Métis

• primarily Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and North Dakota
• Cree or Saulteaux (Ojibwa) mother and French or Scots/Irish father
• history began when white people first came to North America, along fur trade routes
• traditionally a hunting society
• second half of 19th c they truly felt they were a nation
• 1982 given official recognition by the Canadian government as an Aboriginal nation
• Michif – unique but vanishing language of Plains Cree verbs and French nouns
• may speak French, English, Saulteaux, and Cree
• songs passed as oral tradition; irregular metres or phrasing, and melodies often quite different from European sounds (www.metismuseum.ca: book – Métis songs, online)
• gov’t forced them to become a stationary, farming society – part of the reason they did not flourish after 1885 (see rebellions)