Wikibooks: Canadian History/The People of the Lands/Metis

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Hudson Bay; Canada; Hudson; Detroit; inuit; Metis
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Canadian_History/The_People_of_the_Lands/Metis

The Métis people are a group of indigenous peoples and the results of marriages with members of the Saulteaux Cree Menominee Ojibway Algonquin and Inuit to Europeans (mainly French). The Métis are also known as Bois Brûlé mixed bloods or half bloods or Anglo Métis. They are one of the three Aboriginal groups in Canada that are officially recognized as a Native group. The Métis live in Central Canada and the Northern United States of America. The word Métis means mixed race in French. = History = In the 17th and 18th centuries there were two groups of Métis one English speaking and one French speaking. Both originated during the fur trade of the 17th and 18th centuries. The English and Scottish traders and trappers of the Hudson’s Bay Company and Northwest Company often married women of indigenous nations especially the Cree and Ojibwa. The Métis lived near Hudson Bay trading posts often working there. At first the Métis people were not respected very well and often had to take low paying jobs with the Hudson Bay Company. These people lived originally in the Canadian Shield a large region of central and eastern Canada that is drained by rivers flowing into Hudson Bay. French fur traders also married the native peoples in the prairies as well making the origin for the French speaking Métis population. The French speaking Métis populations developed in two main areas—the Old Northwest (which is now the American Midwest) and Canada. In the Old Northwest they were the principal entrepreneurs in the fur trade. Some of the fur trade posts they established became great cities such as Detroit and Chicago. In the early 19th century the French speaking Métis in the Old Northwest either moved out or were absorbed into the culture of the American farmers who moved into the area. In Canada the French speaking Métis lived in the prairies and in southern regions of the Canadian Shield where they overlapped somewhat with the English speaking Métis. Métis identity as a separate nation began to take shape ...