By 1859, the Abitibi Inland Métis Community both exhibited and asserted a distinct collective identity apart from First Nations, settlers, and others within the ranks of the Hudson’s Bay Company that employed many of the community’s members.
This distinct collective Métis identity was on full display during a fight that broke out in Moose Factory between “the Half breeds” and Norwegian labourers at the Hudson’s Bay Company post’s annual New Year’s Day dance, and later recorded.
The fight caused such mayhem that the Chief Factor at Moose Factory was still reporting on its aftermath on January 4th:
“Very little work was done today at the Factory, I was occupied nearly the whole day in adjusting the difficulties between the Norwegians and Half Breeds.”
Patrick Faries, one of the participants, later recalled “we were about ten Breeds in that fight.”
After the incident, many Norwegians ended their contracts and returned home, refusing to work at Moose Factory any longer. Eventually, Gunder Udgarden, a cook and the only Norwegian left at Moose Factory after the 1859 New Years Day dance fight with the Métis, married into the Abitibi Inland Métis Community, becoming the husband of Harriet Turner in 1864.
The story of the 1859 Moose Factory Fight Night has also been passed down as an oral history within the Moore and Faries families. The legend lives on to this day.
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