The Roussain Family’s Fishing Traditions

Like many Métis families in the Upper Great Lakes and across the Homeland, fishing has been central to the livelihood and traditions of the Roussain family for generations.

An 1861 official report to Parliament, for example, noted Charles Roussain’s commercial fishing lease north of Sault Ste. Marie: “Charles Roussain, half-breed, trader, hunter and fishery lessee; has a small clearance. 3rd. Agiwana [sic].”

A census from that same year, enumerating Charles Roussain as an “H.B.” or Half-Breed, also included a handwritten note highlighting the Roussain family’s fishing activities at their Roussainville fishing station on Mamainse Harbour, near Coppermine Point: 

“[Charles Roussain] head of this family living at the Mamainse and that the man catched a quantity of fish every year which he sold on the American side.”

For several generations, the Roussains operated the fishing station at Roussainville, where they also served as lighthouse keepers. 

By about 1920, however, the Roussains had moved north and permanently settled at Agawa Bay alongside members of the Métis Miron, Boissonneau, and Davieaux families. For more than 60 years, these four Métis families—and their many relatives who came and went with the seasons—fished, hunted, gardened, harvested maple sugar, cut wood, and guided tourists. 

In 1967, however, government officials arrived in float planes and told the Agawa Bay families they had to leave in order to facilitate the establishment of Lake Superior Provincial Park—ultimately burning the Métis families’ homes to the ground. 

While the forcible removal of Agawa Bay’s Métis families forever altered their traditional fishing economy and deep multi-generational connections to the nearby lands and waters, they have resiliently endured and continued to resist the government’s attempted erasure of their village ever since by telling their stories and ensuring that Agawa Bay’s history and the beautiful Métis way of life they shared there is never forgotten.

See Our Sources

• Upper Great Lakes Submission to the MNC Expert Panel

• Charles Roussain’s 1861 Census Record

• Gibbard, William. "Report of Inspection of Mining Locations on Lakes Huron and Superior." In Sessional Papers, Fourth Session of the Sixth Parliament of the Province of Canada, Vol. 3 (1861), 15-58-15-59.

• Roussain-Turner Family Vignette

• Dolores Pinder Interview

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