Sharing Seasonal Métis Knowledge

Across the Métis Homeland, Métis communities’ deep seasonal knowledge has enabled them to practice a distinct way of life and sustain themselves from the lands and waters of their traditional territories for generations.

However, many newcomers to their territories, such as Ontario settler families, didn’t possess the same knowledge and skills and often struggled to survive within their new homes. St. Joseph Island settler, Christy Ann Simons, was one such newcomer.

Speaking of her early days on the island and her family’s lack of place-based knowledge, Simons later recounted, “St. Joe was beautiful, regardless of difficulties, but then it was no garden.” 

Fortunately, despite the hardships they faced at the hands of encroaching settlers, St. Joseph Island’s Métis inhabitants generously shared their knowledge with Simons and her family:

“We children were so delighted with the trees. We had never seen evergreens before. We begged the half-breeds to tell us the names which we soon learned – Cedar, Spruce, Balsam, Hemlock, Tamarack, also Birch with its white bark was a never ending delight, ground hemlock, Balm O Gilead.” 

In addition to helping the Simons family learn the island’s native plants, their Métis neighbours also shared their knowledge of how to work with different species, such as cedar, so that the settler family could build a new life for themselves with the materials the island provided—just as the Métis had done for generations:

“Now we were secure in our home… The roof was cedar bark. The half-breeds had shown how to prepare cedar bark for roofing.”

Accounts like Simons’ not only speak to the deep place-based and seasonal knowledge held within Upper Great Lakes Métis communities but also the important values they carried—such as generosity and taking care of your neighbours—that had enabled them to prosper together for generations.

See Our Sources

• In the Beginning, Christy Ann Simons, 1951

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