Métis communities emerged in west-central North America from the initial marriages of European fur traders and First Nations women beginning in the late 1700s. Several generations of continuous intermarriage and community-building between the children of these unions gave rise to a new and unique culture—Métis culture—distinct from those of their European and First Nations forebears.
The emergence of these distinct communities necessitated the use of new language to identify and describe them. While the term “Métis” is most commonly used today to recognize those distinct communities from Ontario westward and has been enshrined in Canada’s Constitution since 1982, other terms such as “Halfbreed” or variations of it have also been used historically by both outsiders and the Métis communities themselves.
Numerous instances exist from present-day Ontario westward of Métis communities asserting themselves and advocating, as “Halfbreeds”, for their distinct rights and way of life.
In 1878, for example, Métis bison hunters from the Cypress Hills—identifying and distinguishing themselves from First Nations, as “Half-Breeds”—petitioned the Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories for reserve lands and hunting rights equal to those of First Nations, stating:
“The humble request of the undersigned, all Half-Breeds, living in the vicinity of the Cypress Mountains, exposes very respectfully: … the Half-Breeds are prevented from hunting from the 14th day of November… that the Indians [sic.] are only restrained from the 15th day of February… For these reasons your petitioners ever humbly pray your council… amend the clause referred to above, granting them the same rights and privileges that are allowed the Indians [sic.]… [and] obtain for the undersigned a section of land for a special reserve.”
Métis self-identification as “Half-Breeds” and advocacy for reserve lands in the Cypress Hills mirrors that of the Northwestern Ontario Métis Community who, in 1875, signed the “Adhesion by Halfbreeds of Rainy River and Lake” to Treaty 3. Similar to the Cypress Hills Métis bison hunters, the “Halfbreeds of Rainy River and Lake” advocated as a distinct collective for two new “reserves of land” of their own—rather than join existing First Nations bands or integrate into existing reserve lands—as well as “payments, annuities and presents, in manner similar to that set forth in the several respects for the Indians [sic.]”.
This pattern of Métis community self-identification and collective advocacy as “Halfbreeds” is repeated across the Métis Homeland, throughout the historical record, from present-day Ontario westward, including: the 1840 Petition of the “Half breeds” residing at the Town of Penetanguishene; 1850 petition from the “half-breeds” of Sault Ste. Marie; 1876 petition of “Half Breeds” to join Treaty 4; 1880 petition from “Half-breeds of the Lakes Qu’Appelle”; and many more!
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