Métis in Alberta
The Métis developed as a people by the interactions of European fur trading agents and First Nations communities.
[4] For example, Fort Edmonton spawned a large Métis population that was involved in an annual buffalo hunt for many years.
The sale of the Hudson's Bay Company's territory in 1869/70 officially ended its legal monopoly on the fur trade (not enforced since the trial of Métis trapper Guillaume Sayer in 1849).
However, it also exposed them to a flood of European and Canadian colonists seeking to profit and disenfranchise the Métis from their lands.
Métis living closer to Canadian occupied territory such as the Red River Métis, today in parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, took up arms against the Canadian government in the two failed Riel Rebellions (or "Riel Resistances" in 1869 and 1885) in an attempt to assert their rights in the face of the newcomers.
The end of these rebellions, combined with the collapse of the fur and buffalo meat industries, forced many Albertan Métis off their lands and reduced them to critical levels of poverty.
On the whole, the Métis cultures and communities survived with farming, ranching, fishing, and industry replacing their traditional economy of fur trading as the main economic activity in the Parkland Belt, though trapping and hunting have remained very important in the Rocky Mountain and boreal forest regions.
However, in much of northern Alberta, the Métis in more remote rural and isolated communities have remained culturally distinct.
They called upon the expertise of a local enfranchised Indian named Joesepf Dion of the Kehewin Cree Nation, approximately 20 km (12 mi) from St. Paul Des Metis.
Due to being resettled so many times, the Métis on the Peavine Metis Settlement were not very connected to that land compared to their ancestors.
Through this legislation, title to a total of 1,250,000 acres (510,000 ha) of land was transferred to the Metis Settlements General Council (MSGC).
In 2006, a total of 27,740 persons living in the Edmonton census metropolitan area (CMA) identified as Métis, accounting for just over half (53%) of the region's Aboriginal population.
[15] Despite their recent legal victories, Métis people in Alberta still faced higher rates of unemployment and disease and lower average incomes than their non-aboriginal neighbours as of 2006.
Their lobbying (along with non-Métis trappers and guides) was partly responsible the creation of the Willmore Wilderness Park in the 1950s, which they hoped would protect this hunting and trapping ground from oil and gas exploration.
[10] They have since come into conflict with some environmentalists and government officials who would prefer to exclude hunting and trapping from all parks in Alberta.
As well, the MNA has transitioned from solely a representative body to an organization responsible and accountable for the ongoing delivery of a variety of programs and services.
It has addressed issues relating to internal governance and has developed the administrative capacity to meet the expectations that are placed upon the MNA.
Its mission is to enhance the individual self-sufficiency and the collective well-being of Metis people through education, training, and research.
