ONTARIO MÉTIS FACTS

Métis communities have long been known for their generosity in peoples’ times of need, even when facing immense hardships themselves. Despite the Treaty commissioner’s promise to protect the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community’s rights, for example, Métis families were displaced from their lands on the St. Mary’s River following their exclusion from the 1850 Robinson-Huron Treaty. Many were forced to relocate over the next decades as Canada and Ontario opened the region to settl

The Métis community in Moose Factory took care of one another and those around them during times when resources were scarce and winters were long.  Valentine Saunders, for example, worked diligently to provide for his large Métis family of seventeen children, establishing a hunting camp and using his skills to harvest hares, fish, and other game to ensure their well-being. This was essential given the challenges of provisioning such a remote location, which his son, John Saun

The stories of Métis communities across the Upper Great Lakes are filled not only with strength and resilience but also with the deep generosity shared between families and community members.  Reflecting on her life in A.C. Osborne’s The Migration of Voyageurs from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene in 1828 , Métis matriarch and storyteller Rosette Boucher highlights this generosity as a defining feature of the region’s Métis identity, carried forward by her own family throug