Chinook Indian Talk

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What is a "Metis"??

From: S.E.
Date: 2/13/2002
Time: 1:18:25 AM
Remote Name: 206.163.87.152

Comments

A "Metis" is a person of French-Canadian and Native American blood. There is an entire organization of Metis in the Providences of Canada that are west of Hudson's Bay to the Pacific Ocean. They are the direct family line of individuals born of a French Canadian fur-trapper/mountain-man/Hudson's Bay employee and an Indian wife. Even though the Hudson's Bay Company was an English company, it was run by Scots, and employed French-speaking Canadians as trappers, guides, and boatmen.

Many Chinookan women married Hudson Bay employees who were French Canadians. The French Canadians were often Metis by blood, or one-half Indian. They "looked" like an Indian, and could "live off the land" like one.

During the famous "cold sick" of 1829-30, when so many Chinook died from the white man's illnesses, those few that survived were those that were blessed with both French Canadian blood and the luck of living in a remote enough area as to not become infected. Many Chinook burned their villages to the ground and fled for higher ground, away from the Columbia River, away from the white man.

You cannot study the Chinook without knowing of the French Canadians and the permanent link between the Chinook and The Hudson's Bay Company.

S.E.

Last changed: February 13, 2002