The Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s distinctive identity and enduring presence has been recognized in numerous official records in both historical and contemporary times.
This included recognition within the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples—commonly referred to as RCAP—that was established in 1991 to examine Canada’s ongoing relationships with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples.
The RCAP final report, delivered in 1996, acknowledged numerous documented historic Métis communities throughout the Métis Nation Homeland: “Better-known settlements were at Sault Ste. Marie in present-day Ontario, at Red River and White Horse Plains in present-day Manitoba, at Pembina in present-day North Dakota, at Batoche in present-day Saskatchewan, and at St. Albert in present-day Alberta.”
The RCAP final report also recognized the existence of a historic Abitibi Inland Métis Community, stating:
“In 1905, when Treaty 9 was being negotiated, the government's treaty commissioners encountered a major Métis presence in the Moose Factory area.”
Due to government policies excluding Métis communities as a distinct party to treaty negotiations, however, RCAP acknowledged that: “By that time there was no longer any question of bargaining with the Métis as a group. Those who had been assimilated to the Indian way of life were generally given treaty status, but those who asserted Métis identity were offered scrip under the Dominion Lands Act.”
The promise of Métis scrip rarely materialized for members of the Abitibi Inland Métis Community, however, as “in practice… the government of Canada made little effort to apply the Dominion Lands Act east of Manitoba,” despite there being “no legal reason why the government limited the distribution of Métis scrip to what are now the three prairie provinces.”
Despite these exclusionary and coercive government tactics, the Abitibi Inland Métis Community has maintained its distinctive identity. It has continued to assert its collective Métis rights and fight for equality with their Métis relatives in more western parts of the Métis Nation Homeland.