The families which make up Georgian Bay Métis Community have deep and enduring connections amongst each other, as well as with other Métis families and communites in the Upper Great Lakes and throughout the Métis Homeland.
Many of these bonds were rooted during their shared experience of relocation from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene, in the aftermath of the War of 1812.
Lewis Solomon is one example of a Georgian Bay Métis Community member whose family kinship extends throughout the Upper Great Lakes region. Lewis recounted his family’s journey from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene in A.C. Osborne’s The Migration of Voyageurs from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene in 1828.
“I was born on Drummond Island in 1821, moved to St. Joseph Island in 1825, back to Drummond Island again, and then to Penetanguishene in 1829 … the family left Drummond Island the next spring (1829) … coming in a bateau around by the north shore, and camping every night on the way.”
Solomon also detailed those he shared the journey with, including, “My mother, brother Henry and his wife and eight children, myself, Joseph Gurneau and his wife, and two men hired to assist (Francis Gerair, a French-Canadian, and Gow-bow, an Indian).”
In his account, Lewis Solomon also discusses other members of the Georgian Bay Métis Community who worked, married, and lived throughout the Upper Great Lakes, Red River, and present-day Alberta, emphasizing the community’s economic and kinship networks throughout the Métis Homeland:
“George Gordon, a Scotch trader from Drummond Island, married a half-breed [Agnes Landry], settled at Gordon Point … Hippolyte Brissette and Colbert Amyot went with the North-West Company to Red River, Fort Garry and across the Rocky Mountains to Vancouver. Hippolyte was tattooed from head to foot with all sorts of curious figures, and married an Indian woman [Archange L'Hirondelle] of the Cree tribe. She was rather clever, and superior to the ordinary Indian women. Francis Dusseaume was also in the North-West Company at Red River, and married a woman [Francoise Clermont] of the Wild Rice Tribe.
Lewis Solomon’s accounts demonstrate that he and the Georgian Bay Métis Community saw themselves as a distinct and deeply connected community with ties to other Métis communities throughout the Métis Homeland.
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