The Roussain family, from the historic Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie, have been prominent advocates and organizers throughout Métis history, from the Upper Great Lakes to the Red River. In 1816, for example, Eustace Roussain rallied Métis in the Upper Great Lakes to support Cuthbert Grant’s efforts against Lord Selkirk’s troops in the Red River, culminating in the Battle of Seven Oaks. Eustace was later charged for his role in the conflict. Louise Roussain, another Saul

Marguerite Guilmond, the Métis matriarch of the well-known Métis Boissonneau family, was a Métis woman originally from the English River region in present-day Manitoba. As a young adult, Marguerite fell in love with Joseph Boissonneau. Joseph was born in Lower Canada in 1787 but eventually made his way westward—first to St. Joseph Island in the Upper Great Lakes before continuing farther west, where he met Marguerite. Marguerite and Joseph soon started a family together. By t

Angelique Lepine (nee Cadotte) was a Métis woman born in the Upper Great Lakes in the early 1800s. As a young woman, she married Pierre Lepine, a French-Canadian. Soon after, the couple welcomed their first child, Therise, into the world. However, that world was one of upheaval for Angelique’s Métis community. In 1828, Angelique, her husband, and their baby daughter were among the many Métis families forced to relocate from their homes on Drummond Island after the British ced

Archange L’Hirondelle, the Métis matriarch of the Brissette-L’Hirondelle family, grew up in the fur trade world around Lesser Slave Lake, in what is now northern Alberta. As a “half-breed” woman, Archange was raised around the Hudson’s Bay Company post in a region that was home to a growing community of Métis families and retired HBC traders who settled together in the area after their contracts expired. It was there that Archange met her future husband, Hyppolite Brisset

The legacy of the prominent Métis Nolin family began with the marriage of Jean Baptiste Nolin, a French-Canadian fur trader, and Marie Angelique Couvret, a Métis woman. Jean Baptiste and Marie Angelique met in the 1780s at Michilimackinac, an important fur trading post and gathering place in the Upper Great Lakes. Jean Baptiste had come to the island for trade, but it was Marie Angelique’s deep connections to the land, her relations, and the emerging Métis kinship networks

The Métis families in Mattawa did not exist in isolation from other Métis families and communities. They were connected to other Métis families and communities across west central North America. Métis families came to Mattawa from across west central North America, eventually forming their own distinct identity within the region. The Atkinson-Moore family, for example, that eventually put roots down in the Mattawa region, had its origins in Moose Factory—part of the Abitibi I