A 19th century community of the

Métis people The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the Anglo-Métis, more commonly known as Countryborn, were children of fur traders; they typically had Scots ( Orcadian, mainland Scottish), or

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

fathers and Aboriginal mothers.Brown, J. S. H. (1985). “Diverging identities: The Presbyterian Métis of St. Gabriel Street, Montreal.” In Peterson, J. & Brown, J. (eds.) ''The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America'' (pp. 195-206). Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. They were also known as "English halfbreeds." Some Anglo-Metis still identify by this name.Adams, C., Peach, I., Dahl, G. (eds.) (2013). ''Métis in Canada: History, Identity, Law & Politics''. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press. Their first languages were generally those of their mothers:

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

Saulteaux The Saulteaux (pronounced , or in imitation of the French pronunciation , also written Salteaux, Saulteau and other variants), otherwise known as the Plains Ojibwe, are a First Nations band government in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Al ...

Assiniboine The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda ...

, etc. and

. Some of their fathers spoke

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

or Scots, leading to the development of the

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...

known as " Bungee". Some scholars have started spelling Métis as "Metis" to acknowledge the presence and contributions of the Anglo-Métis and the complex history of the Métis people overall. __TOC__

History

The

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term '' Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people ...

-Métis, like their francophone cousins, lived in the

Prairies Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

and the area adjacent to the

Red River Colony The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assiniboia, Assinboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hud ...

but also in fur trading and military settlements in Ontario along the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

Campbell, S. ““I shall settle, marry, and trade here": British military personnel and their mixed-blood descendants.” (2007). In Lischke, U. & McNab, D., (eds.) ''The Long Journey of a Forgotten People: Métis Identities and Histories'' (pp. 81-108). Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. and

James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost par ...

. There also some records of Anglo-Métis families descending from relationships between British soldiers and Indigenous women of various tribes. They then tended to identify more with the politically and economically dominant British culture of Canada. If they were descended from Scottish fur traders and Indigenous women, they were often baptized as part of the Presbyterian church if their fathers chose to acknowledge their existence. Case studies have been done on the birth and baptism registers at the St. Gabriel Street Presbyterian Church in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

because it provides a good example of how Métis children adjusted to staying temporarily or living in an urban environment that was considerably foreign compared to the remote, rural fur trading settlements or Indigenous camps in which they were born. Thus, most Anglo-Métis were the result of relationships, officially recognized by the Church or not, between English and Scottish fur traders and Indigenous women.Brown, J. S. H. (1980). ''Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Families in Indian Country''. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Van Kirk, S. (1976). “‘The Custom of the Country’: An Examination of Fur Trade Marriage Practices.” In Thomas, L. H. (ed.), ''Essays on Western History in Honour of Lewis Gwynne Thomas'' (pp. 49-68). Edmonton: University of Alberta Press. The ethnicity of their fathers also determined which of the competing fur trading companies they might end up working for as adults. If they were descended from English fur traders, they generally worked for the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

. If they were descended from Scottish fur traders, they generally worked for the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

, also known as "Nor'Westers." Additionally, the Anglo-Métis/Countryborn had a more

sedentary lifestyle Sedentary lifestyle is a lifestyle type, in which one is physically inactive and does little or no physical movement and or exercise. A person living a sedentary lifestyle is often sitting or lying down while engaged in an activity like socia ...

of farming than the francophone

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

community, whose men were generally hunters and trappers. The French-speaking Métis were somewhat more

nomadic A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

because they relied upon hunting as a trade and food resource. The Anglo-Métis played a role in both the

Red River Rebellion The Red River Rebellion (french: Rébellion de la rivière Rouge), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by ...

of 1869 and the

North-West Rebellion The North-West Rebellion (french: Rébellion du Nord-Ouest), also known as the North-West Resistance, was a resistance by the Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Nations Cree and Assiniboine of the District of S ...

of 1885, as they suffered from similar issues of racial discrimination and land problems as their

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

brethren. By the 19th century, the English-speaking and French-speaking Métis had become quite similar culturally and were moving closer to each other in opposition to the British-Canadian majority. Their musical traditions, especially in the case of fiddle music, were derived from both British Isles and France, as was the Métis traditional dance referred to as "jigging," or the "Red River Jig." Their complexion ranged from fair skinned, blond hair, and blue eyed to dark skinned, with dark hair and dark eyes. Métis elders say that no distinctions were made between individuals based upon complexion within the community. Family, culture, and strong identification with their Christian faith were the unifying bond them. The two communities' primary differences lay in their languages and Christian religious affiliations those of French descent were generally

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, and those of British descent were

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

. Most Countryborn were

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

. They were involved in a mixed economy of

subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

and

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

hunting throughout most of the 19th century and also found employment with the

and the

. The Countryborn were often known in the 19th century as "mixed-bloods," "Black Scots," "Native English," or "Half-Breeds" (the last term is now considered pejorative). The French-speaking Metis referred to them simply as ''les métis anglais'' or ''les autres métis''. Anglo-Metis gradually came to see themselves as being hardly different from the French-speaking Métis. Today, the two groups are no longer politically distinct, and are commonly known on the

Canadian Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

simply as Métis. Prominent Anglo-Métis/Countryborn include

James Isbister James Isbister (November 29, 1833 – October 16, 1915) was a Canadian Métis leader of the 19th century. Prominent among the Anglo-Métis of the area, he is considered to be the founder of the city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Life An i ...

Thomas McKay Thomas McKay (1 September 1792 – 9 October 1855) was a Canadian businessman who was one of the founders of the city of Ottawa, Ontario. Biography McKay was born in Perth, Scotland and became a skilled stonemason. He emigrated to the C ...

, and

John Norquay John Norquay (May 8, 1841 – July 5, 1889) was the fifth premier of Manitoba from 1878 to 1887. He was born near St. Andrews in what was then the Red River Colony, making him the first Premier of Manitoba to have been born in the region. ...

References

* Barkwell, Lawrence J., Leah Dorion, and Audreen Hourie. ''Metis legacy Michif culture, heritage, and folkways'', ''Metis Legacy series, v. 2'', Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2006. *Barkwell, Lawrence J., Leah Dorion and Darren Prefontaine. ''Metis Legacy: A Historiography and Annotated Bibliography'', Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications Inc. and Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2001.
"Metis: The Western Metis"
''The Canadian Encyclopedia''

From Rupert's Land to Canada

* Oral histories of Manitoba and Saskatchewan Metis/Michif Elders. {{DEFAULTSORT:Anglometis Canadian culture Métis in Canada

History

See also

References