What makes them Métis
Once riddled with shame, now announcing their identity with pride
EDMONTON— Sarah Kaup was once the youngest person in Alberta to hold a Métis status card, receiving it when she was just 5 months old. Twentythree years later, that card now sits framed on her desk.
Born in Onoway, Alta., west of Edmonton, Kaup spent her childhood hunting, fishing and spending quality time with family. She played traditional Indigenous games and activities with friends and family as a young child.
“When I was younger, I didn’t know that was more of a Métis thing,” Kaup said. To her, it was just a way of life.
Kaup has since moved to Edmonton, where she’s teaching children the same traditional games she grew up with, after finding work with the Métis Nation of Alberta. Kaup spent this week organizing and attending events to commemorate her ancestors’ rich history as part of the annual Métis Week held across the country.
“I’m fortunate enough to know,” Kaup said. “A lot of people don’t know that they’re Métis.”
The younger generation of Métis are reclaiming what once was a hidden past. With festivities for Métis Week on until Friday, Alberta’s Métis are celebrating their history and a vision for a future where their identity is widely understood and recognized.
“I just want to showcase that the Métis people are here,” said 29-year-old Jordan Jolicoeur. “We’ve always been here.”
There are about 114,000 selfidentifying Métis people in Alberta, according to Audrey Poitras, president of the Métis Nation of Alberta, making the province one of the largest homes for Métis in the country. The Alberta nation itself is the oldest, celebrating 90 years since its founding this year, Poitras said.
Alberta is also the only province in Canada that has reached land settlement agreements with the Métis as a distinct group, Poitras said, and talks are ongoing about the possibility of allowing the Métis to selfgovern in the province.
A key point for Poitras is the celebration of a distinct Métis identity that can be traced back to years before Confederation. “Like any nation, we have a culture, we have a flag, we have a history,” she said. This increase in recognition, however, was not always part of the Métis’ past.
“Métis people were forgotten about all together,” Poitras said, so much so that some dubbed them the “forgotten people.” Those with Métis ancestry denied their link to Indigenous roots for decades out of fear of being judged or racially targeted, Jolicoeur said. “There’s a lot of shame that came with being Métis,” he said.
Jolicoeur grew up in Selkirk, Man., and both of his parents are Métis from the Red River Settlement. His home was close to Paul First Nation, where many of his family members live as well.
“Because I don’t visibly look First Nations, people would say very racist things around me, and that was really hard when you’re a young kid,” Jolicoeur said, adding that for some Métis, the shame was manifested due to hurt and fear of being targeted.
“It was certainly very much easier to just blend in,” Poitras said, and deny the Métis identity completely.
But being Métis also meant “floating” between First Nations and European ancestry, often feeling like there is no point of belonging to either. “We were too white for the brown people and too brown for the white people,” Kaup recalled her mother saying in her younger years.
Growing up, however, Jolicoeur found strength and pride in his Métis identity, and power in speaking up and educating those around him on Métis history.
“It’s kind of who you are,” Jolicoeur said. “… Family is important, keeping cultural ties to where you’re from is important.” Jolicoeur owns a company based in Stony Plain, Alta., where he proudly employs a mostly Métis staff.
With the younger generation proudly displaying their identity, older generations of Métis are also uncovering a new- found sense of pride. Lori Leeks has lived her entire life in Edmonton. She’s canoed through the Saskatchewan River a few times and walked along the River Valley countless more.
For the first 40 years of her life, Leeks had no clue about the roots that tied her to the land she’s lived on. That changed in 2005 when Leeks found out her father had registered for a Métis status card to access hunting privileges.
Her grandmother fiercely dismissed any lineage to Indigenous ancestors, despite being Métis herself. “When she denied it, she denied it ferociously,” Leeks said.
“I look back on my life and think … ‘Boy, had I known when I went on that four-day canoe trip on the Saskatchewan River that I was following in my greatgreat-great grandfather’s footsteps,’” Leeks said.
Now 53, Leeks has spent the last five years finally uncovering her Métis ancestry, after the death of her grandparents.