[3] Formed in 1928 as the Métis Association of Alberta, its primary founding members were Felice Callihoo, Joseph Dion, James P. Brady, Malcolm Norris, and Peter Tompkins.

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 their 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.

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.

The organization would be the manifestation of the Métis Nation within Alberta's long struggle to have their self-government, rights, and interests recognized within the province.

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 FMS negotiated with the Government of Alberta for increased political, cultural, social, and economic development on the eight remaining Métis colonies.

[6] On 16 November 2017, the MNA and Canada signed a Framework Agreement that set the stage for self-government negotiations with the Métis Nation within Alberta.

In January 2022, Justice Bernadette Ho of the Alberta Court of King's Bench ruled that the Government had the right to stop negotiations and that the "MNA has not provided a conclusive answer to the question of who speaks for the non-settlement Métis".

[12] The Fort Macy Metis has also challenged this agreement on the basis that the agreement "adopts and deploys the term 'Métis Nation within Alberta' in order to assert a province-wide geographical scope of the MNA’s self-government that will, or has the potential to, subsume and/or supplant rights-bearing Métis Communities.”[12] The Métis Nation of Alberta is led by a democratically elected President a position currently (as of 2023[update]) held by Andrea Sandmaier since 2023, as well as an elected Women's Representative (Tai Amy Grauman) and Youth Representative (Rebecca Lavallee).

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.