Métis people (Canada)

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Métis
Total population

307,845
1.04% of the Canadian population [1]
Regions with significant populations
Canada, United States
Language(s)
English, Métis French, Michif, Bungee (extinct)
Religion(s)
Predominantly Roman Catholic, Protestant [2]
Related ethnic groups
French, Cree, Ojibwa, Acadians, Cajuns, Scots

The Métis are descendants of marriages of Cree, Ojibway, Saulteaux, and Menominee aboriginals to French Canadians, Scots and English, and are one of three recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Commonly pronounced /ˈmeɪtiː/ "MAY-tee" or "may-TEE" in English [3], IPA: [meˈtsɪs] in Quebec French, [meˈtis] in Standard French,[4] [mɪˈtʃɪf] in Michif, they are also historically known as Bois Brule, mixed-bloods, Countryborn (or Anglo-Métis). Their homeland consists of the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, as well as the Northwest Territories. The Métis Homeland also includes parts of the northern United States (specifically Montana, North Dakota, and northwest Minnesota).[5]

Their history dates to the mid-seventeenth century. Historically, the Métis spoke or still speak either Métis French or a mixed language called Michif. Michif is a phonetic spelling of the Métis pronunciation of Métif, a variant of Métis. The Métis today predominantly speak English, with French a strong second language, as well as numerous aboriginal tongues. Métis French is best preserved in Canada, Michif in the U.S., notably in the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation of North-Dakota where Michif is the official language. The encouragement and use of Métis French and Michif is growing due to outreach within the provincial Métis councils after at least a generation of decline.

The word Métis (the singular, plural and adjectival forms are the same) is French, and a cognate of the Spanish word mestizo. It carries the same connotation of "mixed blood"; traced back far enough it stems from the Latin word mixtus, the past participle of the verb "to mix".

Countless Métis over time are thought to have been absorbed and assimilated into the surrounding populations making Métis heritage (and thereby Aboriginal ancestry) more common than sometimes realized. Recent research and DNA analysis has often shown forgotten Aboriginal lineages in many people of French Canadian and Acadian descent.

Contents

[edit] Métis culture

Métis culture is a mixture of cultures of the First Nations and French Canada. The Métis are known for fiddle playing, but traditional Métis instruments also include the concertina, the harmonica, and the hand drum. Fiddle is often accompanied by a form of dancing referred to as jigging. Traditionally, dancing included such moves as the Waltz Quadrille, the Square dance, Drops of Brandy, the Duck, La Double Gigue and the Red River Jig.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Musical Ride may have been inspired by the Métis practice of exercising their horses to the music of the jig and square dance. In the evenings after buffalo hunts, the Métis exercised their horses to music in the fashion of a square dance while the fiddler played quadrilles (a square dance still performed by Métis dancers). Their skilled horsemanship, developed in the buffalo hunt, was easily adapted for bronc busting, calf roping and range riding, skills put to use in the development of ranches in the west.

As Métis culture developed, a new language called Michif emerged. This language was a result of the combining of French nouns and Cree verbs. Though a distinct language, it is now spoken by few people. Some estimates put the number of Michif speakers at about 1,000.

Of the clothing worn by Métis in the 19th century, the sash or Ceinture fléchée is probably the most common today. It is traditionally roughly three metres in length and is made by weaving yarn together with one's fingers. The sash is worn around the waist, tied in the middle, with the fringed ends hanging. Vests with characteristic Métis figurative beadwork are also popular. The Red River Coat is historically recognized as coming from the Métis culture.

The Métis figured more prominently in Canada's past, having been very valuable and indispensable fur traders, voyageurs (coureur de bois), frontiersmen, pioneers, and middlemen who communicated between the First Nations peoples and the European settlers and colonialists. Well known for their tracking, guiding, and interpretive skills, Métis were often employed by the Northwest Mounted Police, as they are today by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Their large early contribution to Canada's evolution and formation as a nation has often been underestimated or downplayed by historians.

Métis people took traditions from both of their parents and developed a culture of their own. In recent times, some believe that the European elements have taken prominence, as racial discrimination against the Métis population lead many to hide their ethnicity and assimilate into Canadian society[citation needed].

[edit] Métis spirituality

The common misconception is that the Métis practiced only the religion of their fathers (Catholicism or Protestant). The truth is that like the Metis Nation itself, the spiritual mixture is as complex as the people who make up the nation.

From the beginning, the Métis child absorbed the teachings of both father and mother. Those teachings were made up of the Father's religious background and the traditional teachings of the Aboriginal Nation of the Mother. The child learned to live in both the Aboriginal and White worlds encompassing both in their spirituality.

As we see this ability to learn from all of nations they came in contact with added to the future spirituality of the Métis. Today Métis practice all forms of religion, from mainline Christianity to New Age concepts and everything in between. From their Catholicism they have the Patron Saint of Métis People, St. Joseph of Nazareth. From their Aboriginal Relatives they incorporate the sweat lodge, medicine wheel, sacred pipe and Long House ceremonies, and many other Aboriginal spiritual beliefs.

Many Métis People, as with other Aboriginal communities, have lost their spiritual connections to the past because of marginalization or poverty and decimation of their communities and their way of life. The healing has begun and the renewal of their spirituality is an exciting journey that many Métis People are taking.

It is very common to encounter a prayer and a smudge at the opening and closing of meetings of Metis People.³

[edit] Prominent Métis

Toussaint Charbonneau, husband of Sacagawea, was Métis.

Louis Riel led the Red River Rebellion in 1869 and the North-West Rebellion in 1885.[6]

Two other famous Métis leaders were Cuthbert Grant and Gabriel Dumont.

Born in 1940, in northern Saskatchewan, Métis writer/filmmaker Maria Campbell brought the struggles of modern-day Métis and Aboriginal people into the public mind through her breakthrough book, Halfbreed (1973), and the collaborative play, Jessica (1982). She has captured the sound and song of traditional stories through her work in dialect, Stories of the Road Allowance People (1996).

On 7 May 2004, Métis Todd Ducharme was appointed as a judge of the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice.

Other well known Canadians of Métis descent are Sharon Bruneau, a Canadian female bodybuilder and fitness model, and Kevin O'Toole, 1996 North American Lightheavyweight bodybuilding champion.

Rabble.ca editor and Canadian anti-war movement leader Derrick O'Keefe is of partial Métis ancestry, and has Métis status.

British Columbia New Democratic Party Leader Carole James is of partial Métis ancestry.

NHL star defenceman Sheldon Souray is of Métis ancestry.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is of partial Métis ancestry.

Architect Douglas Cardinal is of Métis and Blackfoot ancestry.

Novelist Sandra Birdsell is the daughter of a Métis man and a Russian Mennonite woman and based her award-winning novel Children of the Day in part on her parents' experiences in Manitoba in the 1920s-50s.

MMA fighter Kalib Starnes is also a Métis, along with Jon Gallant, bassist for the Canadian band Billy Talent.

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ [1] Statistics Canada, Census 2001 - Selected Ethnic Origins1, for Canada, Provinces and Territories - 20% Sample Data
  2. ^ [2] (Statistics Canada, Census 2001 - Selected Demographic and Cultural Characteristics (105), Selected Ethnic Groups (100), Age Groups (6), Sex (3) and Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3) for Population, for Canada, Provinces, Territories and Census Metropolitan Areas 1 , 2001 Census - 20% Sample Data)
  3. ^ http://www.othermetis.net/Wlcm.html The Other Métis
  4. ^ Petit Robert
  5. ^ Howard, James H. 1965. The Plains-Ojibwa or Bungi: hunters and warriors of the Northern Prairies with special reference to the Turtle Mountain band. University of South Dakota Museum Anthropology Papers 1 (Lincoln, Nebraska: J. and L. Reprint Co., Reprints in Anthropology 7, 1977).
  6. ^ Reasonable doubts may be raised about whether either of these events was a rebellion. For example, the actions considered rebellious in 1869 were undertaken by Riel as the leader of a government recognized by Canada as in legitimate control of territory that did not belong to Canada; Canada negotiated the Manitoba Act with this government. After these "rebellions", land speculators and other non-Métis effectively deprived the Métis of land by exploiting a government program for its purchase, with the government perhaps turning a blind eye. The province of Alberta distributed land to Métis in 1938 to correct what it believed to be an inequity, but Saskatchewan and Manitoba have not followed Alberta's lead.

[edit] Further reading

  • Barkwell, Lawrence J., Leah Dorion, and Audreen Hourie. Metis legacy Michif culture, heritage, and folkways. Metis legacy series, v. 2. Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2006. ISBN 0920915809
  • Barkwell, Lawrence J., Leah Dorion and Darren Prefontaine. Metis Legacy: A Historiography and Annotated Bibliography. Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications Inc. and Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2001. ISBN 1-894717-03-1
  • Chartrand, Larry N., Tricia E. Logan, and Judy D. Daniels. Métis History and Experience and Residential Schools in Canada. Aboriginal Healing Foundation research series. Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2006. ISBN 1897285299
  • Delaronde, Deborah L. Metis Spirits. Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications, 2006. ISBN 1894717368
  • Douaud, Patrick C. The Western Métis Profile of a People. Canadian plains studies, 54. Regina: University of Regina, Canadian Plains Research Center, 2007. ISBN 9780889771994
  • Goulet, George R. D., and Terry Goulet. The Metis Memorable Events and Memorable Personalities. Calgary: FabJob, 2006. ISBN 1894638980
  • Jackson, John C. Children of the Fur Trade Forgotten Metis of the Pacific Northwest. Corvallis: Oregon State Univ Press, 2007. ISBN 0870711946
  • McNab, David, and Ute Lischke. The Long Journey of a Forgotten People Métis Identities and Family Histories. Waterloo, Ont: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2007. ISBN 9780889205239
  • National Aboriginal Health Organization. Métis Cookbook and Guide to Healthy Living. Ottawa, Ont: Métis Centre, National Aboriginal Health Organization, 2006. ISBN 0978078500
  • National Council of Welfare (Canada), and Michelle M. Mann. First Nations, Métis and Inuit Children and Youth Time to Act. National Council of Welfare reports, v. #127. Ottawa: National Council of Welfare, 2007. ISBN 9780662466406
  • Weinstein, John. Quiet Revolution West The Rebirth of Métis Nationalism. Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9781897252215

[edit] External links

[edit] Western Métis

[edit] Eastern Métis

[edit] Government of Canada

[edit] Other

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