Fort William, on the north shore of Lake Superior, became an important gathering location within the historic fur trade when the North West Company relocated their Lake Superior district headquarters there in 1803. Annual gatherings at Fort William brought together North West Company employees from across its vast geographic network. These gatherings at Fort William became known as the ‘Great Rendezvous’. The Rendezvous was an important part of the annual fur trade cycle. It

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

Métis women played an essential role in provisioning the fur trade posts of the Abitibi Inland and western James Bay regions. Métis women from the Abitibi Inland Métis Community are documented hunting, trapping, and snaring a variety of birds and game, including geese, partridges, beaver, martins, and rabbits. Fishing—especially for whitefish—was common too. In addition to hunting, snaring, and fishing, Métis women actively participated in maple sugar production, as well as o

After the War of 1812, the Nolin family began to expand their connections and influence westward beyond the family’s home at Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Great Lakes. Louis Nolin, the eldest son of Jean Baptiste and Marie Angelique, moved westward to the Red River settlement, where he became an interpreter for Lord Selkirk and the Hudson’s Bay Company. This was a crucial role, as the Red River area was a center of growing tension between the Métis, European settlers, and f

Charlotte Turner was born in Moose Factory, in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s (HBC) Rupert’s Land territory, on or about July 11, 1828. Charlotte’s father, Joseph Turner Sr., was a lifelong HBC employee, who worked for the Company for nearly 70 years. Throughout that time, he and his Métis wife, Emma, had seven children born in Moose Factory. On June 21, 1841, Charlotte Turner married James Harper, another long serving HBC employee, “a la façon du pays” (in the custom of the coun

Throughout history, Métis across the Homeland have found employment using their fluency in a diverse array of languages. Prominent language-based Métis professions have included interpreters and guides. Many passed their language-based vocations down between generations. Lewis Solomon, a well-known member of the Georgian Bay Métis Community, for example, followed in the footsteps of his father, William, who was an Indian interpreter for the British Government. Like many M