growing Métis community.  In 1870, when George was just 13 years old, he was sent to Stromness in Scotland’s O

The Roussain family, from the historic Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie, have been prominent advocates and organizers throughout Métis...

After the War of 1812, the Nolin family began to expand their connections and influence westward beyond the family’s home at Sault Ste....