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- Ontario Métis Facts
- Apr 5
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Updated: Apr 23
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The Métis Boat Steerers of the Abitibi
Flowing from their relationship to the lands and waters, the Métis in the Abitibi Inland and western James Bay regions had unique skills as interpreters, guides, and hunters.
While racist Hudson’s Bay Company policies generally restricted Métis to occupations within the “servant” class, the Métis of Abitibi Inland quickly took on specialized roles at the fur trade posts, including boat steerers.
In 1804, Albany postmaster John Hodgson described a group of Métis boat steerers who had protested about their inequitable wages, writing: “But the greatest trouble I have experienced this year is from the half Breed or Creoles, who complain their Wages are much less than others, and as they are all Boat Steerers they think they have a right to better wages than they have.”
Hodgson continued: “Mr. Sanders has 3 Stout Sons who all steer Boats, besides there is Hugh Linklater, and John Kipling, all Stout Men. They act as Interpreters & are in every respect most useful People, for they hunt equally as well as the Natives and it is by their Endeavours frequently in hunting, the several Posts fare much better than they otherwise would do without them.”
Hodgson’s language demonstrates that, by the early 1800s, Métis in the Abitibi Inland region had developed a distinct identity and way of life, and were both seen and acted distinctly from First Nations.
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Métis Petition for Scrip in Fort Albany
Many members of the Abitibi Inland Métis Community formally petitioned for Métis scrip, similar to what had been issued to other Métis communities farther west.
Thomas Vincent’s family, for example, was among those from Fort Albany who submitted a Métis scrip claim. Vincent initially applied for Métis scrip for himself and his children in November 1885.
Lacking success in their initial attempts, Vincent “and others” of “Moose Factory, James Bay, Northwest Territories” continued asserting their claims by petitioning the government “to consider favourably the claims of the Half-breeds of that Country for compensation in lieu of lands”, in 1893.
Vincent’s petition was read before the House of Commons in Ottawa on April 1, 1893, having been submitted by Saskatchewan MP, D. H. MacDowall.
Vincent wrote to MacDowall the following year, reiterating the petitioners’ willingness to accept “compensation for the extinction of the half-breed title to the soil”. This conclusion had been reached “unanimously” after “due consideration”, demonstrating the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s enduring cohesiveness, internal decision-making processes, and knowledge of their Métis rights.
By 1896, the government had received eight other scrip applications from Fort Albany, prompting government officials in the Ministry of the Interior to internally discuss the matter later that year.
Thomas Vincent would continue to correspond with government officials about his family’s scrip application through 1902, after which the family’s claim was disallowed on the grounds that they were “Ontario halfbreeds” which excluded them from the government’s scrip policy.
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Building Practices of the Abitibi Inland Métis
The Abitibi Inland Métis Community was known for its distinctive building practices that drew upon both First Nation and European materials and techniques. These distinctive Métis building practices have been noted throughout the historical record.
Unlike their First Nations neighbours, who typically resided in tents or wigwams made of natural materials, members of the Abitibi Inland Métis Community were regularly recorded as living in detached wooden houses.
Métis homes, constructed from cedar bark and logs, reflected a coming together of traditional local materials with contemporary woodworking skills that many Métis developed while working for the Hudson’s Bay Company. Many members of the Abitibi Inland Métis Community also cultivated gardens around their homes.
In 1845, for instance, surveyor William E. Logan noted the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s distinctive building practices and way of life: “There is a small quantity of cultivated land about the house...a few wooden houses in the vicinity...all inhabited by halfbreeds.”
Recognition of the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s distinctive building practices persisted into the 1900s.
In 1900, for example, surveyors for Ontario’s Department of Crown Lands noted that the Métis “usually have huts or log-houses and show more thrift...with a little garden of potatoes, onions, etc.”
While also noting similarities in Métis and First Nations' ways of life, such as winter fur trapping, the surveyors noted Métis building techniques as a clear point of distinction between Métis and First Nations, who, “live in tents the most of the year, a few of them build teepee or wigwams in the winter, but most of them live in tents even in the winter.”
Distinctive building and homesteading techniques are just one example of a unique place-based Métis cultural identity and way of life that set the Abitibi Inland Métis Community apart from their European and First Nations neighbours.
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1905 Moose Factory Métis Petition
After being excluded from Treaty 9, a group of Métis at Moose Factory petitioned that they “have been born & brought up in the country... ” and should therefore receive, “that scrip has been granted to the Halfbreeds of the North West Territory,” with whom they felt a shared history and circumstance.
The 1905 Moose Factory Métis scrip petitioners included Andrew Morrison, brothers George and William McLeod, William Moore, and William Archibald. Describing themselves as “Halfbreeds,” the petitioners represented a larger group, including “various absentees at Charlton and on H.B.C.vessels.”
Looking at their connections to each other, and to other families in the Abitibi Inland and western James Bay regions provides insights into the larger and deeply interconnected kinscapes of this Métis community.
Although the Ontario Government recognized the 1905 Moose Factory Métis petitioners' claims on paper, there is no evidence that their requests for scrip were ever met. Despite this, petitioners like William Moore and William McLeod continued to live and work in Moose Factory until their old age, leaving behind a proud legacy for future generations.
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Métis Nation Recognizes Abitibi Inland Community
The Abitibi Inland Métis Community has long recognized and asserted itself as a distinct Métis collectivity with deep family and kinship connections throughout the broader Métis Nation Homeland.
This collective consciousness, situated within an understanding of a broader Métis Nationhood, is exemplified within the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s 1893 and 1905 petitions for Métis scrip.
The Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s 1905 petition read, in part: “We understand that scrip has been granted to the half breeds of the North West Territory.”
This echoed and built upon the community’s 1893 petition, which called on the Government of Ontario to, “consider compensation for the extinction of the half-breed title to the soil”.
While the Government of Ontario did not formally recognize the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s distinct Métis rights under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 until 2017, the Métis Nation—as represented by the Métis National Council—had already accepted the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s inclusion within the historic Métis Nation for decades.
Numerous maps of the Métis Nation Homeland produced by the Métis National Council over a 25-year span include the Abitibi Inland Métis Community on the western shores of James Bay. Many of these Métis Nation Homeland maps were developed for formal presentations and submissions by the Métis National Council.
This includes the Métis National Council’s Charlottetown Accord Backgrounder, which was produced in 1992, prior to the Métis Nation of Ontario’s formal entry into the Métis National Council in 1994.
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“an integral part of the Métis Nation”
In 2021, as an act of Métis Nation self-determination, the Métis Governments that then made up the Métis National Council (MNC)—the Métis Nation of Ontario; the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan; the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation of Alberta, and the Métis Nation British Columbia—established an independent Expert Panel to conduct a comprehensive study of historic Métis Nation communities in Ontario through the lens of the 2002 National Definition and contemporary Métis governance.
The Expert Panel was made up of trusted Métis experts—one appointed by each Métis government—with proven knowledge of Métis history, governance, and law.
During the course of its study, the Expert Panel reviewed over 50,000 pages of evidence, engaged with over 160 Métis Nation citizens, elders, youth, scholars, and leaders during more than 120 hours of meetings, and visited the seven Métis communities to engage with and gather additional evidence from community members themselves.
Following a year of independent investigation, the MNC Expert Panel issued a 260-page Final Report outlining the fact-based historic and contemporary relationships between the seven Métis communities in northern Ontario and the larger Métis Nation. The MNC Expert Panel’s Final Report represented the most comprehensive, transparent, ethical, and objective study ever conducted on historic Métis Nation communities in what is now Ontario.
In its conclusions, the Final Report unambiguously confirms generations of shared culture, kinship, and political alliances between the seven Métis Nation communities in northern Ontario and those further west, saying:
“It is therefore our expert opinion that these individuals and communities form an integral part of the Métis Nation and its Homeland.”
“Threads of the Sash within their collective identity”
As part of their independent year-long study of the seven historic Métis communities in northern Ontario, the Métis National Council (MNC) Expert Panel was tasked with assessing whether each community and its citizens were merely of “halfbreed/mixedblood/mixed-ancestry” descent or verifiable members of the Métis Nation and part of its Homeland.
To do so, the MNC Expert Panel utilized an analytical framework first proposed by the Métis National Council within its official submissions to the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Powley which, on the topic of identifying distinct Métis peoplehood, stated:
“Without being exhaustive or essential, objective elements can include common language, history, culture, kinship, race or ethnicity, way of life and territory. In addition, a subjective element is necessary, whereby a ‘people’ identifies itself as such.”
Using these elements, the Expert Panel applied what it termed the Threads of the Sash analysis to each of the seven northern Ontario Métis communities to, “provide a measure to indicate if these ‘communities’ and/or individuals fulfill the National Definition and rightfully belong to the contemporary Métis Nation as part of our Homeland.”
After reviewing over 50,000 pages of evidence, engaging with over 160 Métis Nation citizens, elders, youth, scholars, and leaders during more than 120 hours of meetings, and visiting the seven Métis communities to engage with and gather additional evidence from community members themselves, the Expert Panel concluded that:
“It is our expert opinion that these communities are integral to the Métis Nation and its Homeland. They all have Threads of the Sash within their collective identity and can be grounded in the National Definition and the Métis National Homeland.”
