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

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

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

Before the British and United States imposed the international border following the War of 1812, which displaced portions of the Upper Great Lakes Métis Community to Penetanguishene, many Métis families lived, travelled, and worked throughout the Upper Great Lakes’ many islands. Michilimackinac, or Mackinac Island, was once such island that served as "an eighteenth century nexus for the Great Lakes fur trade" where many Métis families emerged with a distinct Métis collective

Many parts of the Métis Homeland are known for their harsh winters, and the Rainy Lake District is no exception. Throughout the historic fur trade period, when others left for more seasonable locations, many brave Métis families remained at various trading posts throughout the cold winter months to keep the fur trade economy alive and thriving—a practice known in English as overwintering, or hiverner in French. One of the Rainy Lake District’s well-known overwinterers was ren

After travelling extensively and forming rich connections throughout the Métis Homeland, Hyppolite Brissette and his Métis wife, Archange L’Hirondelle, put down roots in the well-established Métis community at Penetanguishene, the southernmost Métis settlement in the Upper Great Lakes. The precise reasons for their relocation to Penetanguishene from the Red River in 1840 are no longer known. However, there is some indication that Hyppolite fought in the War of 1812 before h