Abstract: Free people, those former employees of fur companies who settled permanently in “Indian country” at the end of their indentures, and often took Indigenous women as wives, have traditionally been associated in literature with the emergence of the Métis in Canada. Until now, free people have remained virtually absent from the historiography covering the large region between James Bay and Montreal. This study essentially aims to document the presence of free people in the fur trade of this territory in the 19th century, as well as to reconstruct their way of life from an ethnohistorical perspective. Secondly, we question the role that the families of free people from the south of our study area may have played in the emergence of a contemporary Métis identity in western Quebec. Using a variety of sources—archival and oral—we demonstrate in this thesis how free people experienced favorable conditions for their development in the southern part of the territory under study, but also how some of their descendants use this heritage to see themselves as stakeholders in Métis indigeneity. Click here to read the full article

Marie-Louise: Protector of Louis Riel in Québec

In this translation of our article entitled “Marie-Louise: Protector of Louis Riel in Quebec” (Mediatropes, 7(1), 26-74), we problematize the ideological position shared by certain academics and activists who deny the historical existence of the Métis in Quebec. In particular, we respond to accusations that the Eastern Métis are “zombies,” lacking any “living” tradition (cultural or oral), in short, that they are, at heart, simple French-Canadians of mixed heritage, who reinvent themselves as Indigenous through distant genealogies according to an opportunistic permutation of their “racial” status (thus guilty of “race shifting,” according to sociologist Darryl Leroux). This article has two objectives. First, we explore some of the political and legal elements that help explain the emergence of such reactionary and denialist rhetoric toward the Métis of the eastern provinces of Canada (including Quebec). It then presents the oral tradition of Marie-Louise Riel, whose story describes her as the protector of the famous Métis leader and hero Louis Riel, who took refuge in the Outaouais region during his political exile (among other places).

By exploring this oral history, we offer examples of historical kinship and solidarity between Eastern and Western Métis, challenging the territorial and identity reification advocated by opponents of the recognition of Eastern Métis, who suggest that Western Métis (or those historically descended from the prairies) are “true” Métis. A careful reading of documentary and archival sources, in addition to this oral tradition, shows, on the contrary, that the Métis of the Outaouais region are the bearers of a distinct identity, an identity that many descendants continue to value to this day. Click here to read the full article in English and French. The Bois-Brûlés of the Outaouais Here is a book that our members have been eagerly awaiting; it will be available in summer 2019. Click on the link below for more information. The Bois-Brûlés of the Outaouais Letter of Support for the Commemoration of Private Patrick Riel Department of Law and Legal Studies Carleton University Maniwaki Métis Indigenous Community c/o Pierrette L’Heureux, Secretary 270 Notre-Dame Street Maniwaki, QC J9E 2J8 Subject: Letter of Support for the Commemoration of Private Patrick Riel