For generations, family River Lots along the St. Mary’s River were at the heart of the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community’s diversified economy and way of life, that extended throughout the lands and waters of their surrounding traditional territory.
The River Lots, however, were not the only historical Métis enclave in the ‘Sault’. Immediately west of the River Lots, situated around what are now Gore and John Streets in Sault Ste. Marie’s downtown, laid the small Métis village of Frenchtown.
Many of the Métis families that resided in Frenchtown had remained employed in the fur trade by the Hudson’s Bay Company into the 1850s, after the Robinson-Huron Treaty’s signing. They eventually settled on HBC-owned holdings around the Company post, maintaining possession of their lots until about 1900.
Frenchtown’s Métis families included the Belleaus, Brassards, Boyers, McKays, Nolins, and Riels. Hyacinthe Davieaux was a particularly leading figure among them.
In 1901, however, the HBC sold its properties. Like their Métis River Lot relatives fifty years before and their Métis descendants at Agawa Bay sixty years later, the Métis of Frenchtown were largely forced off their lands and made to disperse. In this instance, to make way for Sault Ste. Marie’s budding steel industry—eventually leading to the renaming of the area to “Steelton”.
Despite the numerous attempts to erase the Métis from Sault Ste. Marie, the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community continues to remember and tell its stories. Today, visitors can learn more about Sault Ste. Marie’s Métis history—including the Métis River Lots, Agawa Bay, and Frenchtown—at the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Heritage Centre, located in the historic Frenchtown neighbourhood, or through the community’s Métis Tours partnership.
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