Globe and Mail- Métis Nation of Ontario received nearly $1-billion in federal funding over 20 years, data show
First Nations in Ontario and the Manitoba Métis Federation say nearly $1-billion in federal funding went to a group they allege is fraudulently claiming Métis identity.
I’m half-French … where’s MY check?
We need an asteroid.
Who knew French Algonquin/Cree half-breed fur trapper-traders would create such chaos?
How can if be a fraudulent claim. As long as they identify as Metis, they meet all the woke criteria.
What percentage of Native blood, is required to be Metis?
Isn’t there irony in that, this money is going to the products of Colonialism, the very thing that Natives and government despise?
The Metis forget, cancel and deny their colonial ancestors, like the left denies BHO’s mother. Barry is black.
“What percentage of Native blood, is required to be Metis?”
Western Canadian Metis don’t recognize a percentage. You just have to be descended from the early French/Indian mixed people from the Metis communities in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. If your ancestors rode with Riel, it’s an automatic in. They consider themselves a community, not a race. Blond or red hair seems to be a bonus.
French, eh? Automatic grifters.
“What percentage of Native blood, is required to be Metis?”
Well, 0 percent was required for Buffy Ste. Marie to be accepted by the Piapot Cree, so I guess Metis would take less than that.
Yes, if they’re making money by claiming to be native they should call themselves not a “Metis Association” but a “Buffy Sainte-Marie Appreciation Society”.
Blood quantum is not used for determining if you are Métis.
My mother-in-law was generation-ally Métis. We’ve traced her Métis heritage back through six Métis great-grandparents into the early 1700s through the Red River Métis, the Snare, Snake and Iroquois in the Rocky Mountains (Jasper National Park – the Iroquois coming from Quebec with the fur traders), and the Métis of the North (including Inuit contributors). The European contributors were mostly french, some Irish (one grandfather).
HER percentage, as per my husband’s testing, was likely a little lower than 50%. (My husband tests as 23%). However she would be considered fully Indigenous, as she grew up in the Métis community, with their attitudes/traditions/customs (her father was a trapper, spoke Michif, French, English and Cree) until her marriage (to a Dutch man), and even then, continuing many of those without a lot of thought to it through her life. That was fortunate in some ways, and unfortunate in others.
Her sister was born a red head and ‘passed’ as white through her adult life. Throughout Métis history you will find the ‘percentage’ of inherited Indigenous blood, between siblings, will be very different, depending on what heritage they have received, genetically, so you can see how blood quantum becomes a complicated.
I play in genealogy and also genetics. Because of testing I have seen those with full Indian status, on reserve, testing as low as 40% Indigenous heritage. Many show up as relatives to my husband as he had great uncles/aunts that went on reserve, and others that took Métis status and continued life off of reserve.
My husband and children hold their Métis cards with the Métis Nation of Alberta. I chose to pursue that endeavour as I wanted to turn around the shame in her heritage that my mother-in-law had taken on, and could not shake. We take time to celebrate and have pride in all the heritage/history of my kids, which I find important.
To establish that I had to have the paperwork trail; birth certificates each generation back to her ancestors that had declared Métis status. (6 great-grandparents had). I understand that paper-trail is the minimum for getting Métis cards with the MNA. I don’t know what is used elsewhere. Their benefit, outside of the pride, is that they get free fishing licenses. IF we were impoverished I know they could have applied for grants to get them through secondary ed.
I’m at a loss as to how this is all going to work itself out in future generations. We live where my husband grew up trapping/hunting with his grandfather where, in fact, HE grew up, but we do not spend a lot of time in the Métis community and my husband’s father imparted full European values/attitudes. I have those as well.
Hope that long explanation somewhat helps with the answer.
The Metis people originated as retired employees and family members of Hudson Bay Company employees.
Read the old books about the this.
Early Hudson Bay Company employees took Indian wives. When their contracts were up, some left their Indian wives and families and went back to Europe. The Hudson Bay Company looked after these Metis people. The Hudson Bay Company found them jobs within the corporate structure as they had a working knowledge of the fur trading business. These Metis had contacts that made them valuable.
The true Metis that rebelled at Fort Garry went to Minnesota, Montana and Saskatchewan. They could not stay in Manitoba. Louis Riel was in Montana when the Saskatchewan Metis brought him home to organize for them. The Minnesota Metis had cartage businesses, plying their trade on the river systems.
Anyone that calls themselves Metis and descends from Manitoba is not a true Metis. The true Metis are found in Minnesota, Montana, and Saskatchewan.
“The true Metis are found in Minnesota, Montana, and Saskatchewan.”
When I lived in Winnipeg I knew a few Metis with French names. They certainly didn’t all leave. I had to go to banks in St. Boniface and felt intimidated because they spoke French to everyone but me. I suspect a large portion of French speakers were Metis.
Just having mixed blood does not make you Metis. The mixed bloods who stayed in Manitoba are thought of in a similar manner to the Vichy French.
You know, they claim French blood but don’t take part in the fight.
The fighters… the true Metis… got run out of Dodge.
As a note, Louis Riel’s Dad was born in Île-à-la-Crosse in northern Saskatchewan. His sister died there.
This generalization does not ring true.
My husband’s great grandfather fled to Montana with his family, after his older brothers (Hilaire Sansregret dit Beaubrillant and Peter Sansregret) participated in the North-West Rebellion, and then some in the family came back up to Saskatchewan and into Alberta, mostly as freighters and farm labourers, including him. He established family in the Goodfish Lake area, Northern Alberta. His sister went onto the Elizabeth Métis Settlement in Alberta as well, and has many descendants.
A metis is a person who the metis says is a metis. It’s a small club and they like it that way.
I remember an episode of Bonanza where Louis Riel (Ricardo Montalban, I think) spent some time at the Ponderosa.
It sure seems like a typical group rights bonanza for people in whose past someone had sex with an Indian. Chemical determinism is not an aspirational concept on which to build a nation.
We are all Metis now.
Thanks to our “Supreme Court”…
So we have another opportunity to break the madness.
Most Metis I know are hard working,God loving decent people..
taxed to death with the rest of us.
They could use the Supreme Court Ruling to break Ottawa..
If they identify every tax payer as “Recognized as a Metis” the whole Canadian Apartheid system will crash and burn.
While playing a jig ..To the tune of Riel’s Revenge”?