The definition of the word has at times been disputed, as some people have attempted to use lower-case métis in the archaic sense of having a single, distant Indigenous ancestor or being in some other way "mixed".

[9] As French Canadians followed the North American fur trade to the west, some of the settlers made unions with different Indigenous women, including the Cree.

[18] Over time, the Métis (uppercase 'M') emerged as a distinct Indigenous people during the late 18th century, with the term referring to a particular sociocultural heritage and an ethnic identification.

This viewpoint sees Métis as historically the children of French fur traders and Nehiyaw women of western and west central Canada.

Their unions with European men engaged in the fur trade in the Old Northwest were often of the type known as marriage à la façon du pays ("according to the custom of the country").

Closely related are the Métis in the United States, primarily those in border areas such as Northern Michigan, the Red River Valley and Eastern Montana.

Continued organizing and political activity resulted in "the Métis" gaining official recognition from the national government as one of the recognized Aboriginal groups in S.35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, which states:[56] 35.

The MSA test excludes those people who are Status Indians (that is, a member of a First Nation), an exclusion which was upheld by the Supreme Court in Alberta v. Cunningham (2011).

[55]: 9  The court was explicit that its ten-point test is not a comprehensive definition of Métis.Questions remain as to whether Métis have treaty rights; this is an explosive issue in the Canadian Aboriginal community today.

[55]: 11  The MNC views the Métis as a single nation with a common history and culture centred on the fur trade of "west-central North America" in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In Northern Canada neither the CAP nor the MNC have affiliates; here local Métis organizations deal directly with the federal government and are part of the Aboriginal land claims process.

He also committed to two other initiatives aimed at heeding the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) which examined abuses at Indian Residential Schools.

For example, for membership in the MNA, an applicant must provide a documented genealogy and family tree dating to the mid-1800s, proving descent from one or more members of historic Métis groups.

In the first stage, "servant" (employee) traders of the fur trade companies, known as wintering partners, would stay for the season with First Nations bands, and make a "country marriage" with a high-status native woman.

In the Fort Edmonton region, however, many House Indians never adopted a Métis identity but continued to identify primarily as Cree, Saulteaux, Ojibwa, and Chipweyan descendants up until the early 20th century.

[75] The Métis peoples were respected as valuable employees of both fur trade companies, due to their skills as voyageurs, bison hunters, and interpreters, and for their knowledge of the lands.

By the early 19th century, European immigrants, mainly Scottish farmers, along with Métis families from the Great Lakes region moved to the Red River Valley in present-day Manitoba.

[78] The allocation of Red River land caused conflict with those already living in the area, as well as with the North West Company, whose trade routes had been cut in half.

[81] The Métis and the Anglo-Métis (commonly known as Countryborn, children of First Nations women and Orcadian, other Scottish or English men),[82] joined forces to stand up for their rights.

[85] The Métis became more fearful when the Canadian government appointed the notoriously anti-French William McDougall as the Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories on September 28, 1869, in anticipation of a formal transfer of lands to take effect in December.

[107] However, it is doubtful that all such individuals would meet the objective tests laid out in the Supreme Court decisions Powley and Daniels and therefore qualify as "Métis" for the purposes of Canadian law.

[118] The Native Council of Canada was founded in 1971 as a pan-Indigenous umbrella group that included member organizations that represented all off-reserve First Nations as well as the Métis.

[121] namely, The National Council holds province-wide ballot box elections for political positions in these associations, held at regular intervals, for regional and provincial leadership.

With exploration, settlement, and exploitation of resources by French and British fur trading interests across North America, European men often had relationships and sometimes marriages with Native American women.

[133] Their success often related to their European father's status; fur traders, rather than trappers, were more settled men of capital and more likely to acquire education for their mixed-race children.

After the War of 1812, the US prohibited British (including Scots) traders from Canada participating in the fur trade south of the border, disrupting longstanding practices.

During the early days of territorial Michigan, Métis and ethnic French played a dominant role in elections, as they had been established there long before the United States was formed.

[146] He was born with French background; however, as the Métis are a mobile community, he travelled a lot and had a transitional identity, meaning he would often cross the Canada and United States border.

The enforcement of the border was used as a means for governments on either side of the Medicine Line in the grand prairies to control the Métis population and to restrict their access to buffalo.

[147] Because of the importance of kinship and mobility for Métis communities,[31] this had negative implications and resulted in different experiences and hardships for people in the now divided group.