Relations Between the Métis and French

For a long time, French-Canadians have seen themselves as friends and defenders of the Métis of Western Canada (even more particularly when it comes to francophone Métis). Even so, relations between Métis with francophone roots and French-Canadians settlers in have been ever-shifting since the 19th century. The two groups share a language and a faith, and both can trace a some of their origins back to . Nevertheless, the two groups have their differences. The lives of the Métis are also enriched by their Indigenous heritage, whose influence marks their language, faith, culture, and lifestyle.

Métis and French-Canadians of the 19th century lived together in French-speaking communities in the West. They often found themselves fighting for common causes and so alliances were formed between the two groups. Father George-Antoine Belcourt, for example, was a staunch supporter of free trade and allied himself with its Métis defenders. Father Joseph-Noël Ritchot would become one of the principal allies to and his provisional government during the events of 1869-1870 in Red River. Roger Goulet, who was Métis and president of the Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph du Manitoba, also served as president of the Société Saint-Jean- Baptiste du Manitoba at the beginning of the 20th century. His work as a school inspector also allowed him to uphold the cause of Catholic, Francophone education in Manitoba.

Thus, the Métis and French-Canadians found themselves as allies in the fight for their respective cultures’ survival on many occasions throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. However, conflicts of interest also separated the two groups. The influx of French-Canadian colonists to Manitoba after 1870 diminished Métis influence in the francophone community. These new colonists, while generally in favour of the actions of Louis Riel and the Red River Métis, also brought their prejudices against the colony’s first inhabitants with them. In French Canada, it was the Francophone and Catholic causes that garnered the most support, leaving Métis issues ignored. The Métis quickly found themselves becoming a minority within a minority among the province’s French-speakers.

French-Canadian settlers brought with them the era’s dominant world view, which divided humanity into races. They further believed that some of these races were superior to others. Due to their European heritage, settlers saw themselves as superior to First Nations. The Métis found themselves caught in the middle of this hierarchy, perceived as being superior to the First Nations due to their European heritage, but inferior to the Europeans because of their First Nations heritage.

The “well-meaning” settlers would thus often seek to “civilise” the Métis by turning them into “good French-Canadians”. The province’s French language Catholic schools taught Métis children French-Canadian language, culture, and values. For example, it was believed that speaking Michif was the result of a bad education, and correcting students speaking it in order to supplant it with “proper French” was the attempted remedy.

Thus, French-Canadians contributed to the near disappearance of Métis language and culture. Certainly, the racism of some settlers exacerbated the problem. Many Métis, in order to escape discrimination, chose to assimilate to either the francophone community or the English-speaking majority. Demoralized, many Métis left Manitoba to go further west, hoping to preserve their way of life, while at the same time leaving their lands to be plucked up by settlers from Ontario, Quebec, and the United States. In this way, entire Métis communities dispersed and disappeared over the course of the 20th century.

Conflict erupted between the French-Canadian and Métis elite at various points in the 20th century. The two groups’ political interests did not always align. Historical interpretations of the past have also caused strife and provoked several controversies in Manitoba’s newspapers. Starting in the 1970s, many historians began to take an interest in the question of relations between the Métis and French-Canadians. Through the increasing study of the Métis and their identity, French-Canadians and Métis are beginning to rediscover each other.

References

LUSSIER, Antoine. « Les rapports entre les Bois-Brûlés et les Canadiens Français au Manitoba depuis 1900 », Actes du Colloque du CEFCO du 21-22 novembre 1981, Saint-Boniface, Presses universitaires du Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface, 1981.

PAINCHAUD, Robert. « Les rapports entre les Métis et les Canadiens-français au Manitoba, 1870-1884 » dans A. S. LUSSIER et D. Bruce SEALY, The Other Nation: The Métis, vol. 2, Manitoba Métis Federation Press and Éditions des Bois-Brûlés, 1978.

PAYMENT, Diane. « “On est pas métchifs nous-autres”: un aperçu des relations entre les femmes francophones au Manitoba durant les années 1810-1920.”, Bulletin de la Société historique de Saint-Boniface, issue 3, (Spring, 1992).

PAYMENT, Diane. « Un aperçu des relations entre les missionnaires catholiques et les métisses pendant le premier siècle de contact (1813-1918) dans l’Ouest canadien », Études oblates de l’Ouest 3, Edmonton, Western Canadian Publishers, 1994.

SAINT-ONGE, Nicole. « La dissolution d’une communauté métisse, Pointe-à-Grouette 1860- 1885 », Riel et les Métis canadiens, Saint-Boniface, Société historique de Saint-Boniface, 1990.

Rev. Joseph-Noël Ritchot (1825-1905)

Rev. Joseph-Noël Ritchot (1825-1905), curate of St Norbert from 1862 until 1905. In 1870, he was the principal negotiator between the provisional government of the Red River colony and the Canadian government.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, General Collection of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, SHSB 16645

School Inspector Roger Goulet

School inspector Roger Goulet with his colleague Adrien Potvin in 1914. Roger Goulet was also principal of the St Boniface Normal School and member of the Société du Bon Parler Français (society for well-spoken French)

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, General Collection of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, SHSB 3456

Meeting of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste of St-Pierre-Jolys and the Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph - 1916

Meeting of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste of St-Pierre-Jolys and the Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph in St Pierre in 1916. National French Canadian and Métis organisations collaborated on occasion.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, Fonds Musée de Saint-Boniface, MSB 1369

Manitoba’s Francophone Elite at the End of the 19th Century

Pictured here are some of Manitoba’s Francophone elite at the end of the 19th century: Élie Tassé, , and Maxime Lépine. Conflict broke out between the Métis and French-Canadians when the clergy chose to support the French-Canadian candidate over Métis candidate Maxime Lépine in the 1879 provincial elections.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, Fonds Musée de Saint-Boniface, MSB 0532

Journalist Donatien Frémont

Journalist Donatien Frémont, circa 1915. His account of 1885’s events in Batoche published in La Liberté provoked an outcry from the Métis elite. The Union nationale métisse described a number of his assertions as “unfounded” and “mean-spirited”.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, General Collection of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, SHSB 193

Martin Jérôme

Martin Jérôme, the Municipality of Salaberry’s first reeve and MLA for Carillon. Around the turn of the 20th century, he wrote numerous articles defending the Métis Nation against the domination of the French-Canadian elite and the Anglophone majority.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, General Collection of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, SHSB 267

Métis Traders’ Camp on the American Border, Between 1872 and 1875

Métis traders’ camp on the American border, between 1872 and 1875. Many Métis had to give up their way of life due to the arrival of the colonists. They were forced to adapt to a new sedentary, agricultural society or leave for Western Canada.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, General Collection of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, SHSB 2105

Meeting of the Association d’éducation des Canadiens-Français of Manitoba

Meeting of the Association d’éducation des Canadiens-Français (French-Canadian education association) of Manitoba, circa 1916. The Association lost its three Métis members in 1916 when it refused to support Joseph-P. Dumas in his legal battle to re-establish the French language in Manitoba.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, General Collection of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, SHSB 16847

Remembering La Barrière

Commemorative poster in honour of the events at La Barrière in 1869. The main players in the events of 1869 are featured on the poster, as well as the leaders of the Union nationale métisse. Two French-Canadians can also be seen on the poster: Rev. Ritchot and Rev. Gabriel Cloutier.

Pictued on the left are Ambroise D. Lépine (1840- 1923), Elzéar Lagimodière (1836- 1916), Henri Carrière, G. Charette and Camille Teillet. Pictured in the centre are Louis Riel (1844 -1885), Rev. J.- N. Ritchot (1825- 1905), the monument commemorating La Barrière and Rev. Gabriel Cloutier. Pictured on the right are Elzéar Goulet (1836- 1870), André Nault (1829), Roger Goulet, S.- A. Nault and Honoré Riel.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, General Collection of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, SHSB 16703

Joseph Dubuc

Joseph Dubuc, born in Sainte-Martine in Lower Canada, arrived in the Red River colony in 1869 and allied himself with Louis Riel’s provisory government. In 1873 and 1874, he was one of the lawyers defending Ambroise Lépine, a Métis man.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, Fonds Musée de Saint-Boniface, MSB 563

Auguste-Henri De Trémaudan

Auguste-Henri De Trémaudan (front, far left) in costume in 1928 for a play that he wrote. He also wrote L’Histoire de la nation métisse (“History of the Métis Nation”) for the Société historique métisse (Métis historical society).

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, General Collection of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, SHSB 14611

Complaint by Patrice Beauchemin

Correspondence between Patrice Beauchemin, Éva Langevin, and the Saint-Charles School Board in 1913. Mr. Beauchemin is reporting racist comments that his children’s teacher wrote in their workbooks.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, Fonds Société historique métisse, 0449/1348/105

The 1869-1870 Events in Red River

A letter to the editor written in 1915 in Manitoba by the Comité de surveillance des intérêts Métis (committee to monitor Métis interests), which critiques an article published in Québec newspaper L’Événement about the events of 1869-1870 in Red River.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, Fonds Société historique métisse, 0449/1350/138 Political Poster from the Riding

Political poster from the Provencher riding. The poster exploits the animosity between the Métis and French-Canadians to oppose French-Canadian candidate Alphonse-Alfred-Clément Larivière.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, Fonds Société historique métisse, 0449/G194/8 History of the Métis Nation

Minutes from a meeting of the Historical Committee of the Union nationale métisse. The Committee is commissioning a history book on the Métis Nation, written by Auguste-Henri De Trémaudan, in order to combat the errors and false representations of the Métis in all previous historical writings.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, Fonds Union nationale métisse, Saint-Joseph du Manitoba 0285/1334/035 Altar to Saint Joseph

The divisions between the Métis and French-Canadians sometimes gave rise to healthy competition. In this letter, Roger Goulet, president of the Union nationale métisse, wants to have an altar dedicated to Saint Joseph built. It would be erected in Saint Boniface Cathedral, where one dedicated to Saint John the Baptist already stood.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, Fonds Société historique métisse, 0449/1348/102

La Société historique métisse

Société historique métisse (Métis historical society) bylaws and rules. This organization’s mandate was to make the history of Western Canada more accessible and to give the Métis back their place in it. They often undertook the correction of errors made by Anglophone or French-Canadian historians concerning the Métis Nation.

Archives of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface, Fonds Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph du Manitoba, 0285/1334/035 Il y a 85 ans: Un froid dans les relations entre Canadiens-français et Métis du Manitoba

Un froid dans les relations entre Canadiens-français et Métis

Article by Vania Gagnon published in the Bulletin of the Soicété historique de Saint-Boniface, issue 4, summer 2001 entitled: Il y a 85 ans: Un froid dans les relations entre Canadiens-français et Métis du Manitoba (“It’s been 85 years: a chill in the relations between French-Canadians and Métis in Manitoba”)