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- Ontario Métis Facts
- Apr 19
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 23
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Mattawa: “of the Métis Nation”
The Mattawa/Ottawa River Historic Métis Community was one of seven historic Métis communities in northern Ontario studied by the landmark MNC Expert Panel through the lens of the 2002 National Definition and contemporary Métis governance.
During its year-long study, the MNC Expert Panel reviewed over 50,000 pages of evidence, engaged with over 160 Métis Nation citizens, elders, youth, scholars, and leaders during more than 120 hours of meetings, and visited the Mattawa/Ottawa River Historic Métis Community to engage with and gather additional evidence from community members themselves.
The MNC Expert Panel’s 260-page Final Report represented the most comprehensive, transparent, ethical, and objective study ever conducted on historic Métis Nation communities in what is now Ontario and outlined fact-based historic and contemporary relationships between the historic Métis communities in Ontario and the larger Métis Nation.
The Expert Panel’s conclusions were clear, stating that the Mattawa/Ottawa River Historic Métis Community “meets the threshold and is a member of the Métis Nation” (pg. 158) as per the National Definition and contemporary Métis governance.
The Expert Panel also recognized that “the Mattawa region clearly shows familial ties from Mattawa to other Métis communities in Ontario and across the Homeland” (pg. 160) and that “this mobility amongst communities, and the knowledge mobility that accompanies it, is an important indicator of Métis identity, connection and belonging and that the Mattawa community is representative of this mobile kinship community network” (pg. 160-161).
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Abitibi Inland: “of the Métis Nation”
The Abitibi Inland Historic Métis Community was one of seven historic Métis Nation communities in northern Ontario studied by the landmark MNC Expert Panel through the lens of the 2002 National Definition and contemporary Métis governance.
During its year-long study, the MNC Expert Panel reviewed over 50,000 pages of evidence, engaged with over 160 Métis Nation citizens, elders, youth, scholars, and leaders during more than 120 hours of meetings, and visited the Abitibi Inland Historic Métis Community to engage with and gather additional evidence from community members themselves.
The MNC Expert Panel’s 260-page Final Report represented the most comprehensive, transparent, ethical, and objective study ever conducted on historic Métis Nation communities in what is now Ontario and outlined fact-based historic and contemporary relationships between the Abitibi Inland Historic Métis Community and the larger Métis Nation.
The Expert Panel’s conclusions were clear, stating that the Abitibi Inland Historic Métis Community “meets the threshold and is a member of the Métis Nation” (pg. 164) as per the National Definition and contemporary Métis governance.
Of the Abitibi Inland Historic Métis Community, the Expert Panel also recognized that “The historical record establishes a significant regional-based Métis community in this part of northern Ontario with sufficient evidence of outside ascription and considerable indirect evidence of self-ascription” (pg. 172), including that “all available Métis Nation Homeland maps produced by the MNC prior to 2018 have encompassed the AIMC’s coastal settlements at Moose Factory and Fort Albany” (pg. 172).
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“the nearest point… you first see the half-breed”
For nearly two centuries, the Georgian Bay Métis Community has been recognized as a distinct Métis collective with its own unique political identity and way of life, particularly around Penetanguishene.
In the 1840s, British army Lieutenant-Colonel, Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle, recognized the distinct Métis population in Georgian Bay, writing that, “Penetanguishene is a small village… peopled by French Canadians, Indians, and half-breeds”.
Bonnycastle also elaborated upon the Métis’ unique place within the broader cultural geography of what would later become Canada, observing of Penetanguishene that: “This is the nearest point of Western Canada at which the traveller from Europe can observe the unmixed Indian… Here also you first see the half-breed, the offspring of the white and red, who has all the bad qualities of both with very few of the good of either, except in rare instances.”
Bonnycastle’s account is one of many which draw clear distinctions between Euro-Canadian, First Nations, and Métis collectives as they existed at particular points in time, and help modern observers properly situate themselves within the appropriate historic context, especially around relative geographical terms like “east” and “west” where today’s understandings are distorted by generations of colonization and may differ significantly from those that were commonly held before European control took effect within territories where Métis communities exist.
In its Final Report, the Métis National Council’s Expert Panel specifically highlights Bonnycastle’s observations as an important marker for properly understanding the pre-colonization cultural geography of the distinct Métis people who emerged in what is now considered Western Canada, saying:
“In the mid nineteenth century, the Georgian Bay was considered a part of ‘Western Canada,’ as well as the location of the easternmost Halfbreed or Métis community. This is likewise a significant historical document, as it recognizes that halfbreed/mixedblood/mixed-ancestry processes occurred in parts of ‘eastern Canada,’ but it is not until the Great Lakes (and particularly Penetanguishene) that one encounters a distinct Métis or Halfbreed population or collectivity.”
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“the ‘Bois brulé’” of Lake Huron
Georgian Bay’s eastern shore, once regarded as “the nearest point of Western Canada… you first see the half-breed”—or Métis— has been home as a distinct and identifiable Métis community since the early 1800s.
In addition to being recorded in the writings of travellers, like Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle, Georgian Bay’s distinct Métis population was also recorded in official government records.
For example, in the 1847 Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, an Indian agent in southern Ontario, writing of several Anishinaabe First Nations, draws clear distinctions between First Nations, mixed ancestry individuals, and the distinct Métis people, of which he notes there are none present in the region under his superintendency, saying:
“Among the Indians under my superintendence I am not aware of the existence of any regular half-breeds, that is to say, of our persons combining French or English habits with those of the Indians. That there may be a mixture of the races I have no doubt…”
The Indian agent goes on to note that this is not the case to the north, in the Upper Great Lakes, remarking on the presence of a distinct Métis population, “on Lake Huron and other places where I have had the opportunity of meeting the ‘Bois brulé’ and full bred Indian, a marked difference is to be seen between the two.”
“Bois brulé” is among the many names applied to—and used by—the Métis to differentiate themselves from their First Nations relatives and settler populations from the Upper Great Lakes westward. For example, just as Bois brulé was used to describe the Métis in the Upper Great Lakes in the 1840s, in Pierre Falcon’s ballad, “Chanson de la Grenouillére”, commemorating the Métis’ victory in the 1816 Battle of Seven Oaks (i.e., the Victory at Frog Plain), Falcon refers to himself and his fellow Métis as the “Bois Brulé.”
While going by many names throughout their history, Métis communities like the Georgian Bay Métis Community continue to proudly assert their distinct Métis identity and way of life to this day.
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“markedly distinct and fiercely proud”
For nearly two centuries, the Georgian Bay Métis Community has proudly asserted its distinct Métis identity, collective political consciousness, and unique way of life grounded in the lands and waters of the Upper Great Lakes.
This Métis community’s pride and cohesiveness, particularly around Penetanguishene, have been defining aspects of their collective Métis identity, noted by outside observers throughout the almost two centuries since their 1828 relocation from Drummond Island.
In a July 1921 article called, “Strange Old Legends Surround Penetang”, for example, a Toronto Star writer noted that:
“Pinery Point is a wooded peninsula directly across the bay from Penetanguishene… Along its shores dwells a group of people half French and half Indian, isolated in location, distinct in habits and privileges, and fiercely resentful of intrusion on either. It is the origin of these picturesque metis or halfbreeds … living chiefly in low log houses of a century ago, they are almost all illiterate and speak a broken English patois which is all their own.”
More than a century later, the landmark Métis National Council Expert Panel observed and affirmed the Georgian Bay Métis Community’s enduring sense of Métis identity and pride, writing in their Final Report that:
“These communities, and the MNO citizens who comprise them, are markedly distinct and fiercely proud of their Halfbreed or Métis roots. This sets them apart from their First Nation relatives and European settlers from whom they may have descended. Finding the commonality of their families and histories so closely intertwined with the rest of the Métis Nation was profound.”
