For generations, Métis across the Homeland, including the Georgian Bay Métis Community in the Upper Great Lakes, have relied on fishing to provide sustenance. Ice fishing was a common and important way to keep Métis families and communities fed in the winter months.
An article in the Ann Arbour Register from October 12, 1893, for example, highlights the distinctive and effective ice fishing methods used by Métis in the Upper Great Lakes:
“I visited Georgian bay, a part of Lake Huron, in Canada, one winter. There I found that the half breed Indians erected huts on the frozen bay and fished through holes cut in the ice by means of a queer decoy.”
The article also describes the cozy, purpose-built ice fishing huts that the Métis fishermen would erect:
“The huts had only one opening, a door, and when the fisherman had entered and closed the door no light entered the hut except what came up through the floor, reflected through the ice outside and the water underneath it.”
Ice fishing continues to be an essential and popular winter tradition across the Métis Homeland during the frozen winter season.