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.

Following his apprenticeship at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Island Lake District headquarters near Lake Winnipeg, Joseph Turner Jr. briefly returned east to the HBC’s coastal port of York Factory. There, Joseph Jr. served as a labourer for only a year before moving westward again to the Cumberland District on the Saskatchewan River in 1837. The HBC’s Cumberland District headquarters, Cumberland House, was a major site of pemmican production and an important stopping point for

The merger of the North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821 marked a turning point in the fur trade. For Métis fur trade employees like Henry, Pierre Guillaume, and John Charles Sayer, the merger of the two companies brought uncertainty, as positions were reduced and once important trade routes shifted. Each of the Sayer brothers experienced and navigated this changing fur trade environment in their own way. At the time of the merger, for example, John Charles S

From the earliest days of the Métis Nation, Métis communities and their leaders have recognized the value of maintaining a unified voice across the Métis Homeland—from the Upper Great Lakes westward—and have consistently achieved shared victories for all Métis by standing together as one. Early examples of Métis organizing and collective advocacy across geographically distant Métis communities for the shared benefit of all are numerous. In 1816, for instance, Métis from a

Michipicoten was an important location for the Upper Great Lakes fur trade and among Métis families. Michipicoten was an attractive location because of its strategic location as a halfway point between Fort William and Sault Ste. Marie. It was also a natural water route to Moose Factory and James Bay. As a result, Michipicoten was a location where Métis family networks and economic interests intersected. Independent traders, including members of the well known Métis C

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