Métis
;)
The term Métis refers to the offspring of French fur traders and First Nations women. Although there were people of mixed blood among the First Europeans that arrived in North America, the term Métis usually refers to those born in western Canada where an identifiable group exists. The term Half-Breed refers to those children of Scottish or English fur traders and First Nations women.
The role that individual Métis would be given in the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) or the North West Company (NWC) was determined by the status of their father in the company. They were often given roles like canoe men, boatmen, labourers, interpreters, hunters, or guides.
Those who were the offspring of Scottish or English officers in the companies would receive an education in the east or in Great Britain. They would then return to become clerks or factors. At Fort Dunvegan, George Simpson Jr. became a factor and Albert Tate was a clerk.
;)
The Métis often followed in the lifestyles of their parents, wearing European clothes of the time.
The Red River Métis were the most distinctive as they developed brightly coloured clothes with beaded leather jackets, hats, or capotes for the men. Women wore tartan shawls, long black skirts, and at times beaded leggings. They built canoes, carioles, snow shoes, and fiddles of their own. They also invented the Red River cart, made with two large wheels that could travel well over the prairies or the muskeg.
Many Métis migrated to Saskatchewan and Alberta to join other family members after the Red River Insurrection of 1869-70 and the decline of buffalo on the Plains in the 1870s. Communities of Métis formed in St. Albert, Lesser Slave Lake, Lac La Biche, Dunvegan, Peace River, Spirit River, Flying Shot Lake, Saskatoon Lake, and Fort St. John.