Documenting Historic Métis in Ontario

A recent court case has brought into focus, for the first time in Ontario(Canada), legal and historical questions concerning the rights extending from historic Métis communities in that province. Within this litigation context, research into the nature, extent, and definition of historic Métis in Ontario has remained the purview of applied historians and expert witnesses. This article brings such questions into the academic arena by identifying sources and methods for documenting historic Métis during the fur trade period in Ontario. It also presents an ethno-historical discussion of social and cultural indicators of the Métis community and ethnogenesis evident in the fur trade records for Ontario.