Weekly Word Search: May 12 - May 16, 2025
- Ontario Métis Facts
- May 17
- 11 min read
Updated: May 21
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Burning Out Métis Families at Agawa Bay
Following the loss of the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community’s traditional River Lots, in the early decades of the 20th century, a group of Métis families re-established themselves at Agawa Bay.
Around 1903, Dave Bussineau and his wife Mary started to build a home at Agawa Bay. Soon after, Arthur Davieaux and his wife Viola also moved to the Bay, followed by the Roussain family around 1920. Louis Miron and his family also lived on an island nearby.
For more than 60 years, these four families lived a beautiful life at Agawa Bay. They hunted, fished, gardened, harvested maple sugar, cut wood, and guided tourists. Many of their relatives came and went with the seasons.
As with many small Métis villages across west central North America, however, the Métis families at Agawa Bay would once again be forced from their homes.
The first sign of change came in the early 1960s, when the Ontario government no longer allowed the Métis children of the Agawa Bay village to do their education by correspondence.
Then, in 1967, government officials arrived at Agawa Bay in float planes and told the families they had to leave. According to the officials, the Métis villagers were “squatters” who had no right to live there. The newly created Lake Superior Provincial Park, they said, was intended “for the enjoyment of all, not the few.”
Records show that between 1959 and 1968, the Ontario government relentlessly acquired all of the property in the park, including from the Métis “squatters” that included, “Dave and H Bussineau, W Roussain, M. Roussain, Edna Roussain, A. Davieaux.”
The final act in this forced eviction occurred in 1968 when government employees burned the Métis homes to the ground. One Crown employee later recalled that they, “torched a lot of the buildings that had to go…nobody considered anything here of historical significance.”
The Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community continues to remember and advocate those Agawa Bay families today.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
Métis Nation Recognition of the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community
Most people are aware of the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community’s deep and rich history. But did you know that it has also been recognized and celebrated by many past and present Métis Nation leaders?
For example, in delivering an intervention to the Supreme Court of Canada in support of the Powley case, former MNC President and current MMF Ambassador Clement Chartier declared Steve and Roddy Powley to be descendants of the Historic Métis Nation. In that same intervention, Chartier also affirmed the historic Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community of the Upper Great Lakes as an undeniable part of the Métis Nation, saying:
“The people who stand charged before you today are descendants of the Historic Métis Nation and, more specifically, the historic Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie… Sault Ste. Marie is part of the larger Métis Nation.”
Learn more about the rich history of Métis Nation recognition in this short video.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
The 1840 Penetanguishene Petition
In the late 1830s, the Crown began excluding “Halfbreeds” from annual present-giving—a longstanding pre-treaty practice used to maintain diplomatic relationships with First Nation and Métis in the Upper Great Lakes.
This policy change was a significant concern for Métis in the Upper Great Lakes, who by this time had developed distinct communities with their own unique identity, governance, and way of life separate and apart from their First Nations neighbours. As noted by Indian Agent, Samuel Jarvis, both Métis and First Nations opposed this new exclusionary approach:
“Upon every occasion that I have visited the Lake Huron tribes an appeal has been made to me to remove the disability imposed upon the Class of Half-Breeds not only by the elder members of the Indian Communities but also by the Half-Breeds themselves.”
By 1839, discontent among members of the Georgian Bay Métis Community in Penetanguishene was unmistakable. Members of the Métis community surrounded Indian Agent Samuel Jarvis’s residence to confront him about the discriminatory policy change. Of this event, Jarvis wrote that:
“July last when at Penetanguishene a number of [Métis] surrounded the house I was in, for their purpose claiming and insisting upon having that which was their right, as long as the distribution of presents to the Indians was continued by government.”
On January 27, 1840, the “Half breeds residing in the town of Penetanguishene” collectively organized once again. Twenty-two members of the Métis community—including members of the Longlade, Labatte, Lavalle, Trudeau, and St. Onge families—sent a petition to the Crown to restore their inclusion in present-giving. The petition stated:
“[We] do not share in any advantage in presents issued to the Indians as a number of the half breeds, from the Sault St. Marie and other places on the shores of Lake Huron. … Therefore, your Petitioners most humbly beg your Excellency will take their case under your Excellency consideration and that your Excellency would be pleased to allow them to have the same advantages that persons of the same class (living at the Sault St. Marie [sic] and other places on the shores of Lake Huron) derive from the issue of Indian present to them and their families.”
In the Penetanguishene Petition, the Métis in Penetanguishene firmly recognize and situate themselves within a broader Upper Great Lakes Métis Community. Their appeal for justice is grounded in the principle of maintaining equity with their Métis relatives.
The 1840 Penetanguishene Petition is an early example in what would become a long history of Métis communities utilizing petitions as a tool of collective political expression—one that would be later repeated throughout the Métis Homeland, including Sault Ste. Marie, Red River, Batoche, and beyond.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
The Northern Lake Superior Historic Métis Community
The Historic Northern Lake Superior Métis Community comprises the northern portion of the Upper Great Lakes Métis, which included the small, interconnected settlements and villages around Michipicoten River, Pic River, Fort William, Nipigon House, and Long Lake.
The Métis in this part of the Upper Great Lakes lived at the transition point of the old fur trade routes between the waterways of the Great Lakes and those in northern Ontario. Michipicoten was the southern link between Lake Superior and James Bay (via the Missinaibi and Moose Rivers), while Fort William was the middle point along the route from Montreal to Red River. As a result, Métis connections extended both north and west.
While much of the Historic Northern Lake Superior Métis Community centred around the fur trade posts at Fort William and Michipicoten, Métis families lived throughout the northern shore of Lake Superior, and north towards Lake Nipigon.
Learn more in this short embedded video.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
The Mattawa/Ottawa River Historic Métis Community
The Mattawa/Ottawa River Historic Métis Community is rooted in the historical fur trade, connected to other parts of west central North America, such as Rupert’s Land, and was distinct from both First Nation and settler populations.
Métis settlements in the Mattawa region emerged between the early-and mid-nineteenth century in the context of a declining fur trade and expanding timber and lumber industry. While Métis continued to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company after its 1821 merger with the North West Company—as intermediaries, canoe-men, sleigh-drivers, craftsmen, and labourers—increasing numbers lost their positions as the company economized.
Kinship, religious affiliation, economic practices, and cultural traits all set the Mattawa/Ottawa River Historic Métis Community apart from other groups in the region.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
The 2004 MNO Harvesting Agreement Map
In 2004, the Métis Nation of Ontario signed a landmark interim Harvesting Agreement with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources—the first negotiated agreement of its kind signed by any Métis Government within the Métis Homeland.
The Agreement recognized MNO’s Harvesting Policy on an interim basis and provided for the recognition of a maximum of 1,250 Harvesters Cards—as well as a pathway to remove the cap on the number of recognized MNO Harvester Cards in the future based on an Independent Review.
The 2004 interim Harvesting Agreement also included an MNO-MNR Harvesting Agreement Map. This map outlined areas within Ontario where there was believed to be credible Métis rights assertions which would satisfy the Powley test based on existing evidence.
The 2004 interim Harvesting Agreement, which included the 2004 MNO-MNR Harvesting Agreement Map, was celebrated by Métis and First Nations leaders alike.
Even at the time of the 2004 interim Harvesting Agreement’s signing, it was recognized that the MNO-MNR Harvesting Agreement Map would need to be refined sometime in the future through additional historical research, Métis traditional knowledge, traditional land use studies, input from harvesters, and future legal developments.
The MNO has since completed that additional research and further refined its Traditional Harvesting Territories Map to exclusively include only those areas where Métis communities and their section 35 harvesting rights claims are indisputably supported by robust, objectively verifiable evidence, which meets the criteria of the Powley test.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
Métis Resilience in Georgian Bay
Rather than succumb to the increasing waves of settlement, a visibly distinct Métis community with its own way of life has persisted along the eastern shores of Georgian Bay.
Almost a century after the Georgian Bay Métis Community’s relocation from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene, its resiliency and protectiveness over its unique identity was captured in a July, 1921 Toronto Star article called, “Strange Old Legends Surround Penetang”:
“Pinery Point is a wooded peninsula directly across the bay from Penetanguishene, the sands of which have given the town its Indian name of the ‘place of the white rolling sands.’ Along its shores dwells a group of people half French and half Indian, isolated in location, distinct in habits and privileges, and fiercely resentful of intrusion on either. It is the origin of these picturesque metis or halfbreeds … living chiefly in low log houses of a century ago, they are almost all illiterate and speak a broken English patois which is all their own.”
The article included interviews with Métis community members, such as Paul Vasseur and “McKoy” Dussome.
Vasseur was described as once, “the terror of Penetanguishene”, when the town was only, “a staggering little lumber settlement, filled with Indians, half-breeds and lumberjacks.”
Dussome was described as, “a short, jolly youth of some 75 years … is as Indian as Tecumseh and as French as Quebec. His big brother turned out to be a frolicsome lad of 86 summers, who was off on a jaunt across the bay guiding a fishing party.” Dussome’s brother, William Dusome, was the Métis man who, in the 1890s, prominently protested government fishing polices that infringed on the Métis community’s rights and way of life.
While told from the perspective of a settler journalist, the Toronto Star article demonstrates that a visibly distinct Métis community endured in Penetanguishene, with a recognizable identity and way of life.
The Georgian Bay Métis Community’s continues maintaining that distinct identity today—more than a century after the Toronto Star’s publication.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
Métis on Drummond Island Relocated to Penetanguishene
The relocation of Métis families from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene in the late 1820s made it a southern Métis settlement within the larger Upper Great Lakes Métis Community.
After the War of 1812 and subsequent boundary commissions, the British ceded Drummond Island to the United States of America. Consequently, in 1828, the island’s Métis inhabitants, who alongside the Anishinaabeg allied with the British against the Americans, were forced to relocate when the new international border was enforced.
Some Métis went to Sault Ste. Marie, Killarney, and the north shore of Lake Superior. However, many relocated across Lake Huron to Penetanguishene with the understanding that they would be provided lands to re-establish themselves and their community.
Anticipating the community’s arrival at Penetanguishene, in 1829, Indian Agent Thomas G.
Anderson sent a request to Indian Department official Colonel Napier asking that land be allotted for the Métis Drummond Islanders to re-establish themselves, writing:
“I would beg permission to suggest the propriety of allotting a portion of the unoccupied Lands near this Post [Penetanguishene] to the Poor Inhabitants of Drummond Island and the Sault St Marys [sic]… They are, with few if any exceptions, connected with the Indians, and have not the means of purchasing Lands, most of them followed us from Michilimackinac … and they now lose their dwellings with any little improvements they have made by the evacuation of Drummond Island.”
The relocation remained an important moment in the community’s collective memory. Years later, Michel Labatte described his family’s journey to Georgian Bay:
"I was twelve years old when we left Drummond Island. … Several families started together in sail-boats, bateaux and canoes. We camped at Thessalon River, Mississaga River, Serpent River, LaCloche, She-bon-aw-ning [Killarney], Moose Point and other places on the way. … We were all looking for the place where we expected to see the sand rolling over and over down the hill. I was married in Penetang by Father Charest. My wife's maiden name was Archange Bergé, whose father came from Drummond Island.”
Despite their relocation and subsequent challenges, the Métis community continued to live alongside one another in Penetanguishene, maintaining its distinctive identity, with many families residing together “across the bay” from Penetanguishene harbour to this day.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
The Historic Georgian Bay Métis Community
The Historic Georgian Bay Métis Community is an indivisible part of the Upper Great Lakes Métis.
Its formation largely resulted from the migration of Upper Great Lakes Métis families concentrated around Michilimackinac, who moved between 1790-1829 to St. Joseph Island, Drummond Island, and eventually Penetanguishene. During this time, Métis in the Upper Great Lakes also spread outward along the north shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior.
Learn more about this rich history of the Historic Georgian Bay Métis Community in this short embedded video.
Click here to view the original story and sources.
The Turners: A Métis Family
The Turner family, originally of Moose Factory, in what is now Ontario, lived and travelled across vast stretches of the historic fur trade network and has deep connections throughout the Métis Nation Homeland.
The Turner family’s patriarch, Joseph Turner Sr., worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company for nearly 70 years. He and his wife, Emma, had several children born in Moose Factory.
Several of the Turner’s children were employed by the HBC and travelled thousands of miles across west central North America, integrating with and marrying into other Métis communities to the west and south.
For example, their son, Joseph Turner Jr., had a long career with the Hudson’s Bay Company more than 1,000 km west of Moose Factory, working in the Island Lake and Cumberland Districts. He eventually retired to the Red River.
Joseph Jr.’s sister, Charlotte, moved to Red River from Martin Falls when her husband, James Harper, retired from the HBC. She applied for Métis scrip in St. Andrews, Manitoba, in 1875, identifying herself and her parents as “halfbreeds”.
Philip Turner’s son, Joseph Alexander Turner, who was born in Moose Factory, also moved west to Alberta and applied for Métis scrip in 1886.
Their brother, John Turner, stayed in the Abitibi Inland region. Born in Moose Factory in 1842, John worked for the HBC first as an apprentice blacksmith at Eastmain and then as a blacksmith at Temiscamingue for several decades before moving outside of the Abitibi region to Bear Island, Temagami in 1883.
John’s nephew, Alexander Joseph McLeod, was the son of Jane Turner and Scottish HBC servant Alexander McLeod, who were married at Moose Factory in 1854. Alexander Joseph and his brothers, William and George McLeod, were signatories of the 1905 Moose Factory Métis Petition, requesting the same Métis scrip that many of their Métis relatives had received farther west.
