Red Sky Métis Independent Nation consists of decendents of the 84 “half-breeds” who were recognized by the Crown as beneficiaries and annuitants under the Robinson Superior Treaty of 1850, in concurrence with the First Nation peoples. However, RSMIN is distinct from the First Nation peoples, by ways of our traditional lands, traditions, customs, and practices.
The following map defines the Robinson Superior Treaty of 1850’s land region:
As an Aboriginal people defined by the Constitution Act of 1982, RSMIN member’s treaty rights are well defined.
History of the Métis People of Lake Superior
The Métis people of the Lake Superior front originated in the intimate relations of French Fur Traders with Aboriginal women along the great Canadian canoe route to the Northwest. These marriages according to the customs of the country produced children who often found themselves between the cultures of their fathers and mothers and thus came to see themselves as a “New Nation.”
The French fur trade was carried on at the present location of Thunder Bay as early as 1679 when Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, “King of the Coureurs de Bois” established a trading post at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River, and to that point he attracted tribes who lived hundreds of miles away in the forests and on the prairies. A former bodyguard of King Louis of France, he died and was buried with great acclaim in Montreal in February, 1710.
Métis people in this area are the descendants of the original employees of the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company working at Fort William as well as other posts. They are considered the first permanent settlers of the Thunder Bay Regions. They are also known as members of a group who chose to remain associated with the district as whole, who traveled between the various posts of the area to work. Many of them remained for long periods of time at one post, where their families were inevitably raised, and whose children intermarried.
Métis people continued as a prominent part of the population during the first decades after confederation (1867) with settlements on the Kaministiquia River across from West fort and on Thunder Bay between McVicar Creek and the Current River.
Our history and culture is celebrated in the traditions and songs of the Great Rendezvous, chronicled in the annals of the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company and occupies an uncontested, pre-eminent position in the historical record of the founding of Thunder Bay, Gateway to the West. It unites the traditions of the people of New France and English Canada with that of our Aboriginal mothers into a distinct and vibrant Métis culture. We are the voice of the Métis people of the Red Sky Métis Independent Nation whose ancestors the Coureurs de Bois, the first colonists – the French Voyageurs, settled this area and brought Canada to the attention of the World as a land of unsurpassed natural wealth and unparalleled opportunity.
Red Sky Métis Independent Nation Today
The Red Sky Métis Independent Nation people possess a strong sense of shared identity and an exclusive territorial base comprising as a Treaty Right lands located in the Robinson 1850 Treaties areas and beyond, reflecting their well-documented history as an indigenous Euro-Aboriginal fur trading nation established throughout the territories of New France, part of which became Lower Canada (later Quebec) and Upper Canada (later Ontario) and extending across the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi valley as far south as Louisiana.