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

A common Métis way of life developed across west central North America, from the Upper Great Lakes westward, that endured over the span of centuries and connected Métis communities across vast distances through kinship, economic, and cultural ties. One example is the many petitions written by Métis communities across the Homeland, sent as proud assertions of their Métis identity and rights, and as collective responses to their pressing political issues. Not only is the ac

The introduction of Ontario’s Fisheries Act made it difficult for Métis in Georgian Bay and across the Upper Great Lakes to practice their way of life. In response, the Métis in Georgian Bay pushed back. Métis fisherman, William Dusome, was particularly active in leading Métis resistance to Ontario’s Fisheries Act in Georgian Bay. In 1898, for example, the Department of Marine and Fisheries recorded that Métis fisherman William Dusome was persistent in refusing to adhere to f

For almost two centuries, the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community utilized their own Métis governance, decision-making, and land tenure systems to manage their internal affairs. By the nineteenth century, this distinct Métis community—with its unique way of life—was recognizable and respected by other peoples in the region, namely the Anishinaabek. In 1830, for example, when the British began to exclude the Métis from receiving ‘Indian Presents’, Anishinaabek leader, Chief Shing