ONTARIO MÉTIS FACTS

After the North West Company (NWC) and Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) merged in 1821, many longtime Métis employees chose to branch out on their own, working independently as “freemen.” As astute businesspeople, these Métis freemen recognized the continued demand for their labour as hired “jobbers” and could demand competitive wages for their work. This was certainly the case in the Upper Great Lakes region, where demand for Métis freemen jobbers, like Henry Sayer and Michel La

Across the Métis Homeland, Métis have used petitions as a tool to collectively protect their interests across the 1800s. From the 1840 Penetanguishene Petition in the wake of the relocation from Drummond Island to the 1882 Batoche Petition in the prelude to the Northwest Resistance and beyond, petitions were a prevalent political tool that Métis reached for to assert their distinct identity and defend their rights. Another example from Moose Factory in 1905, where a group of

Métis political organization extended beyond formal settings like councils or petitions; it was also embedded in the shared responsibilities, customs, and laws that governed daily life, including how communities practiced land-based harvesting. Across the Métis Homeland, Métis people followed land stewardship practices that helped protect the resources their families depended on. In some places, these rules were complex and formally documented, such as the Laws of the Buffalo