Métis Folklore and Mythology

The term Metis is a complex one, especially when used in older historical texts. In contemporary usage it refers to the Metis people, a mixed-heritage community primarily found in Canada (but also in parts of the United States, especially in Minnesota, Montana, and North Dakota), who have both European ancestry and specific First Nations ancestry. These communities are descended from the European trappers, traders, and others who came west in the colonial era, and the indigenous First Nations women they took as wives. The term Metis itself is French, and most members of the Metis community have some French heritage.

Metis has a highly specific meaning, however, and does not simply mean mixed race. Like the Brass Ankles of South Carolina or the Melungeon people of the Cumberland Gap, the Metis community is a distinct, multiracial community, which is to say, a cultural identity as much as a racial one. About one-third of Canada’s First Nations population identify as Metis.

Brief History

Canadian law, as established in the 2003 Supreme Court case R v. Powley, uses three factors to determine if an individual is a member of the Metis community: self-identification; ancestral connection (biological heritage); and, importantly, acceptance by a Metis community. Under the Canadian Constitution, Metis is defined only as one of Canada’s aboriginal peoples (with attendant treaty and land rights). The First Nations heritage of Metis peoples comes nearly always from the Mi'kmaq, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Cree, Ojibwe, Menominee, or Maliseet nations.

Because Metis is a cultural as well as racial identity, Metis culture includes both European and First Nations elements, as well as distinct elements found only among the Metis. This is true of Metis folklore as well. "Folklore" is originally a scholarly term to denote the information that is passed down through stories, songs, proverbs, riddles, and other forms of oral tradition. It began to be studied in the nineteenth century when the social sciences, such as anthropology and sociology, developed, and First Nations and Native American groups were among some of the first cultures whose folklore was recorded, because their strong oral traditions had in most cases not yet been supplanted by written traditions. Folklore refers specifically to the stories and other material that are transmitted throughout a culture, and the folk element is as important as the lore: it denotes that folklore is the accumulated knowledge and product of the common people rather than of experts or authorities. In the Metis culture, this line is often very blurry, since storytelling is an important art, essentially constituting its own type of expertise.

Folklore includes stories and songs that are pure entertainment, as well as those that serve practical, moral, or educational purposes (especially stories told for the benefit of children), and stories with religious significance. Religious affiliation among the Metis varies greatly, from the Catholicism of the French trappers to the Protestantism common in most of modern Canada to traditional indigenous beliefs to New Age systems. Thus, what is merely a folk story or myth to one Metis may be a religious truth to another, or both may find a similar symbolic importance in the same story, regardless of what each believes is literally true.

Overview

Traditional Metis religious beliefs fall into a category that anthropologists call ecological spirituality—a reverence for nature and the interconnectedness of all living things, combined with a deeply felt sense of place—and Metis folklore and mythology reflect this even among Metis communities that have converted to European religions. From the Cree, the Metis retell stories of Whiskey Jack the trickster (who, unlike most Native American trickster figures, is an ally to humankind) and the fairy-like little people called Ma-ma-kwa-se-sak, who live in or near rivers, sometimes causing random mischief but sometimes coming to the aid of people who have left sugar as a gift for them. Whiskey Jack stories are told interchangeably with stories of the French-Canadian folk hero Ti Jean. A significant adaptation of Ti Jean is that the French figure is not ordinarily a trickster figure and has more in common with the "clever peasant" stories of Europe (such as "Jack the Giant Killer" and "The Little Tailor").

The European influence on Metis culture is especially felt in its music. French and Scottish trappers introduced the fiddle, which has become the most common instrument in traditional Metis music, as well as the harmonica and mouth harp. Fiddle music is combined with percussion from varied sources, ranging from formal instruments to spoons, tin pan drumming, or simple foot stomping. Tracing the development of Metis artwork is much more difficult. Artwork, such as beadwork and embroidery, was an important industry in historical Metis communities because of the value of art as trade goods with Europeans, who were the source of fiddles (until such time as Metis craftsmen mastered the art of making them) and other goods. But many European traders did not consider Metis artists to be "real natives," forcing Metis communities to first trade their artworks to other First Nations to be resold. As a result, many historical Metis artifacts have been misattributed to other nations.

Many of the stories found in Metis folklore are variants of stories that can be found elsewhere in Canada. For instance, throughout French Canada there are many stories of the devil, especially as a figure who must be bargained with or who takes advantage of the selfish. In Metis folklore, the devil is called Li Jiyaab, but many of the same stories are told with simple variations. Similarly, the Quebecois werewolf or "loup-garou" is found in Metis stories of the "roogaroo" (sometimes spelled rugaru). However, the roogaroo stories include not only adaptations of French-Canadian loup-garou stories but also conflations of the Algonquian nation’s legend of the Wendigo, the man who was transformed into a monster as punishment for cannibalism or other acts of selfishness.

Bibliography

Andersen, Chris. Metis: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2014. Print.

Belcourt, Herb. Walking in the Woods: A Metis Journey. Vancouver: Brindle and Glass, 2006. Print.

Ens, Gerhard J., and Joe Sawchuk. From New Peoples to New Nations: Aspects of Metis History and Identity from the Eighteenth to Twenty-First Centuries. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2016. Print.

Fiola, Chantal. Rekindling the Sacred Fire: Metis Ancestry and Anishinaabe Spirituality. Winnipeg: U of Manitoba P, 2014. Print.

Nelson, Michael. Drowned, They Said: A Metis History. Niagara Falls: Seraphim Editions, 2011. Print.

Peterson, Jacqueline, and Jennifer S. H. Brown, eds. New Peoples: Being and Becoming Metis in North America. Minneapolis: Minnesota Historical Society, 2001. Print.

Ponton, Lynn. Metis: Mixed Blood Stories. Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 2011. Print.

St. Onge, Nichole, and Carolyn Podruchny, eds. Contours of a People: Metis Family, Mobility, and History. Tulsa: U of Oklahoma P, 2014.