Marie Anne Cadotte’s Political Legacy
- Ontario Métis Facts
- Oct 17
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 24
Marie Anne Cadotte was born in 1789 at La Pointe on Lake Superior in the Upper Great Lakes to fur trader Michel Cadotte le Petite and his Ojibwe wife Charlotte Okapeguijigokoue.
Growing up enmeshed in the thriving Upper Great Lakes fur trade, Marie Anne regularly interacted with travelers and traders from locations throughout the historic North-West on both sides of what is now the Canadian-American border, including her future husband, fur-trader Francois Xavier Biron.
Marie Anne and Francois soon started a family together. Between 1812 and 1821, the couple welcomed three of their eventual nine children into the world: Francois Xavier Jr., Therese, and Alexis Biron.
By 1821 Marie Anne and her family had moved to Sault Ste. Marie where their fourth child, Joachim Biron, was born in that year. The next year, in 1822, Marie Anne and Francois Xavier’s marriage was formally recorded by a magistrate, and eventually consecrated within the Catholic Church in 1827. Over the next several years, the Birons welcomed five more children into their growing Métis family.
Around 1840, Marie Anne applied for payment for herself and six children under Article 3 of the 1837 St. Peter’s Treaty between the United States government and the Anishinaabe of present-day Minnesota and Wisconsin. Article 3 of this treaty provided a one-time lump sum payment for the Métis or “half-breed” relations of the Anishinaabe who signed the treaty, while the Anishinaabe themselves were able to receive annual payments, benefits, and provisions—recognition that, while they related to each other, the Métis and Anishinaabe were seen as and understood themselves to be separate parties.
Marie Anne applied for payment for herself and her six children as “half-breeds” and noted her family’s current place of residence at St. Mary. Though she applied for herself using her married Biron name, she applied for her children under her original Cadotte.
A decade later, several of Marie Anne’s children—including Alexis, Joachim, Joseph, and Charles Biron—would once again proudly assert their distinct “Half-Breed” identity by signing the 1850 Sault Ste. Marie Métis Petition, seeking assurances for the protection of their lands along the northern side of the St. Marys River following the signing of the Robinson-Huron Treaty.
True to her earlier life, when Marie Anne Biron (nee Cadotte) passed away in 1878 at the age of 92, she was once again listed as a “half breed” on the Michigan Return of Deaths. Her political legacy continues to live on as the 1850 Sault Ste. Marie Métis Petition marks its 175th anniversary.
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