In 1842, the British officially codified the means to exclude Métis from present-giving—the Crown’s longstanding pre-treaty practice used to maintain diplomatic relationships with Indigenous peoples in the Upper Great Lakes.
This new attempt at official policy reform followed the 1840 Penetanguishene Petition, in which twenty-two members of the Georgian Bay Métis Community in Penetanguishene collectively appealed for the re-establishment of equity and justice in the annual present-giving practice.
To achieve the Crown’s objective, Indian Agent Thomas G. Anderson created a new policy entitled, “The mode of excluding Half-Breeds from receiving Presents”.
This policy classified it a crime to include Métis in present-giving. It attempted to force Métis assimilation into First Nations communities by barring Métis from receiving presents, unless they lived in a First Nation community. It stated:
“No half-breed shall receive Presents who does not live in the Tribe, under the control of the Chief, to whose Tribe he belongs … and the presents being issued to small bands, as they are at Drummond Island and Penetanguishine [sic], I do not apprehend any difficulty in preventing the improper class of half-breeds from receiving presents at Manitoulin Island and Penetanguishine [sic].”
The “Mode of Excluding Half-Breeds” formalized the Crown’s attempts to legally undermine Métis communities’ distinct political existence in the Upper Great Lakes. In it, the Crown specifically targets the Georgian Bay Métis Community and, through the use of the term “band”, acknowledges them as a distinct Halfbreed (Métis) political collective, not simply mixed-race members of local Anishinaabe communities.
The “Mode of Excluding Half-Breeds” would have implications for Métis communities throughout the Métis Homeland as the British, and eventually Canada, expanded westward. As until modern times, instead of negotiating with Métis as collectives, the Crown would thereafter only address Métis communities and their rights on an individual basis, with the sole exception of the 1875 Halfbreed Adhesion to Treaty No. 3.