The Turner and Roussain families each carry a storied legacy of leadership and defending the Métis Nation’s rights and sovereignty, while also maintaining deep ties throughout the Métis Homeland to this day.
Members of the Turner family, originally from Moose Factory in present day northern Ontario, have defended their Métis identity and rights for generations, petitioning for and receiving Métis scrip throughout the Metis Homeland.
The Roussains, from the historic Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie, have been prominent advocates and organizers throughout Métis history, from the Upper Great Lakes to the Red River.
While numerous Turners and Roussains eventually found their way to other Métis communities on the prairies, through employment and family ties, many members of both Métis families continued to nourish the roots that their ancestors had previously put down in their original Métis communities.
Elizabeth Turner and Charles Roussain, for example, married and established a life together in the Roussain’s home community of Sault Ste. Marie.
Like many Métis families in the Upper Great Lakes, fishing was central to the livelihood and prosperity of the Roussain-Turners. Elizabeth and Charles’ Roussain-Turner family later settled at Roussainville, a nearby fishing village named after Charles’ family, to the south of the little Métis village that would eventually grow at Agawa Bay in the early 1900s.
Elizabeth’s niece, Josephine Undgarden, joined her in Roussainville shortly after, after moving southwest from Moose Factory, further deepening their family’s ties between the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community and Moose Factory.
At Roussainville, several generations of the Métis Roussains operated the fishing station at Mamainse Harbour, near Coppermine Point, where family members also worked as lighthouse keepers.
The Roussain-Turner family’s enduring roots, legacy, and kinship networks have continued to grow and extend throughout the Métis Nation Homeland with each generation, ever since.