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

Métis oral histories contain many stories of New Year’s celebrations across the Métis Homeland, Sault Ste. Marie is no exception! They tell of Métis going from house to house for cakes and pies, with the sounds of fireworks, gunshots, church bells, and fiddle music ringing in the air, all accompanied by dancing. Métis were so fond of this time of year that they often shared stories with non-Métis authors interested in their community’s history. In the 1920s, for example, Jam

DOWNLOAD THE DIGITAL COLOURING PAGE TO PRINT AT HOME A long time ago, Métis families celebrated New Year’s in the most fun and lively way! After a quiet Christmas, New Year’s was all about visiting neighbours, eating cakes and pies, dancing to fiddle music, and lighting up the night with fireworks! Everyone joined in—ringing church bells, sharing laughs, and enjoying good food. It was the perfect way to brighten the coldest months of winter and bring the whole community toget

Métis across the Homeland love dancing and having a good time. Kitchen parties and “half breed balls” filled with music, food, and dancing are an important part of Métis culture—historically and today. These legendary parties were often reported by non-Métis visitors to communities. In 1846, for example, William Cullen Bryant, an American poet and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post, visited Sault Ste. Marie. He wrote about the lively Métis parties and love of danc

Métis communities across the Homeland have grand celebrations during the winter holiday season. Christmas and New Year’s became particularly important holidays in Métis communities after the merging of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Northwest Company in 1821, when HBC Governor George Simpson, imposed new rules to reduce partying among lively Métis workers: “The new governor was much less enthusiastic about the fur traders' love of entertainment, believing that it interrup

As Métis boys who grew up learning from their fur trader father in the vibrant fur trading posts of the Upper Great Lakes, Henry, Pierre Guillaume, and John Charles Sayer were destined to join the fur trade themselves. By 1811, Henry, the eldest Sayer brother, had joined the North West Company (NWC). Henry’s younger brother, John Charles, had also joined the NWC by that time and was working in the Lac La Pluie District by the mid 1810s. The youngest brother, Pierre Guillaume