In 1849, tensions around Sault Ste. Marie escalated when the Quebec Mining Company began operations in the Upper Great Lakes without Anishinaabe and Métis consent.
In response, Anishinaabe and Métis leaders, including Chief Shingwaukonce, Chief Nebenaigoching, Eustace Lesage, and Charles Boyer, orchestrated a halt to the unauthorized mining activities.
That November, between 50 and 100 Métis and First Nations warriors boarded a schooner in Sault Ste. Marie and set sail for Mica Bay, about 100 kilometres north on the shore of Lake Superior.
Armed with guns and knives, the Métis and First Nations allies shut down the mine and evicted the miners as an act of resistance against colonial encroachment on and exploitation of their shared territory.
John Bonner, the Mica Bay Mine manager, later wrote about the incident, saying that:
“About 30 Indians and half breeds entered my room in their war dresses each armed with a gun and some also with Bowie Knives… I had not the means of defense either in arms or ammunition against an armed body, represented to be from 60 to 90 and also another larger body, said to be at the Sault.”
Bonner also described the borrowed cannon that the Métis and First Nations warriors had brought with them:
“A brass field piece brought up by the party has been recognized by Mr. Wilson as a piece belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, and which was in his charge at the custom house.”
The act of political resistance—now known as the Mica Bay Incident—ended quickly and without bloodshed. However, its impacts would be felt for centuries.
The Mica Bay Incident not only represented one of the most important moments in the history of Crown-Indigenous relations in the Upper Great Lakes, but also in the long history of respect and allyship between the Métis and their Anishinaabek neighbours.