Many members of the Abitibi Inland Métis Community formally petitioned for Métis scrip, similar to what had been issued to other Métis communities farther west.
Thomas Vincent’s family, for example, was among those from Fort Albany who submitted a Métis scrip claim. Vincent initially applied for Métis scrip for himself and his children in November 1885.
Lacking success in their initial attempts, Vincent “and others” of “Moose Factory, James Bay, Northwest Territories” continued asserting their claims by petitioning the government “to consider favourably the claims of the Half-breeds of that Country for compensation in lieu of lands”, in 1893.
Vincent’s petition was read before the House of Commons in Ottawa on April 1, 1893, having been submitted by Saskatchewan MP, D. H. MacDowall.
Vincent wrote to MacDowall the following year, reiterating the petitioners’ willingness to accept “compensation for the extinction of the half-breed title to the soil”. This conclusion had been reached “unanimously” after “due consideration”, demonstrating the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s enduring cohesiveness, internal decision-making processes, and knowledge of their Métis rights.
By 1896, the government had received eight other scrip applications from Fort Albany, prompting government officials in the Ministry of the Interior to internally discuss the matter later that year.
Thomas Vincent would continue to correspond with government officials about his family’s scrip application through 1902, after which the family’s claim was disallowed on the grounds that they were “Ontario halfbreeds” which excluded them from the government’s scrip policy.