Many members of the Upper Great Lakes Métis Community utilized their knowledge of the lands, waters, and local peoples to maintain meaningful employment as guides and interpreters. Lewis Solomon, a member of the Métis community at Penetanguishene, was one of those guides. Lewis was born on Drummond Island in 1821 and later moved to Penetanguishene during the community’s relocation in 1829. As a young adult, Lewis pursued “a tolerably fair education” that afforded him a “c

Métis people have long used their deep place-based knowledge to secure gainful employment and earn a livelihood for themselves and their families. One of the most common Métis place-based professions was guiding. By the turn of the twentieth century, Métis in the Mattawa region were well known for their roles as expert guides for visiting anglers and hunters. As the century progressed, some worked as canoe trip guides for summer camps. The expert skill of these Métis guides h

By the mid-1800’s the Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie had built a vibrant and thriving way of life around their Métis River Lots on the north shore of the St Mary’s River—the international border between the United States and what was then claimed as British territory. These customary family allotments were well-known throughout the region and widely recognized by the Métis community and outsiders alike. In 1826, for example, U.S. Indian Affairs Superintendent, Thomas L.

As the fur trade declined, fishing became the primary occupation of many Métis in the Upper Great Lakes. This included the “little” Métis village at Killarney that relied upon the bountiful surrounding waters to feed their community and generate an ongoing income. Over the generations, many visitors to the area described the Métis fishing economy in Killarney, including their collective advocacy around the protection of Métis fishing rights that date back to as early as 1838.

Growing up in the heart of the historic fur trade, the Sayer brothers—Henry, Pierre Guillaume, and John Charles—were part the emergent Métis kinship network that extended throughout west central North America. Their father, John Sayer, was a trader who married Obemau-unoqua, an Indigenous woman, in the traditional manner known as à la façon du pays. Born around Lake Superior between the 1780s and 1790s, Henry, Pierre Guillaume, and John Charles Sayer were raised within the bu

After the height of the fur trade, commercial fishing became a way of life for many Métis communities, including those in the Upper Great Lakes. Beginning in the 1830s and 1840s, records began referencing Métis or “Half-breed” fishermen along the eastern shore of Georgian Bay, particularly around Penetanguishene. The emergence of commercial fishing as a Métis way of life in the Upper Great Lakes is explored, among others, by Dr. Arthur Ray in An Economic History of the Robins