“I respectfully solicit the most favorable consideration”

On October 21, 1850, Treaty Commissioner William B. Robinson formally submitted a petition to the Governor General, Lord Elgin, on behalf of the Métis of Sault Ste. Marie. Alongside the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Petition, Commissioner Robinson provided a handwritten cover letter advocating for its just implementation, stating:

“I will thank you to lay the accompanying paper before His Excellency the Governor General. They are those to which I alluded in conversation with His Excy. this morning, and for which I respectfully solicit the most favorable consideration of the Government.”

While Treaty Commissioner Robinson had previously informed the Métis during the Robinson-Huron Treaty negotiations that he did not have the authority to protect their Métis River Lots within the treaty, his October 21, 1850 advocacy to the Governor General for the recognition of customary Métis land tenures in Sault Ste. Marie reflected his “little doubt that the Government would do them justice.”

Despite Treaty Commissioner Robinson’s efforts to see the 1850 Sault Ste. Marie Métis Petition receive the “most favourable consideration of the Government” and 175 years of continuous advocacy by the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community, the 1850 Sault Ste. Marie Métis Petition’s calls for justice and recognition remain unaddressed and unfulfilled.

See Our Sources

• 1850 Sault Ste. Marie Métis Petition

• Sault Ste. Marie Métis Historical Report

• Métis River Lots in Sault Ste. Marie

• Excerpts from Robinson’s Report to Colonel Bruce

• Upper Great Lakes Submission to the MNC Expert Panel

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