The Métis Nolin family, originally from the Upper Great Lakes, have left a legacy across the Métis Homeland. This includes the Nolin sisters, Marguerite and Angelique.
Marguerite and Angelique Nolin were the children of trader Jean Baptiste Nolin and his Métis wife, Marie Angelique Couvret. Raised on Michilimackinac, the birthplace of many Métis families in the region, the Nolins moved to Sault Ste. Marie in the late 1780s and quickly set down roots along the St. Mary’s River thanks to their mother’s family connections.
After their brothers, Louis and Augustin, moved to the Red River in 1819, many of the remaining Nolin family members, including Marguerite and Angelique, moved westward—first to Pembina, and then north to Red River. There, the Nolins quickly became notable figures in the growing Métis community in Red River.
Marguerite and Angelique soon gained prominence in Red River, for example, by establishing the first girls’ school on the prairies in 1829. There, Marguerite and Angelique Nolin educated many young Métis women, including a young Josephte Siveright, the future mother of Métis leader and martyr Elzear Goulet.
The Nolin sisters’ involvement in shaping the minds of young Métis at Red River deepened their family’s roots throughout the Métis Homeland and contributed to their lasting legacy within the Métis Nation. The impact the Nolin sisters left on their Métis communities can still be felt in the generations of Métis women who came after.
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