MéTIS PEOPLE (CANADA)

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The 'Métis' (pronounced "MAY tee", IPA: , in French or , in Michif ), also historically known as Bois Brule, mixed-bloods, Countryborn (or Anglo-Métis), are one of three recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Their homeland consists of the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, as well as the Northwest Territories. The Métis Homeland also includes parts of the northern United States (specifically Montana, North Dakota, and northwest Minnesota).
The Métis Nation consists of descendants of marriages of Woodland Cree, Ojibway, Saulteaux, and Menominee aboriginals to French Canadians, Scots and English. Their history dates to the mid-seventeenth century. Historically, many (but not all) Métis spoke a mixed language called Michif. ''Michif'' is a phonetic spelling of the Métis pronunciation of ''Métif'', a variant of ''Métis''. The Métis today predominantly speak English, with French a strong second language, as well as numerous aboriginal tongues. The encouragement and use of Michif is growing due to outreach within the provincial Métis councils after at least a generation of decline.
The word ''Métis'' (the singular, plural and adjectival forms are the same) is French, and a cognate of 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".
Countless Métis over time are thought to have been absorbed and assimilated into the surrounding populations making Métis heritage (and thereby Aboriginal ancestry) more common than sometimes realized. Recent research and DNA analysis has often shown forgotten Aboriginal lineages in many people of French Canadian and Acadian descent.

Métis culture

Métis culture is an amalgamation of cultures of the First Nations and French Canada. The Métis are known for fiddle playing, but traditional Métis instruments also include the concertina, the harmonica, and the hand drum. Fiddle is often accompanied by a form of dancing referred to as jigging. Traditionally, dancing included such moves as the Waltz Quadrille, the Square dance, Drops of Brandy, the Duck, La Double Gigue and the Red River Jig.
Métis people were famous for their horsemanship and breeding of horses. The RCMP Musical Ride horses dance the Quadrille as begun by the Métis and their horses.
As Métis culture developed, a new language called Michif emerged. This language was a result of the combining of French nouns and Cree verbs. Though a distinct language, it is now spoken by few people. Some estimates put the number of Michif speakers at about 1,000.
Of the clothing worn by Métis in the 19th century, the sash or ''ceinture flechée'' is probably the most common today. It is traditionally roughly three metres in length and is made by weaving yarn together with one's fingers. The sash is worn around the waist, tied in the middle, with the fringed ends hanging. Vests with characteristic Métis figurative beadwork are also popular. The Red River Coat is historically recognized as coming from the Métis culture.
The Métis figured more prominently in Canada's past, having been very valuable and indispensable fur traders, voyageurs (coureur de bois), frontiersmen, pioneers, and middlemen whom communicated between the First Nations peoples and cultures and the European settlers and colonialists. Their large early contribution to Canada's evolution and formation as a nation has often been underestimated or downplayed by historians.
Métis people took traditions from both of their parents and developed a culture of their own. In recent times it seems to be that the more European elements have survived as the racial discrimination against the Métis population lead many to hide their ethnicity and assimilate into Canadian Society.

Métis Spirituality

The common misconception is that the Métis practiced only the religion of their fathers (Catholicism or Protestant). The truth is that like the Metis Nation itself, the spiritual mixture is as complex as the people who make up the nation.
From the beginning, the Métis child absorbed the teachings of both father and mother. Those teachings were made up of the Father's religious background and the traditional teachings of the Aboriginal Nation of the Mother. The child learned to live in both the Aboriginal and White worlds encompassing both in their spirituality.
As we see this ability to learn from all of nations they came in contact with added to the future spirituality of the Métis. Today Métis practice all forms of religion, from mainline Christianity to New Age concepts and everything in between. From their Catholicism they have the Patron Saint of Métis People, St. Joseph of Nazareth. From their Aboriginal Relatives they incorporate the sweat lodge, medicine wheel, sacred pipe and Long House ceremonies, and many other Aboriginal spiritual beliefs.
Many Métis People, as with other Aboriginal communities, have lost their spiritual connections to the past because of marginalization or poverty and decimation of their communities and their way of life. The healing has begun and the renewal of their spirituality is an exciting journey that many Métis People are taking.
It is very common to encounter a prayer and a smudge at the opening and closing of meetings of Metis People.³

Prominent Métis

The most famous Métis was Louis Riel who led what are usually depicted as two 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-Métis effectively deprived the Métis 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 Métis in 1938 to correct what it believed to be an inequity, but Saskatchewan and Manitoba have not followed Alberta's lead.
Two other famous Métis leaders were Cuthbert Grant and Gabriel Dumont.
Born in 1940, in northern Saskatchewan, Métis writer/filmmaker Maria Campbell brought the struggles of modern-day Métis and Aboriginal people into the public mind through her breakthrough book, ''Halfbreed'' (1973), and the collaborative play, ''Jessica'' (1982). She has captured the sound and song of traditional stories through her work in dialect, ''Stories of the Road Allowance People'' (1996).
On May 7, 2004, Métis Todd Ducharme was appointed as a judge of the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice.
Other well known Canadians of Métis descent are Sharon Bruneau, a Canadian female bodybuilder and fitness model, and Kevin O'Toole, 1996 North American Lightheavyweight bodybuilding champion.
British Columbia New Democratic Party Leader Carole James is of partial Métis ancestry.
NHL star defenceman Sheldon Souray is of Métis ancestry.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is of partial Métis ancestry.
Architect Douglas Cardinal is of Métis and Blackfoot ancestry.
Novelist Sandra Birdsell is the daughter of a Métis man and a Russian Mennonite woman and based her award-winning novel ''Children of the Day'' in part on her parents' experiences in Manitoba in the 1920s-50s.
MMA fighter Kalib Starnes is also a Métis, along with Jon Gallant, bassist for the Canadian band Billy Talent.

Notes

★ 3.http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/4832/spirit.html

External links

Other

★ A History of Aboriginal Treaties and Relations in Canada This site includes contextual materials, links to digitized primary sources and summaries of primary source documents.

★ http://www.metismuseum.ca/ Metis Museam (Gabriel Dumont Institute)

This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.

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