Métis Music at Moose Factory

For Métis communities across the historic North-West, music has always been a vibrant, continuous thread woven through daily life, setting the tone for both family gatherings and large community celebrations. 

One such event took place on New Year’s Day in 1859 at Moose Factory. A festive celebration of music and dance took an unexpected turn when a fight broke out among the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Métis or “Halfbreed” and Norwegian employees. The story of the Moose Factory Fight Night was passed down as an oral history within the Métis community’s Moore and Faries families for generations, and was also recorded by the post’s Chief Factor.

Métis fiddler Patrick Faries later recalled: “I was playing the fiddle at the time, and my pal [George or James] Elson was the drummer. I went in with my fiddle in my hand, and broke it on the head of the first one I came on. Smashed it in a hundred pieces!”

This moment shows how closely music was tied to Métis life, central to celebrations and even breaking up a fight. Whether heard in joy or silenced by conflict, music has remained part of everyday Métis experience for generations.

See Our Sources

• Abitibi Inland Historic Métis Community Métis National Council Expert Panel

• The 1859 New Year's Day Fight: Race, Place, Marriage, Gender, and Status in Western James Bay

• Moose Factory Abstract of Servants’ Accounts, 1858-1859

• Moose Factory Post Journal, 1858-1859

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