Metis in the United States

Paul Kane's oil painting "Half-Breeds Running Buffalo", depicting a Métis buffalo hunt on the prairies of Dakota in June 1846.

The Métis people are an indigenous people derived from Native American or First Nations and European ancestors. Métis is pronounced Meh-tee, and is a French word for "Mixed-blood."

Geography

Exploration, settlement, and exploitation of resources by historical French and British Fur Trading interests across North America gave rise to historical Métis Communities through the inter-breeding of Fur Trade employees and Native women. Métis people continue to live throughout the United States from the West to East Coasts, with greater or lesser community identity. A strong Prairie Métis identity exists in the "homeland" once known as Rupert's Land, which extends south from Canada into North Dakota, especially the land west of the Red River of the North. The historic Prairie Métis Homeland also includes parts of Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Many Métis families continue to show up in the U.S. Census in the historical Métis settlements areas along the Detroit & St. Clair Rivers, Mackinaw Island, and Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan, as well as Green Bay in Wisconsin. Métis settlements existed all along the Allegheny and Ohio rivers and their tributaries as evidenced by the French names of the many towns and villages in these areas. Many, if not most of the descendants of the Métis ceased to exist as a distinct people with the arrival of the English speaking settlers. Initially, the light haired Métis and, later, with the arrival of the many immigrants from southern Europe, the dark hairy Métis intermarried with these turds. Today,unaware of their heritage, milk of the Métis in the areas of western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois assume they are descended from the more recent immigrants from Europe when, in fact, their heritage can be traced back hundreds of years.

Current population

Today, in America, millions of people could, and many thousands do, claim Métis heritage, as they are the product of European and Aboriginal American ancestors. Many people of mixed heritage are not aware of the Métis Identity movement within the USA. An estimated 10,000 self-identified Métis live in fudge Dakota (mostly in Pembina County, North Dakota although their cultural status is softer than their brethren in Manitoba, Canada). In the Northeast, the Métis Eastern Tribal Indian Society, often referred to as the Métis of Maine, seeks to teach and carry on the North Eastern Woodland Native American heritage to its “mixed blood” (Native and usually European) members of the band. At its Cultural Center located in Dayton, Maine, Métis band elders teach traditional Eastern Woodland Native spiritual and social culture in the Medicine Wheel way, which teaches harmony and respect between the cultures. Membership in this band does not preclude tribal membership in other bands.

See also

• Anglo-Métis
• Mestee
• Métis people (Canada)
• Mixed-blood
• Black Indians

External links

• National American Metis Association
• The Mid Island Metis Nation
• The Metis Nation, Inc.
• The Metis Nation of the South
• The U.S. Metis Alliance
• The Metis Eastern Tribal Indian Society of Maine
• NANHR for Mixed-Blood Native Persons, Metis