Michipicoten was an important location for the Upper Great Lakes fur trade and among Métis families.
Michipicoten was an attractive location because of its strategic location as a halfway point between Fort William and Sault Ste. Marie. It was also a natural water route to Moose Factory and James Bay.
As a result, Michipicoten was a location where Métis family networks and economic interests intersected. Independent traders, including members of the well known Métis Cadotte and Nolin families, built trading posts around Michipicoten.
In September 1849, Indian Officer Thomas G. Anderson visited Michipicoten as part of preparations for the Robinson treaties. His description of the post directly referenced the Métis who lived there, stating, “Our men gave a ball to their half breed brethren and enjoyed themselves first rate.”
Even as the Lake Superior fur trade declined in the mid-1800s, Métis did not disappear from Michipicoten. Records from 1820 to 1850 document a Métis population at the post, including in positions of authority within the Hudson’s Bay Company.
As word of treaty negotiations in the Lake Superior and Huron regions spread, John Swanston, Chief Factor at Michipicoten—himself Métis—worried what a treaty might mean for Métis rights and claims. He expressed this in a letter to his HBC superiors in August 1850:
“At present I am not certain whether the Government will acknowledge the rights and claims of the half breeds, to a share of the payments to be made for the lands about to be ceded by the Indians of Lake Superior, but should hope they would, as many of them have much juster [sic] claims then [sic] the Indians, they having been born and brought up on the land.”
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