By the mid-1800’s the Métis community at Sault Ste. Marie had built a vibrant and thriving way of life around their Métis River Lots on the north shore of the St Mary’s River—the international border between the United States and what was then claimed as British territory.
These customary family allotments were well-known throughout the region and widely recognized by the Métis community and outsiders alike.
In 1826, for example, U.S. Indian Affairs Superintendent, Thomas L. McKenney, described the Métis River Lots and community at Sault Ste. Marie, saying:
“On the opposite Canadian side… along down the river about two miles you may account about eighty houses including every kind of building.”
By the 1830s, the Hudson’s Bay Company—the dominant economic and political force in the region—tried to cut costs and implement other measures to maintain their monopoly over the alcohol trade. It identified the Métis of Sault Ste. Marie as a problem, as they were known to freely trade across the international border, refused to pay taxes, and were seen as a potential public disturbance.
The HBC’s solution was to undermine the Métis and remove them from their lands. In 1835, an HBC official wrote:
“We are under a state of thraldom as things are now. The Freemen (Métis) here knowing we cannot do without them, are often very saucy... Were we able to do without them, no such risks would be incurred, and some saving might be effected.”
In 1835, Indian Department representative Thomas G. Anderson also tried to relocate the Métis away from Sault Ste. Marie. He met with the Métis leaders in council in hopes he could persuade them to move from their River Lots to nearby St. Joseph’s Island.
The Métis had no desire to leave their lands. Being shrewd negotiators, rather than reject his offer of free land on St. Joseph’s Island, the Métis reminded Anderson that many of them had been given the right to build on their lands for their military service, and agreed to move if the government compensated them 1,800 pounds—a massive sum of money for the time.
Anderson refused and then tried to have a local trader, “use his influence with [the Métis] to execute the extinguishments of the land… with a view to dispossess a number of squatters who are a nuisance to missionary labours.”
These colonial aggressions were further fueled by an influx of industrial interests to the region. By the middle of the 19th century, increasing numbers of miners were intruding onto Métis and First Nations’ lands on Lake Superior.
The Quebec Mining Company, in particular, threatened their rights and way of life when they set up operations on Mica Bay, roughly 100 kilometres north of the Métis settlement at Sault Ste. Marie.
After several years of failure by the Crown to appropriately deal with these aggressions, the Anishinaabek and Métis of Sault Ste. Marie decided to take action to force the government’s hand. Their collective resistance has become known today as the Mica Bay Incident.