Weekly Word Search: Feb 3 - Feb 7, 2025
- Ontario Métis Facts
- Feb 8
- 5 min read
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“Born and brought up on the land”
For generations, Métis across the Homeland have fought for their distinct rights and recognition as ‘Halfbreeds’. During treaty negotiations, many wrote to the Crown and Indian Agents requesting to be treated as a distinct group, separate from their First Nations neighbours.
On August 21, 1850, for example, Métis Hudson’s Bay Company employee John Swanston wrote from Michipicoten to HBC Governor, George Simpson, arguing for acknowledgement of the rights and claims of “Halfbreeds” in the upcoming Robinson-Superior Treaty negotiations.
Swanston contended that “Halfbreeds” should be eligible for a portion of the monetary compensation that would be paid for the lands to be surrendered in the treaty area. He pointed out that many of the “Halfbreeds” had been born and brought up in the region, unlike some of the First Nations that had recently come to reside there from the United States.
“At present I am not certain whether the Government will acknowledge the rights and claims of the half breeds, to a share of the payments to be made for the lands about to be ceded by the Indians of Lake Superior, but should hope they would, as many of them have much juster [sic] claims then [sic] the Indians, they having been born and brought up on the land.”
Métis across the Upper Great Lakes, including the Northern Lake Superior region, continue to celebrate their distinct Métis heritage today and advocate for the recognition of their inherent Métis rights.
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John Charles Sayer: Métis Freeman
After the merger of the North West Company (NWC) and Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in 1821, many Métis employees across the Homeland were faced with the decision to stay with the Company in its amalgamated form or become independent ‘freemen.’
John Charles Sayer, brother of Henry and Pierre Guillaume Sayer, was one such Métis HBC employee. John Charles had been working with the Company since about 1811. By the time of the merger, he was working as a clerk in the Lac La Pluie (Rainy Lake) District.
After refusing to take a significant salary reduction in the newly amalgamated Company, John Charles terminated his employment. However, he remained a fixture of the Rainy Lake District fur trade for many years as a “freeman” hunter and trapper.
In the 1825-26 post journal, John Dugald Cameron, the HBC’s Chief Factor at Rainy Lake, wrote a colourful description of the Métis freeman Sayer, undoubtedly tainted by Sayer’s decision to leave the Company’s direct employ:
“. . .Sayer the Free Man got afraid of the high water and has abandoned his usual Haunt. He arrived here last Night. He says [he] intends going to the Plains. I have advised him to go to red River and become a Settler. He is however a Lazy drunken Scamp and prefers leading a Vagabond Life from one turn to an other than to settle when in a Place when he would be obliged to work.”
Despite Cameron's recommendation to head west, as his brothers Pierre Guillaume and Henry had, John Charles Sayer returned to his family’s original home in the Upper Great Lakes. By the mid-1830s, Sayer was residing at Grand Portage with his wife and children and trading at Fort William.
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The High Cost of Métis “Jobbers”
After the North West Company (NWC) and Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) merged in 1821, many longtime Métis employees chose to branch out on their own, working independently as “freemen.”
As astute businesspeople, these Métis freemen recognized the continued demand for their labour as hired “jobbers” and could demand competitive wages for their work.
This was certainly the case in the Upper Great Lakes region, where demand for Métis freemen jobbers, like Henry Sayer and Michel Labatte, for transport and other vital tasks outstripped supply, causing labour costs to increase to the point that post manager William Nourse devoted most of his 1835 report on the St. Mary’s District to the subject, saying in part:
“With regard to the expenses incurred for occasional day labourers I am persuaded a saving might be easily effected granting that the Freemen would be dispensed with for the transport.”
As the ‘halfbreed freemen’ gained greater autonomy, government authorities took increasingly drastic measures to control and suppress their community, ultimately resulting in the exclusion of Métis from the Robinson-Huron Treaty and subsequent displacement from their Métis River Lots on the St. Mary’s River.
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Anti-Métis Prejudice in Penetanguishene
After the imposition of the international border following the War of 1812, the Métis community living on Drummond Island, just east of Sault Ste. Marie, was relocated to Penetanguishene.
While the Métis community rebuilt their lives together in their new home, preserving and celebrating their Métis traditions, they faced anti-Métis prejudice from their new neighbours, both at the nearby naval base and from the growing settler population that began arriving in the area in the 1840s. This anti-Métis prejudice often centered on language and other cultural differences.
As Métis community member, Michael Labatte later recalled:
“Nothing but French and Indian was spoken at Drummond Island. I learned English at Penetanguishene, where I first heard it spoken.”
At the time of the Métis relocation, Penetanguishene was the site of a British naval base, with a primarily anglophone population. While some accepted their new Métis neighbours, others didn’t hide their prejudices. One anglophone, for example, wrote about the Métis newcomers in A Letter From Penetanguishene in 1855:
“The half breeds—that is half french and half indian… Very seldom I hear the English language except two men on my own staff. Even the English speak french in common. I never was in such a place in my life, and if I live to get to Barrie again, hope I never shall be in such a place again.”
Despite the prejudices and other hardships they faced after their relocation, the Métis community at Penetanguishene remained resilient, continuing their distinct customs and way of life to this day.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
Métis Gidley Boat Builders
For generations, Métis in the Upper Great Lakes have used their deep connection to and knowledge of the waters to earn a living for their families, creating prosperity through water-based professions like captaining, guiding, and commercial fishing.
Boat building became another vital livelihood for many Métis families around Georgian Bay as government regulation, settler tourism, and broader economic changes caused traditional Métis economies to decline in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
One boat holds a special place in the hearts of many in the Georgian Bay Métis Community: the Gidley Boat.
Gidley boats were made by the Gidley Boat Company, later renamed the Georgian Bay Boat & Canoe Company, which once called Penetanguishene home. The company produced an impressive line of distinctive canoes, rowboats, sailboats, private and commercial steamboats, and large houseboats, before being acquired by Grew and Bonnie Boat Co. in 1939.
Throughout that history, many Georgian Bay Métis families, including members of the Beausoleil, Beaudoin, Dusome, Desjardin, and Leduc families, worked for the Gidley Boat Company, proudly earning a livelihood for their families.
The Gidley Boat remains a treasured part of Penetanguishene’s history, remembered and celebrated by many members of the Métis community, including Métis members of the Georgian Bay Heritage League, who proudly preserve and pass along their community’s boat-building tradition to the new generations.
