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The Metis people of Fort Nelson BC
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Metis Peoples of Fort Nelson
Conclusion
History
Origins
In Fort Nelson, Metis culture began to really become known around the early 1800's but evidence of Metis in the area can be found as early as 1793 when Sir Alexander Mackenzie's expedition established a signpost and started marring native women.
In 1800 a man named David Thomson lead an expedition into BC where he found and documented around 20 Metis families living in the Flathead valley.
Early documentation
Metis definition
Metis in the beginning were more often than not simply defined as the child of an aboriginal woman and a colonizer man, but over time just became the someone with mainly european and aboriginal heritage.
Culture
Clothing
A traditional accessory worn by the Metis is a red sash. This accessory was made in the 1700s. This sash is typically made of 32-42 strands of wool or linen. Typically handmade and took 70-300 hours to craft. Over the years the Metis people have taken inspiration from many weaving styles to develop their own. Some of their inspirations where first nations finger braiding, french canadian woolen garter braiding, and Norwegian finger weaving styles.
Red = shed blood of Metis
Blue = Depth of spirit
Green= fertility of our nation
White = connection to god/ the creator
Yellow = Prosperity
Black = The dark period of suppression and dispossession of Metis people
Metis women introduced beading to the european world by applying the beads on their moccasins, jackets, bags and leggings. This was also the time when european glass beads started to be produced in more colours and more vibrancy.
Language and music
A common instrument played in their culture is the fiddle. However they didn't have assess to them so the instrument was hand made from maple wood and birch.
A popular dance among the metis people is the red river jig.
Flag and location
=Fort Nelson
The Metis flag shows and infinity symbol representing that Metis is forever
How has BC Metis culture been influenced by surrounding communities?
Question
1. Language
Language
The Metis culture was built on two different cultures uniting. The First Nations and Colonial era European men (Mostly French) So this mixture of cultures has influenced the Metis people's language. When listening to someone speak Michif, you can hear some of the french words or sounds in their dialect.
2. Culture
The styles of their finger braiding has changed over the years due to the influence of braiding from other styles. such as the First Nations methods, Norwegian methods and french canadian methods.
Culture
Norwegian methods
First Nations methods
Over the years the Metis culture has been fading. A big contribution to that was the cold and hurtful residential schools. However the metis people weren't treated the same as the children who where only First Nations. to the people running the school, the metis people weren't full "Indian" but they weren't full european or french so they fell into a gray area. They used to sort the metis children into three categories.
1. If these children lived in a european community and lived with the european culture they did not have to go to residential schools.
2. Category 2 is the 100 percent gray zone. The way children would be sorted here was completely based on whether or not the school officials felt they were "Indian" enough. Did they live apart from first nations culture? Did they live near first nations communities? Did they live IN a first nations community? Skin colour, sadly, would also influence sorting greatly.
3. If these children where illegitimate to First Nations mothers and lived a First Nations lifestyle, they would have to go to residential schools without question
Residential schools
Now that you know a bit more about how they where treated we can take a look into how this effected their culture. Since the residential schools taught the culture they thought was "acceptable" they basically Brainwashed into abandoning their Indigenous culture. This had big effects on them, One of the things you can see is the black stripes on their voyager sash representing the dark ages for their culture . Another thing you can see is that their language is slowly fading because no one teaches or learns it anymore. Residential schools have had a huge impact on native culture as whole, Metis people included, and its hard to fully give back all that we took from these people.
Effects of residential schools
In conclusion we think that the Metis culture is fascinating and it would be sad to see it fade.
- www.mnbc.ca
- wikepedia
-ahf.ca
-www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca