For generations, Métis have been expert all-season travellers of the lands and waters of their Homelands. As Christy Ann Simons recounted in her memoirs of growing up on St. Joseph Island, near Sault Ste. Marie, during the late 1800s, the local Métis community’s craftsmanship and place-based knowledge enabled them to travel freely all year long: “The sailboat was their method of traveling in summer, dog team and snowshoes in winter (homemade sleds and shoes).” For many, incl

The Hudson’s Bay Company’s post at Rat Portage was the northernmost outpost at Lake of the Woods, near present-day Kenora. For generations, it served as the bridge between the traders of the Red River and the Upper Great Lakes. George L. Huyshe, a solider in Colonel Garnet Wolseley’s 1870 expeditionary force to the Red River, described the post at Rat Portage as: “a small affair, three log houses roofed with bark and enclosed by a high wooden palisading. The Company maintain

Check out our Special Seasonal Colouring Page: Métis Mail Carriers The Upper Great Lakes is known for its snowy winters with high winds, once making it hard for families to stay connected during winter. They often relied upon mail carriers, many of which were Métis, to make long, treacherous winter journeys between communities to stay up to date on events of the day. Dogsleds and snowshoes were standard methods of travel for Métis mail carriers during the winter months. For e

Throughout history, travelling between Métis communities has been an important part of maintaining economic, political, cultural, and kinship connections. While canoes were a common means of transportation throughout the lakes and river systems of the Métis Homeland, they became increasingly dangerous in winter. When lakes began to freeze, canoe routes became difficult or impossible to navigate, and cold temperatures made birch bark canoes brittle. This meant that many Métis