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

In 1845, the government opened lands north of Lake Huron for settlement and began negotiating treaties in the region. These newly opened lands included many Métis families’ River Lots along the St. Mary’s River at Sault Ste. Marie. In 1850, the Métis were explicitly excluded from the Robinson treaties. However, during the treaty negotiations, Anishinaabe leaders had advocated for the recognition of Métis rights to their River Lots. This advocacy prompted Treaty Commissione

George Atkinson was born at Moose Factory in February 1839 to Samuel Atkinson and Sara Mary Atkinson (nee Moore), whose Métis family had rich connections throughout the Métis Homeland from Moose Factory to Red River. When he was just 15 years old, George joined the Hudson’s Bay Company, following in his father’s footsteps and those of his Métis grandfather, George Moore Jr., who had originally joined the HBC in 1812 and served within the Company for several decades. In his fi

The Atkinson-Moore family, originally from Moose Factory, has grown and maintained deep connections throughout the Métis Homeland for generations. After moving from Moose Factory to Red River in 1834, for example, several members of the Moore family—including Métis siblings Sarah Mary, Anne, and Philip, their mother Emma, and their Métis aunt Elizabeth Moore—were all baptized on the same day. While some members of the Moore family, including the recently baptized siblings and

Elizabeth Turner was baptized at Moose Factory on June 30, 1822, alongside her brothers, Joseph Jr. and Philip. Elizabeth grew up immersed in the rich and dynamic world of the fur trade. Her father, Joseph Turner Sr., was a lifelong and dedicated servant of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). Her mother, Emma, was a skilled Métis woman who raised her children within her Métis traditions on the western shores of James Bay. As the Turner siblings entered adulthood, Elizabeth’s brot

Joseph Turner Jr. was born into the Métis world of the coastal and inland fur trade posts of western James Bay in 1816 and was baptized alongside his siblings, Elizabeth and Philip, at Moose Factory on June 30, 1822. Joseph Turner Jr.’s father, Joseph Sr., had worked at the Hudson’s Bay Company depot at Moose Factory and its connected inland posts since 1799. Like many of the Métis “factory boys” who grew up at the fur trade posts of James Bay, Joseph Sr. had a long career wi