Michilimackinac, or Mackinac Island, was “an eighteenth century nexus for the Great Lakes fur trade” where many Métis families like the Langlades, Cadottes, and Nolins emerged as leading families within the emerging Métis political consciousness in the Upper Great Lakes. Within that often male-dominated business world, Métis matriarch Madeline Laframboise was renowned for her entrepreneurial prowess and success. Laframboise was “a tall and commanding figure, and most dignifie

Michel (Michael) Labatte and Archange Berger (Bergé), of the Georgian Bay Métis Community, were married on June 3, 1845 at the St. Ann’s Church in Penetanguishene, witnessed by other Métis community members including James Solomon and Marie Berger. In addition to further strengthening the already-deep kinship between the Georgian Bay Métis Community’s many Métis families, Michel Labatte and Archange Berger’s 1845 marriage also represented a landmark moment in their Métis com

Georgian Bay Métis Community members Michel (Michael) Labatte and Archange Berger (Bergé) were married on June 3, 1845 at St. Ann’s Church in Penetanguishene, further strengthening the already-deep multigenerational bonds between the Georgian Bay Métis Community’s many Métis families. Michel and Archange’s marriage was witnessed by fellow Georgian Bay Métis Community members, including Marie (Mary) Berger and James Solomon, whose Métis family—like the Bergers and Labattes—had

While Métis people hold diverse spiritual beliefs, many Métis in the Upper Great Lakes— like other Métis communities throughout the Métis Nation Homeland—practiced the Catholic faith. An 1893 visitor to Killarney, for example, described the community as consisting of “many half breeds at Killarney, mostly French and Roman Catholic, and there is a small Roman Catholic church.” With few churches in the Upper Great Lakes during the early 1800s, Métis travelled long distances