The Abitibi Inland Métis Community has long recognized and asserted itself as a distinct Métis collectivity with deep family and kinship connections throughout the broader Métis Nation Homeland.
This collective consciousness, situated within an understanding of a broader Métis Nationhood, is exemplified within the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s 1893 and 1905 petitions for Métis scrip.
The Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s 1905 petition read, in part: “We understand that scrip has been granted to the half breeds of the North West Territory.”
This echoed and built upon the community’s 1893 petition, which called on the Government of Ontario to, “consider compensation for the extinction of the half-breed title to the soil”.
While the Government of Ontario did not formally recognize the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s distinct Métis rights under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 until 2017, the Métis Nation—as represented by the Métis National Council—had already accepted the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s inclusion within the historic Métis Nation for decades.
Numerous maps of the Métis Nation Homeland produced by the Métis National Council over a 25-year span include the Abitibi Inland Métis Community on the western shores of James Bay. Many of these Métis Nation Homeland maps were developed for formal presentations and submissions by the Métis National Council.
This includes the Métis National Council’s Charlottetown Accord Backgrounder, which was produced in 1992, prior to the Métis Nation of Ontario’s formal entry into the Métis National Council in 1994.
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