St. Albert’s Ken Pawlyna knows well the importance of the Métis to St. Albert. It was Métis settlers who built the city’s first bridge, homes and trade routes, and a Métis man, Joseph Beaudry, who served as the community’s first chéf du pays or sheriff, Pawlyna said. One of his Métis ancestors, Olivier Bellerose, helped write this community’s first bylaws. Douglas Cardinal is Métis, and he designed St. Albert Place. That perhaps made it the ideal place for the city’s official proclamation of Métis Week Wednesday. About 60 Leo Nickerson and Sir George Simpson school students, many wearing traditional Métis sashes, gathered at the building to sample bannock, sing songs, and learn about the Métis culture. Tom Ghostkeeper, chair of the local branch of the Métis Nation of Alberta, raised the blue and white flag of his nation to cap off the day. Event organizer Sharon Morin said it was the biggest Métis Week celebration yet, with delegates from the public and Catholic school boards and Arts and Heritage St. Albert in attendance. The event has taken on new significance with the recent release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report and a new push from local schools to teach aboriginal history. Métis Week is traditionally celebrated on Louis Riel Day, which falls on Nov. 16 in most of Canada. (Manitoba observes it on what Albertans call Family Day.) The date marks the day Métis leader and founder of Manitoba Louis Riel was executed for his leadership of the North West Resistance/Rebellion, where Métis and aboriginal militants fought for their rights against the federal government, Ghostkeeper said. This year was the 131st anniversary of his death, Coun. Wes Brodhead told the crowd. “St. Albert certainly recognizes and celebrates the Métis as founding members of our community, and today I’m proud to proclaim that this is Métis Week in St. Albert.” The Métis were descendents of First Nations and European persons who lived throughout western Canada, Pawlyna said. They were excellent marksmen and hunters of buffalo. They were known for playing the fiddle and dancing the jig at house parties and also for regular attendance at church. “It was a community not unlike it is today,” he said, in that its people valued family, the church and each other. The sashes traditionally worn by the Métis were finger-woven and about three metres long, Pawlyna said, noting the ones worn by the students. The sash could act as a belt, scarf, towel or tow-rope. It also indicated marital status: you tied it on your left if you were married and on the right if you were single. The Métis flag is the oldest patriotic flag made in Canada and was first flown by Alexander MacDonnell in 1814, Morin said. It comes in two varieties: blue, which is the one flying over St. Albert and affiliated with Métis who worked with the North West fur trading company; and red, used by Hudson’s Bay employees. The infinity symbol symbolizes how the Métis people will exist forever. Métis culture went underground for many years due to fears of discrimination, said Pawlyna, who could recall his grandmother specifically telling him as a child not to advertise his heritage for that reason. That has changed today, as groups such as the Métis Nation of Alberta promote pride in one’s culture and win court battles to protect Métis rights. Ghostkeeper said the latest development on that front was April’s Daniels Decision, where the Supreme Court ruled that all Métis were considered “Indians” under Sect. 91(24) of the Constitution Act. This means that the federal government has responsibility for them, which could affect programs and services. Morin said she hoped to organize an even bigger Métis Day event next year for Canada’s 150th.
