Christmas and New Year’s celebrations were important for many Métis families and communities. Unsurprisingly, many shared and well-loved Métis holiday traditions exist across the Homeland. One such annual tradition was Métis Christmas kissing, which was particularly well-loved in the Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie. In 1951, settler Christy Ann Simons recorded her memoirs about her life growing up in the Upper Great Lakes during the late 1800s, in which the vibrant region

The Métis and Anishinaabe communities of Sault Ste. Marie have been long-time allies. Perhaps the most notable example of allyship between the two political groups occurred both during and after the Mica Bay Incident—one of the most important moments in the history of Crown-Indigenous relations in the Upper Great Lakes. Following their collective action at Mica Bay alongside their Métis allies, the Anishinaabek Chiefs Shingwaukonse-ibun and Nebainagoching-ibun advocated f

Louis Riel’s execution by Canada on November 16, 1885, cast a long shadow over Métis communities throughout the Métis Homeland, including Métis communities in the Upper Great Lakes and northern Ontario. Since the Red River Resistance of 1869/70, southern Ontario had been an epicentre for anti-Métis racism. Like Prime Minister John A. Macdonald’s federal government, the Ontario provincial government—led by Premier Edward Blake—was dominated by English-speaking Protestants that

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 introduction of Ontario’s Fisheries Act made it difficult for Métis in Georgian Bay and across the Upper Great Lakes to practice their way of life. In response, the Métis in Georgian Bay pushed back. Métis fisherman, William Dusome, was particularly active in leading Métis resistance to Ontario’s Fisheries Act in Georgian Bay. In 1898, for example, the Department of Marine and Fisheries recorded that Métis fisherman William Dusome was persistent in refusing to adhere to f

Like many Métis, the Métis of the Abitibi Inland and western James Bay regions began transitioning away from traditional fur trade occupations in the early 20th century. Many entered employment in new and rapidly growing regional industries such as the railroad and forestry. Despite these profound economic changes, hunting remained an integral part of life for the Abitibi Inland Métis Community. The continued practice and importance of the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s tra