Metis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Metis (pronounced "MAY tee", SAMPA: ["meti], in French: [me"tis] or, in many varieties of Canadian French, including those spoken by Métis, [mE"tIs]) are a Canadian ethnic group consisting of people whose ancestors were partly of the Cree, Ojibway or Saulteaux First Nations, and partly European fur traders (usually French or Scots). Their history dates to the mid-seventeenth century. Traditionally, the Metis spoke a mixed language called Michif or Mechif. Michif and Mechif are also used as the name of the Metis people. Mechif is a phonetic spelling of the Metis pronunciation of Metif, a variant of Metis.
The word Metis (the singular, plural and adjectival forms are the same) is French, and related to the Spanish word mestizo. It carries the same connotation of "mixed blood"; traced back far enough it stems from the Latin word mixtus, the past participle of the verb "to mix".
The name is most commonly applied to descendants of communities in what is now southern Manitoba. The name is also applied to the descendants of similar marriages in what is now Ontario, although that group's history is different from that of the western Metis.
A well-known Metis event was the Battle of Seven Oaks.
The most famous Metis was Louis Riel who led what are usually depicted as two failed rebellions, the Red River Rebellion in 1869 in the area now known as Manitoba, and the North-West Rebellion in 1885 in the area now known as Saskatchewan. Reasonable doubts may be raised about whether either of these events was a rebellion. For example, the actions considered rebellious in 1869 were undertaken by Riel as the leader of a government recognized by Canada as in legitimate control of territory that did not belong to Canada; Canada negotiated the Manitoba Act with this government. After these "rebellions”, land speculators and other non-Metis effectively deprived the Metis of land by exploiting a government program for its purchase, with the government perhaps turning a blind eye. The province of Alberta distributed land to Metis in 1938 to correct what it believed to be an inequity, but Saskatchewan and Manitoba have not followed Alberta's lead.
Two other famous Metis leaders were Cuthbert Grant and Gabriel Dumont.
The Metis are not recognized as a First Nation by the Canadian government and do not receive the benefits granted to First Nations (see Indian Act). However, the new Canadian constitution of 1982 recognizes the Metis as an aboriginal group and has enabled individual Metis to sue successfully for recognition of their traditional rights, such as rights to hunt and trap. In 2003, a court ruling in Ontario found that the Metis deserve the same rights as other aboriginal communities in Canada.
See Also
- List of terms for multirasity
External link