“Mister Wolf comes trailing”

Métis political organization extended beyond formal settings like councils or petitions; it was also embedded in the shared responsibilities, customs, and laws that governed daily life, including how communities practiced land-based harvesting.

Across the Métis Homeland, Métis people followed land stewardship practices that helped protect the resources their families depended on. In some places, these rules were complex and formally documented, such as the Laws of the Buffalo Hunt on the prairies. In other communities, harvesting laws and customs were carried out more informally, grounded in collective decision-making and shared responsibility.

A 1934 Sault Star article captured one example from the Abitibi Inland Métis Community. In the article, Willie Moore, a Métis elder and experienced hunter in Moose Factory, recalled how he and other men came together when a wolf began stealing animals from their traps. Because trapping helped feed and sustain their families, the wolf threatened both their traplines and the community’s ability to harvest responsibly and support itself.

Moore remembered that the men worked together to resolve the problem. “I hid behind a rock and the others went on,” he recalled, “and sure enough Mister Wolf comes trailing them. I got a shot at him, and that was the end.” Through cooperation, experience, and shared responsibility, balance was restored. The men maintained their trapping activities, and the community's harvesting practices persisted, guided by the long-established customs of Métis life on the land.

See Our Sources

• “Wolves Trail Humans but Won’t Attack, Trappers of Moosonee District Say”

• Bison Hunting, Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada

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