Throughout history, Métis across the Homeland have found employment using their fluency in a diverse array of languages. Prominent language-based Métis professions have included interpreters and guides. Many passed their language-based vocations down between generations. Lewis Solomon, a well-known member of the Georgian Bay Métis Community, for example, followed in the footsteps of his father, William, who was an Indian interpreter for the British Government. Like many M

Métis people have a long and proud history of military service. From the War of 1812 through both World Wars, the Korean Conflict, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and peacekeeping missions, Métis veterans have steadfastly defended their communities and served in the Canadian armed forces across generations. Many Métis veterans have extended their leadership and community service throughout the rest of their lives, long after their active duty ended. Louis George Labatte of the Upp

A common Métis way of life developed across west central North America, from the Upper Great Lakes westward, that endured over the span of centuries and connected Métis communities across vast distances through kinship, economic, and cultural ties. One example is the many petitions written by Métis communities across the Homeland, sent as proud assertions of their Métis identity and rights, and as collective responses to their pressing political issues. Not only is the ac

In 1842, the British officially codified the means to exclude Métis from present-giving—the Crown’s longstanding pre-treaty practice used to maintain diplomatic relationships with Indigenous peoples in the Upper Great Lakes. This new attempt at official policy reform followed the 1840 Penetanguishene Petition, in which twenty-two members of the Georgian Bay Métis Community in Penetanguishene collectively appealed for the re-establishment of equity and justice in the annual

The Métis National Council (MNC) intervened at the Supreme Court of Canada in support of Steve and Roddy Powley and the historic Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community. This intervention was presented by MNC Co-Counsel, Clement Chartier, at the Supreme Court. In its submission, the MNC states that, “the Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie is a part of the Métis Nation,” situated within a broader Métis community in the Upper Great Lakes, and “is one of the oldest and well-recognized

In 1875, the Métis of Rainy River and Rainy Lake (the area around present-day Fort Frances) signed the “Half-Breed Adhesion to Treaty No. 3,” under the leadership of Métis leader Nicolas Chatelaine. Born in the Upper Great Lakes, Chatelaine had previously acted as an interpreter to Treaty 3 in 1873 and is listed as a witness to its signing. During the initial Treaty 3 negotiations, Chief Mawedopenais of Rainy River requested that “halfbreeds” be included in the treaty. Howeve