The Metis Nation Council Accord Map

The Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s distinctive identity and enduring presence has been recognized in numerous official records in both historical and contemporary times. This included recognition within the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples—commonly referred to as RCAP—that was established in 1991 to examine Canada’s ongoing relationships with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples. The RCAP final report, delivered in 1996, acknowledged numerous documented histori

After years of disrespect and colonial intrusion, the collective Métis and Anishinaabe action at Mica Bay in November 1849 succeeded in forcing the Crown to deal with their shared grievances. The following year, the Crown sent Treaty Commissioner William B. Robinson to Sault Ste. Marie to negotiate a treaty. In a continued act of allyship, Anishinaabek Chiefs Shingwaukonse-ibun and Nebainagoching-ibun advocated for Métis inclusion in the treaty-making process and the setting

Following the historic 2003 Powley decision, which centred on the Sault Ste. Marie Métis community’s harvestings rights, Métis communities across the Métis Homeland utilized the ruling to advance additional cases that affirmed their own Métis harvesting rights—both in the courts and through negotiations—leading to further Métis rights victories that have together benefitted all Métis people. These included court cases like R. v. Goodon (Manitoba), R. v. Laviolette (Saskatch

After the unanimous decision in the Powley case that Steve and Roddy Powley were exercising their Métis right to hunt that is protected under s. 35 of the Constitution, there became a need to identify which people were, in fact, Métis for the purposes of Constitutional rights protection in Canada. The Supreme Court determined that the appropriate way to define Métis rights in s. 35 is to modify the existing legal test used to define the Aboriginal rights of Indians [sic.],

Throughout history, Métis communities’ distinctive political identities have often emerged as a response to external threats to their collective Métis rights and way of life. Now-famous Métis political actions include the Battle of Seven Oaks and North-West Resistance. Each event served to solidify a distinctive Métis identity and collective consciousness in present-day Manitoba and Saskatchewan, respectively. In present-day Ontario, the 1905 negotiations for Treaty 9 in