The Georgian Bay Métis Community’s distinct way of life, grounded in the region’s abundant lands and waters, has faced numerous threats by settlers from the south for generations. The 1885 Ontario Fisheries Act, for example, attempted to place restrictions on some of the Georgian Bay Métis Community’s most culturally and economically important practices. In response, Métis fishermen, such as William Dusome, organized acts of resistance. By the turn of the twentieth centur

A GROUP OF VOYAGEURS. (From photo, taken in 1895.) 1. Lewis Solomon, 2. John Bussette, 3. James Larammee, 4. Francis Dusome The Solomons were one of the first Métis families to battle the rough fall waters of Georgian Bay from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene, as part of their Métis community’s relocation after the international border was imposed upon the Upper Great Lakes following the War of 1812. Before their journey to Penetanguishene, William Solomon, his Métis wife

In letters, journals, and reports from the 1820s through the 1850s, missionaries, government officials, and Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) personnel frequently identified Métis people and families in the vicinity of Mattawa-area fur trade posts on the Ottawa River. Métis people in the Mattawa region were often documented and referred to by various names such as ‘bois brulees’ and ‘halfbreeds’. For example, in the journal of his 1821 tour of Canada, Lord Dalhousie, the new Governo

On November 16, 2004, the Métis Nation of Ontario and Chiefs of Ontario signed a historic Political Protocol Agreement. The Agreement was created in recognition that, “First Nations and Métis peoples within Ontario have a history of respecting and recognizing each others interests, as well as, working in partnership and cooperation, as neighbours and relations, in support of each others interests and aspirations”. Its purpose was to, “affirm mutual respect, recognition and s

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