George Atkinson was born at Moose Factory in February 1839 to Samuel Atkinson and Sara Mary Atkinson (nee Moore), whose Métis family had rich connections throughout the Métis Homeland from Moose Factory to Red River. When he was just 15 years old, George joined the Hudson’s Bay Company, following in his father’s footsteps and those of his Métis grandfather, George Moore Jr., who had originally joined the HBC in 1812 and served within the Company for several decades. In his fi

The Atkinson-Moore family, originally from Moose Factory, has grown and maintained deep connections throughout the Métis Homeland for generations. After moving from Moose Factory to Red River in 1834, for example, several members of the Moore family—including Métis siblings Sarah Mary, Anne, and Philip, their mother Emma, and their Métis aunt Elizabeth Moore—were all baptized on the same day. While some members of the Moore family, including the recently baptized siblings and

While some members of the Nolin family moved further west to Red River in the last years of the 1810s, others remained in Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Great Lakes where they continued to play important roles in their Métis community for generations to come. Adolphus and Marie Madeline Nolin, for example, remained in Sault Ste. Marie and married into the Sayer and Corbiere families—both prominent Métis families in the area. They eventually settled onto the same River Lots t

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

Michipicoten was an important location for the Upper Great Lakes fur trade and among Métis families. Michipicoten was an attractive location because of its strategic location as a halfway point between Fort William and Sault Ste. Marie. It was also a natural water route to Moose Factory and James Bay. As a result, Michipicoten was a location where Métis family networks and economic interests intersected. Independent traders, including members of the well known Métis C