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The North Slave
Métis
Versatile, adaptable, and frequently multi-lingual,
the early Métis inhabitants of the
Northern Great Slave area (in the vicinity
of modern-day Rae-Edzo) formed a culturally
distinct grouping of indigenous people.
The story of the Great Slave Métis
is only now emerging, as organizations such
as the North Slave Métis
Alliance, formed in 1996, strengthen
the heritage, culture and political identity
of the Métis of the North Slave region.
Oral history suggests that the founders
of the North Slave Métis culture
arrived in the area as early as the late
17th century, long before explorers such
as Samuel Hearne and Alexander Mackenzie
visited Great Slave Lake. Present-day Métis
are thought to be the descendants of the
offspring of French (or French-Canadian)
and Cree unions – trappers and coureurs
de bois - who quietly made their way
to the Northwest in advance of the Canadian
fur trade. Contemporary North Slave Métis
trace their roots to 2 founding families.
While the Métis arrivals quickly
became immersed in the Great Slave’s
Chipewyan, Slavey and Dogrib cultures, they
maintained many elements of their French-Cree
heritage. As trappers, boatsmen, fort provisioners,
and fur trading middlemen, they spoke as
many as 7 languages, including French, Cree,
and several Dene dialects. A unique North
Slave Métis language known as “Michif,”
a mixture of the French, Cree and Dene languages,
is still spoken today by many North Slave
Métis. In the past, some Métis
from the area referred to themselves as
“Mitif.”
Métis families tended to have larger
families than the Dene. They also lived
a less nomadic lifestyle; while entire Dene
families travelled into the bush to hunt,
fish and trap, Métis women and children
remained near the local trading post while
the men worked their trap lines and hunted
for caribou and furs.
North Slave Métis were closely connected
with Fort Rae (now known as Old Fort Rae),
on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake. Built
in 1852 by the Hudson’s Bay Company,
and named for Chief Factor John Rae, participant
in John Franklin’s first Arctic expedition,
the fort was an important provisioning post
for other fur trading forts in the Mackenzie-Great
Slave Lake-Athabasca district. Métis
families at Fort Rae are thought to have
greatly outnumbered Dogrib families; oral
traditions suggest that some Métis
lived in the area even before the post was
constructed. The re-establishment of Old
Fort Rae as a Métis cultural and
historical site is one of the long-range
goals of the North Slave Métis Alliance.
While the North Slave Métis, as
a distinct group, was a signatory to the
1920 Dogrib Treaty 11, their cultural identity
and unique heritage has not been widely
recognized. Increasing awareness of the
Métis as an indigenous people with
their own laws, values, beliefs, technologies,
economy and history, with historical
While the North Slave Métis, as
a distinct group, was a signatory to the
1920 Dogrib Treaty 11, their cultural identity
and unique heritage has not been widely
recognized. Increasing awareness of the
Métis as an indigenous people with
their own laws, values, beliefs, technologies,
economy and history, with historical evidence
of the ancestral use of land within a 320
kilometre radius of Old Fort Rae, is the
mandate of the North Slave Métis
Alliance.
Métis of the
South: South and west of Great Slave
Lake, along the Slave River and the Mackenzie
River, a distinct Metis culture traces its
roots to voyageurs who reached the area
as early as the mid-1700’s. The “southern”
Great Slave Metis maintained close contact
with the “Red River Metis” of
southern Manitoba. |
