Becoming Métis

At the age of 74 I have become a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation.  My ancestry includes two Swampy Cree women who married HBCo fur traders over two hundred years ago. Their children Andrew Fidler and Ann Hallett married and raised their family in the St. James Parish in the Red River Settlement. Their daughter Catherine married an English farmer who also ran a hauling operation between Saint Paul Minnesota and the town of Winnipeg. My father’s grandmother Mary Emily grew up on that farm, which was directly across the Assiniboine River from her future husband’s home in St. Charles. My father’s name for her was Kuh. He lived most of his youth in Kuh’s home, and always spoke of her with reverence and loving affection. I was born a year after Kuh died. By that time my family’s Métis connection was all but forgotten, or at least not discussed. I didn’t even know of my Cree ancestry until I was an adult. My parents never spoke of it. I’ve come to believe this wasn’t accidental, but rather an outcome of the systemic racism that has infected Canada since the early nineteenth century. 

My father was a post manager and fur trader with the HBCo. I grew up in settlements in the NWT and northern Alberta, at times the only non-indigenous kid in school. I was taught, as a day scholar in an Indian Residential School, that indigenous language, beliefs and customs were inferior to the ways of the white man. The nuns considered this an inconvertible fact. So although I had friends who were Métis or Treaty, particularly in Arctic Red River (Tsiigehtchic), Fort Providence and Fort Chipewyan, I never felt like I really belonged. My white privilege left me subtly excluded from their families and communities. This is no wonder, as I believed we were superior! A Facebook friend commented recently “Fort Chipewyan was segregated. Believe it or not”. I get it now. Would I have fit in more naturally if our family had celebrated our indigenous roots instead of hiding them? 

HBCo policy in the 1950’s prohibited post managers from fraternizing with the local population. The roots of this policy go back to the early nineteenth century when the HBCo had to toughen up their fur trade operations or be overwhelmed by the ruthless tactics of competitors, particularly the Northwest Company. New leaders were chosen for their willingness to fight rather than continue the rituals of the fur trade that had flourished on honour and mutual respect for the previous 150 years. William Williams was made Governor of Rupert’s Land in 1818 to inspire a more combative spirit in the company’s operations, particularly in the Athabasca. An impetuous navy officer with a poor grasp of the fur trade and a lack of moral integrity, he succeeded only in losing the respect and trust of both experienced traders and indigenous trappers. For example, he offended the Cumberland House community by abandoning his 18-year-old country wife (who was Kuh’s great aunt), leaving her unsupported with two of his children before bringing his English wife and children to Upper Fort Garry. The next Governor, George Simpson, had honed his business acumen and racist attitudes in the East Indies sugar trade. He fathered and left children across the continent while simultaneously placing barriers to the advancement of mixed race HBCo employees, claiming they were inferior, untrustworthy and lacking ambition. (1) History shows the actions of this very powerful man are a source of the insidious attitudes that have infiltrated Canada’s laws, policies and business practices, particularly following the Indian Act of 1870. Could my father have had concerns that being “too Indian” would limit his opportunities for advancement, or mine? I never asked him. 

Embracing my Métis roots is forcing a perspective shift regarding Louis Riel. Kuh’s father-in-law Archibald Wright, born a Scot, was imprisoned by the Comité National des Métis for opposing the formation of the Provisional Government of Assiniboia during the 1869-70 Resistance. Another relation, William Peter Hallett (Kuh’s great uncle), a renowned plainsman and buffalo-hunt captain, enabled the Canadian Party jailbreak in January 1870. In retaliation the Comité guards locked him in leg irons in an unheated cell with a broken window at -35°C, resulting in severe freezing to his legs and leaving him mentally unstable. So for most of my life, out of a sense of familial obligation, I’ve regarded Riel as a criminal. But over the years I have come to understand the desperation felt by French and English “halfbreed” families left destitute with no legal rights, no way to go back to bush living, excluded from Treaties, rejected by the dominant Canadian culture, and having lost their scrip to unscrupulous land speculators. I am starting to appreciate Louis Riel’s mission and see that his radical actions may have been necessary. 

Formally identifying as Métis, albeit "Anglo" Métis, allows me to recognize and celebrate my indigenous heritage - a personal reconciliation with who I am. Of course my indigenous roots comprise a tiny proportion of my ancestral makeup, less than 3%. Even my Cree ancestors Catherine Tenanse and Mary Mackegonne (or Muskegon / Metheweman) were likely mixed race as they were from the York Factory “homeguard” band that had intermingled with the English for over a century. So my claim to be Métis is admittedly tenuous. I only hope that Métis who have maintained their cultural traditions, language and indigenous rights since the Red River Colony, and whose families have endured the stigma of being “halfbreed”, will not find my decision insulting or disrespectful. 

(1)    George Simpson also brought his English wife to Canada, establishing their family home in Montreal where he was welcomed by the upper echelons of Canadian society. This from a man who left England because, as the illegitimate son of a peer, he was shunned by the business community and social circles he aspired to join.

Mary Emily Wright (née Else), was addressed as "Madam" by her children, Aunt Jane by her nephews and nieces, and "Kuh" by my father.
She was born January 6, 1874 and died May 4, 1947.