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

Louis Riel’s execution by Canada on November 16, 1885, cast a long shadow over Métis communities throughout the Métis Homeland, including Métis communities in the Upper Great Lakes and northern Ontario. Since the Red River Resistance of 1869/70, southern Ontario had been an epicentre for anti-Métis racism. Like Prime Minister John A. Macdonald’s federal government, the Ontario provincial government—led by Premier Edward Blake—was dominated by English-speaking Protestants that

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