Métis Marriages: The Labattes

Louis George Labatte is often remembered for his advocacy and resilience: serving at the capture of Mackinaw during the War of 1812; enduring the relocation from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene after the British surrender of the island; signing the 1840 Penetanguishene Halfbreed Petition; and building the historic Labatte House at Thunder Beach, which still stands today as a testament to Upper Great Lakes Métis history in Georgian Bay.

Yet his legacy extends beyond these milestones. He should also be remembered for raising a proud Métis family and strengthening the vibrant kinship networks of the Upper Great Lakes Métis community.

Louis George’s first wife was Louisa Cadotte. Together they had two children, Michael and Louise. In 1820, prior to the family’s relocation from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene, Louis George also married another Métis woman, Julia Grouette. With Julia, he had four known children between 1824 and 1834: Antoine, Catherine, Ambroise, and Dominique. The Labatte children were all born in locations between Sault Ste. Marie and Georgian Bay.

Between 1827-1828, the Métis families who call Drummond Island home relocated to Penetanguishene, with Louis George, Louisa, Julia, and all their children among them. 

In Penetanguishene and across Georgian Bay, the Labatte children continued their father’s legacy. They contributed to their community not only through highly visible acts, such as helping to build Ste. Anne’s Church in Penetanguishene and signing the 1850 Sault Ste. Marie Halfbreed Petition, but also through the quieter, often overlooked work of sustaining everyday community life.

Marriage played a central role in this work. Through their own unions, and by witnessing the marriages of fellow Métis community members, Louis George’s children reinforced kinship ties and helped weave their community more closely together.

His daughter Louise married Pierre Blette, a fellow member of the Métis community. His son Michael married Archange Berger, also Métis, in 1845. In 1847, Michael witnessed the marriage of Michel Toussaint Sayer and Marguerite Biron, both members of the Métis community.

A generation later, Louis George Labatte’s grandchildren continued this pattern of endogamy and kinship-building through their own marriages and acts of witnessing, with at least five marrying within their Métis community.

Louis George Labatte’s legacy is not found only in relocations, petitions, or public accomplishments. It lives in the kinship networks he helped sustain. Through endogamous marriages and the everyday act of witnessing one another’s unions, the Labatte family strengthened Métis bonds of mutual responsibility across generations, ensuring that Métis life remained rooted, connected, and resilient.

See Our Sources

• Labatte VMFL

• Delaronde VMFL

• Sayer VMFL

• 1840 Métis Petition from Penetanguishene

• 1850 Métis Petition from Sault Ste. Marie

• The Migration of Voyageurs from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene

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