Protecting Métis Families’ Fishing Traditions
- Ontario Métis Facts
- Jun 16
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 18
On June 20, 1898, lightkeeper William Baxter wrote to the Department of Marine and Fisheries from Gin Rock on Georgian Bay, near Penetanguishene, notifying authorities about a growing Métis fishing camp that refused to abide by recently imposed regulations in Ontario’s Fisheries Act:
“It was reported to me several times last summer that a half breed named William Dusome was using a seine for catching fish off this island and although I kept a lokout [sic] for him I was never able to see him using the seine but he was there much of the time. Now this summer this man has built a shanty on the island and along with three others has taken up his residence there.”
The Dusomes were one of countless Métis families across the Homeland who turned to commercial fishing both during and after the height of the historic fur trade, making it a substantial part of their livelihood and essential component of the shared Métis way of life. For many Métis families, commercial fishing was an intergenerational tradition and profession.
In some cases, like that of William Dusome’s Gin Islands fish camp, it was the eventual imposition and attempted regulation of Métis commercial fishing and other traditional economic practices by colonial governments that would lead to acts of individual and collective Métis resistance that have since become a defining source of Métis collective pride and shared identity that continue to connect and inspire Métis people to this day.
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