Métis Nation of Alberta

Indigenous peoples
in Canada

About

The Métis Nation of Alberta (MNA) was formed in 1928 as the Métis Association of Alberta. The organization is a Registered Not-For-Profit Society in the province of Alberta. Its primary goal was to be a political body to lobby the government on behalf of the Métis people. Its primary founding members were Felice Callihoo, Joseph Dion, James P. Brady, Malcolm Norris, Peter Tompkins. Currently the MNA has 6 regional boards. They have branches that deal with unemployment, children services, land agreements and the rights of Métis people as Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

The MNA's President is Audrey Poitras since 1996. Alberta has the largest population of declared Métis of any province.

History


The Métis Nation within Alberta is an integral part of the larger Métis Nation-a distinct Indigenous people whose Homeland stretches across west-central North America. Since the early 20th century, the Métis in Alberta have organized at the provincial level to advocate for the rights and interests that we hold together as an Aboriginal people. Rebuilding the Métis Nation within Alberta, however, presents unique challenges. Alberta is home to the country's largest Métis population. The Métis Nation of Alberta ("MNA"), which has served as the representative of the Métis in the province since 1928, currently has over 43,000 registered citizens. Alberta is also home to eight Metis Settlements established by provincial legislation. The Metis Settlements are the only secure Métis land base in Canada. Many Métis Settlement members are also registered MNA citizens, but many are not.

By the early 1800s, a new and distinct Indigenous people emerged in what is now western Canada-the Métis Nation. The Métis Nation developed its own group identity, language (Michif), culture, way of life, and forms of self-government throughout the inter-related communities and territory of our Homeland. The Métis Nation Homeland spans present day Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta and extends into Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the northern United States.

In 1928, Felice Callihoo, Joseph Dion, James P. Brady, Malcolm Norris, and Peter Tompkins founded the Association des Métis Alberta et les Territoires du Nord-Ouest, which would later be known as the Métis Association of Alberta ("MAA'') and then the Métis Nation of Alberta ("MNA"). The MNA is the manifestation of the Métis Nation within Alberta's long struggle to have our self-government, rights, and interests recognized within the province of Alberta.

In 1934, in response to MAA lobbying, Alberta appointed the "Half-breed Commission" to examine and report on Métis health, education, homelessness, and land issues. The MAA's leadership consistently attended the Commission's hearings. After a two-year investigation, the Commission recommended that the province provide Métis with a secure land base and adequate services. In 1938, Alberta responded by adopting the Métis Population Betterment Act, which created the province's 12 original Métis colonies (between 1941 and 1960, Alberta rescinded four of these colonies).

In 1961, the MNA, then still known as the MAA, was first incorporated and registered under provincial legislation. This registration was mainly done because governments began making funding available to Indigenous representative organizations such as the MNA but insisted that such organizations be incorporated in order to be legally recognized entities and obtain the funding available. Our leaders chose to incorporate the MAA to act as a legal and administrative complement to our Métis self-government.

In 1975, the Alberta Federation of Metis Settlements Association ("FMS") was incorporated and registered under provincial legislation. It aimed to provide the remaining Métis colonies with a united voice. One of the FMS's earliest leaders, Adrian Hope, was a proud member of the MAA who had attended the hearings of the Half -breed Commission on the MAA's behalf and had served as MAA president from 1961 to 1967. The FMS negotiated with the Government of Alberta for increased political, cultural, social, and economic development on the eight remaining Métis colonies.

Ultimately, these negotiations culminated in the signing of the Alberta-Metis Settlements Accord in 1989. The following year, pursuant to the Accord, Alberta passed the Metis Settlements Act and related legislation and granted the Metis Settlements General Council ("MSGC") fee simple title to the lands of what are now known as the Metis Settlements. This was done for the benefit of all Métis in Alberta:

“[T]his legislation is for all Métis of Alberta. Yes, it's directed to the settlements because that is in fact where the land base of 1.25 million acres is located, on the eight settlements. But any Métis can access membership and the rights to live and follow the Métis culture on these settlements...

The Métis Association of Alberta, which is more or less the umbrella group for off-settlement Métis, concurs in this process. That in itself is historic because the Métis community have come together on this process realizing that they all win, they all have access to it. So I don't think we're establishing two classes of people. That's not the intent. We're doing this for the Métis of Alberta ...."[1]

The MNA has the only objectively verifiable registry of citizens of the Métis Nation within Alberta, a registry funded by the federal government, the level of government with constitutional responsibility for Métis.[2] Citizens of the Metis Nation exist both on and off of the Metis Settlements and Métis Settlement membership, in of itself, does not necessarily identify rights-bearing citizens of the Métis Nation.[3]

On November 16, 2017, the MNA and Canada signed a Framework Agreement that set the stage for self-government negotiations with the Métis Nation within Alberta. In particular, the Framework Agreement commits the parties to making best-efforts to reach a self-government agreement within two years (by November 16, 2019) that would provide for recognition of a constitution, which would establish the core functions of a self-government for the Métis Nation within Alberta. On June 27, 2019, the Government of Canada and the Métis Nation of Alberta signed a Métis Government Recognition and Self-Government Agreement (MGRSA) which recognizes the MNA as the government of the Metis Nation within Alberta and identifies the path for formalizing that recognition of the MNA as the government of the Métis Nation within Alberta within the Canadian legal system.

Métis Settlements General Council
Main article: Métis in Alberta

The Métis of Alberta are the only Métis in Canada to have a negotiated and legislated land base. There are eight Metis Settlements covering an area of 1,400,000 acres (5,700 km2). The land was granted by Letters Patent in 1990 and is held collectively in fee simple through the Métis Settlements General Council, the only governing political assembly of the Metis Territories.[4]

The eight Settlements are:

Métis Settlements of Alberta
Name Municipal district or
specialized municipality
[5][6]		 Population
(2016)[7]		 Population
(2011)[7]		 Change
(%)[7]		 Land
area
(km²)[7]		 Population
density
(per km2)[7]
Buffalo LakeSmoky Lake County712 492 +44.7%336.972.1/km2
East PrairieBig Lakes County304 366 −16.9%334.440.9/km2
ElizabethBonnyvilleMD of Bonnyville No. 87653 654 −0.2%252.442.6/km2
Fishing LakeBonnyvilleMD of Bonnyville No. 87446 436 +2.3%355.511.3/km2
Gift Lake[lower-alpha 1]Big Lakes County
Northern Sunrise County		658 662 −0.6%812.730.8/km2
Kikino[lower-alpha 2]Smoky Lake County
Lac La Biche County		934 964 −3.1%443.572.1/km2
Paddle PrairieNorthern LightsCounty of Northern Lights544 562 −3.2%1,738.820.3/km2
PeavineBig Lakes County607 690 −12.0%816.380.7/km2
Total Metis settlements — 4,858 4,826 +0.7% 5,090.86 1.0/km2
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See also

Notes
  1. Gift Lake comprises two parts. The majority is located within Big Lakes County, while the balance is located within Northern Sunrise County. The Big Lakes County portion (part "A") had a population of 658 living on 811.68 km2 (313.39 sq mi) in 2016, while the Northern Sunrise County portion (part "B") had a population of 0 living on 1.05 km2 (0.41 sq mi).[7]
  2. Kikino comprises two parts. The majority is located within Smoky Lake County, while the balance is located within Lac La Biche County. The Smoky Lake County portion (part "A") had a population of 934 living on 442.27 km2 (170.76 sq mi) in 2016, while the Lac La Biche County portion (part "B") had a population of 0 living on 1.30 km2 (0.50 sq mi).[7]

References
  1. Hansard, 22nd Leg, 2nd Sess (5 June 1990) at 1669-70 (Hon. Mr. Rostad), cited in Kikino Métis Settlement v Abtosway, 2018 ABCA 199 at para 5.
  2. Daniels v Canada (Indian Affairs and Northern Development), 2016 SCC 12 at para 50.
  3. L'Hirondelle v Alberta (Sustainable Resource Development), 2013 ABCA 12 at para 34.
  4. "Our Land - Our Culture - Our Future". Métis Settlements General Council. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
  5. "Specialized and Rural Municipalities and Their Communities" (PDF) (PDF). Alberta Municipal Affairs. August 30, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  6. "Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions, census subdivisions (municipalities) and designated places, 2011 and 2006 censuses". Statistics Canada. January 30, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
  7. "Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and designated places, 2016 and 2011 censuses – 100% data (Alberta)". Statistics Canada. February 8, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2017.

Further reading
  • Barkwell, Lawrence J., Leah Dorion, and Audreen Hourie. Métis legacy Michif culture, heritage, and folkways. Métis legacy series, v. 2. Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2006. ISBN 0-920915-80-9
  • Barkwell, Lawrence J., Leah Dorion and Darren Prefontaine. "Metis Legacy: A Historiography and Annotated Bibliography". Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications Inc. and Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2001. ISBN 1-894717-03-1
  • Bell, Catherine Edith. Alberta's Metis Settlements Legislation An Overview of Ownership and Management of Settlements Lands. Regina, Sask., Canada: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 1994. ISBN 0-88977-081-6
  • Driben, Paul. We Are Metis The Ethnography of a Halfbreed Community in Northern Alberta. Immigrant communities & ethnic minorities in the United States & Canada, 2. New York: AMS Press, 1985. ISBN 0-404-19406-0
  • Gordon, Naomi, and Maria King. Voices of Courage Alberta Métis Veterans Remembered. 2006. ISBN 0-9736895-2-8
  • Pocklington, T. C. The Government and Politics of the Alberta Metis Settlements. Regina, Sask., Canada: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 1991. ISBN 0-88977-060-3
  • Sawchuk, Joe. The Dynamics of Native Politics The Alberta Metis Experience. Purich's Aboriginal issues series. Saskatoon: Purich Pub, 1998. ISBN 1-895830-09-5


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