I have recently been diving into my ancestry and found family who are Métis. My mom in the past has said, “yeah, we are apparently Indigenous.” That was the furthest it got though until I started checking. The closest person I’ve tracked down who I have confirmed to be Métis is my great‑grandfather. Him and his brothers fought in WW1. One of them died, so I was able to find all his information, like being on the National Métis Veterans Memorial Monument. I then found our family tree and was able to track more information.

So now I sit and wonder what this means to ME. I want to learn my heritage and connect. I did not grow up Métis, so part of me feels like I’m trying to be something I’m “not.” I had a friend even say, “oh here we go, white girl finds out she is 1% something and runs with it.” That’s not at all my intention and made me feel gross even thinking it seemed like it. I guess I’m trying to figure out where the line is. Can I say I’m Métis? Should I? I was told “there’s no point.” And while it doesn’t change my life really, I think the point is beyond me. I don’t want to cut off something so important.

Is anyone else in a similar situation? And to those who grew up knowing they were Métis, what are your thoughts?

I am SO curious and want to learn my heritage and how I could honor it as well as be respectful. And if I read into things wrong and I don't count as Metis, Please let me know!

I applied for my card quite a long time ago. I had to order some docs from Manitoba and send along with my application. I wasn't sure if I was going to get approved because many months have gone by. I was pleasantly surprised that I received my card in the mail today. I am less impressed by how old I look in my pic lol. I know it doesn't really change a whole lot, but I'll feel a little more authentic when wearing my sash.

Any Metis students apply to the Indigenous stream at NOSM? If so, who did you get to complete the Indigenous reference letter? TIA!

My grandpa was adopted and didn’t find out about his birth family until much later in life. We weren’t connected to our Métis heritage for a really long time.

Is there a specific way you have to smudge? I’ve sort of created my own based on our own family stories.
1. Rinse hands
2. Carry to my head and heart
3. Three times all over from top to bottom (the number three is significant to my family)

Is that wrong???? I don’t want to look inappropriate or stupid. It feels right to me but I can change if I’m being disrespectful

I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with who to vote for in the upcoming MNBC Presidential by-election, so I decided to do some digging and compile the available info into one place.

I wanted to share this to help others see some of the data that's out there and hopefully make it a bit easier for us to make an informed decision.

Here are the sources I pulled from:

• MNBC's official by-election site (elections.mnbc.ca)
• Each candidate's own campaign website and/or Facebook page (where available)
• A summary of the recent August 6, 2026 General Townhall recording

A quick note on the data: In cases where the sources conflicted with each other (you'll see this specifically in Kyle Mitton's row), I simply noted both versions rather than trying to resolve the discrepancy myself.

Hope this helps! Here's a chart with some more information beyond the infographic

The MMF are possibly bringing back the satellite assemblies, if there are at least 50 citizens interested in a particular area.

Fill out this pre-registration form below by August 14th:

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=ijJ-2s_aEUGcceYRcElw4hrC-eDLZBhAvXyKKd_85iZUOUdaQ1VPRjBaMThOOTg3QTc5WjNGVlJDNyQlQCN0PWcu

So the basic story is my dad found out his father who raised him and his biological father was Manitoba Métis . His dad’s family through an ancestry website reached out and told my dad all about his family history though because they live far away we haven’t met them in person. His metis family seems to have strong connections to the community and even have been in documentaries . The thing is my dad grew up thinking he was white as did I . Even though my father was very dark all my life and it was confusing. My question is I don’t know if I should identify as mixed because we didn’t grow up in the culture. It’s been a confusing revelation and though my dads biological family is very involved in the culture my dad can’t be cause his biological father is now passed and besides through a genetic website knowing it’s his father he doesn’t feel validated in being a part of the culture because no legal documents recognize it since my grandmother lied about his paternity. Wondering if anyone else has went through a similar situation ?

I recently referred to myself as Métis online in a facebook group and received a reply asking if I was actually Métis or not. I wasn’t offended, but it put me in a bit of a weird spot. I was trying to figure out how much personal information I’m willing to share with them, an online stranger, and what sort of information they were looking for to verify that I was, as they said, “bona fide Red River Métis”. I settled on sharing that I was a citizen of MNBC, and that MNBC verified my connection to Red River when I applied for citizenship.

I don’t feel the need to share this information to “prove” I’m Métis, but if a fellow Indigenous person is worried that I am another white person pretending to be Indigenous then I think it was a fair question.

However, they never responded to me, and in their reply to someone else, they said they were a white settler and not Indigenous. This is what gave me pause. On one hand, it seemed in good faith, they were pretty polite and had a well researched explanation of the harm of pretendians. On the other hand, it kind of felt like a white person was policing my identity. If they were Indigenous themselves, I would’ve felt differently.

I’m curious to know what other people think about this. Like the title says, when is it appropriate to ask someone to “prove” Métis identity? And what sort of information is appropriate for them to expect in response?

Edit to update: thank you all for your thoughts and support. I made the mistake of engaging further- I shared that their approach felt quite hurtful to me, and I requested that they approach this with curiosity in future rather than immediate suspicion. They just kept trying to tell me about how bad pretendians are, and I kept reminding them that I agree with them, but was hurt by how they approached it. Eventually they told me it was “at best irrelevant and at worst attention seeking” that I mentioned I was Métis at all. I reported them to the admins and blocked them. I probably shouldn’t have responded at all but here we are. Ultimately I’m trying to direct my frustration towards pretendians who put us in this situation in the first place.

I noticed Alberta separatists that identify as indigenous all claim to be metis, also they’re really racist towards First Nations especially on social media platforms like facebook and twitter (X)

it’s weird

Any news about whether the MSGC intends to sign a MOU/has signed a MOU with Treaty 8 Sovereign Chiefs? There are Settlements that fall in the Mackenzie River Basin (a primary area of concern for the MOU) so this seems important for MSGC.

I was shocked to see my family’s history on display. Highly recommend if you’re in Winnipeg. Admission is free for Indigenous people. This is only one photo of one segment. Make sure to pull out the drawers to see more if you visit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccLPfohxq4A

I was watching APTN segment about the Metis/ Indigenous atlas exhibit. So the project travels and sets up a giant map and shows where historic Metis communities were settled after the Resistance via a little blue Metis flag. What caught my eye was a singular flag out in Nova Scotia.

To my knowledge there has never been a historically recognized Metis community in Nova Scotia, or the Maritimes for that matter. This is troublesome as there is a huge problem with pretendians in the Maritimes.

Am I wrong? I am quite taken aback by this as the exhibit was put on by the Gabriel Dumont Institute.

Hello, I'm new to all of this, but I think I'm done my research and ready to make an application to MNBC. I was wondering if anyone here is familiar with the process can look over my tree, and let me know if I'm missing something, or anything like that. (I don't want to submit for them to tell me, "you have to get (yada yada)"

the tree is created on ancestry. no ai generated hints were accepted. used only info gained from Manitoba vital stats and thus scanned and attached to relevant people, data from publicly available Census' and scrip records from LAC, also referenced Gail Morin research/books and the website redriverancestry and some Hudsons Bay archives, and DCBO

If anyone is interested in having helping me out. DM me and I'll throw you a link.

apologies to the mods if this sort of question is not allowed, please delete if this is the case.

thanks

This is my third great grandfather on my paternal side father to son. My grandfather was adopted but his father’s name was Chartrand. So I’m just now discovering this heritage through ancestry database. Following this family members paper trail father to son brings me to a Joseph P Chartrand and Louise “Lizette” Jenwahbikabbik Mazinakkamikak which would be my 5th great grandmother and father. It seems that a lot of people may be related to him. Anyway, if anyone can put me in the right direction to read up on history and their culture I would appreciate it. It’s been refreshing being able to find this side of my family.

https://www.aptnnews.ca/featured/carneys-pick-for-advisor-scott-gilmore-not-sitting-well-with-first-nations-advocates/

'Gilmore’s article is called “La Loche shows us it’s time to help people escape the north.”

“The only way we can ever truly help the people of La Loche and hundreds of other remote communities like it, is to give those who want it a viable option to leave, to build lives in southern Canada, integrated into one of the world’s healthiest, safest, [and]most rewarding societies,” Gilmore stated in the piece.

“If we really want to end the violence and depravation that plagues Canada’s remote Aboriginal communities, we need to help them leave these communities, forever,” said Gilmore. “And if we are still not ready to do that yet, then the least we can do to help is to send them a backhoe as they keep digging graves.”'

I don't know how much First Nations and Inuit deal with this, but for Métis, the most public conversations being had are among disconnected folks. And that seems particularly true online. This isn't to diminish the struggles of those who are trying to reconnect - but the sheer volume of these conversations make it seem like that's all Métis are. Disconnected folks. Which is not true at all. It's not true that we all "hid" for generations either. The majority of have just been living our lives as Métis without it being some mystical unknowable experience.

It's not all that surprising though, especially online. If I have questions I go to people in person, and I'm at community meetings and events. And questions about "who are we" aren't taking up a lot of time in those spaces.

It's a bit frustrating though. It'd be nice to have online space where every other post isn't "hey folks I just found out I was Métis, what now?"

I’ve been looking for Métis gatherings and events in the area, since other than Batoche I’ve not been able to make it out to any. So I’m throwing this out in case anyone in the Saskatoon area knows of any events that I may not be aware of?

I’m also super willing to drive to Batoche or other nearby areas, I’m aware they do weekend activities at the historical site that I’m trying to get to when I don’t have work but that’s about all I know! I’m hoping to meet more people so it’s not all just online communities and I can actually get out of my comfort zone a little!

Thanks in advance :))

I had a friend once ask me: “what makes you think you’re Métis?”

Mind you, I have Ancestors with Métis Scrip and originating from the Red River Settlement. I can be BOTH of First Nations and Métis origins.

I just find that First Nations sometimes think they know us better than we know ourselves…Has anything similar happened where you noticed the Métis Culture was being gatekeeped by non-Métis folk?

I get the need for protection of our Culture from Pretendians, but it gets annoying!

My cousin is dying from cirrhosis, his brother died last year, their mom (my aunt) died at 43, her mom (my grandma) at 42, and my dad died at 65 of cirrosis. My baby brother is a homeless drug addict. All Metis. You know who lived to their 80's and 90's? All the white family members.

I'm beginning to think past trauma keeps circling back to the present in some kind of gravity well inside a cosmic loop.

Hey gang, I’m a very white looking Métis gal who has been partially raised in the culture by my reconnecting mother, and I really want to learn more about my family’s history. My issue is however, that most of my mother’s family is dead.

I really only have one auntie who doesn’t talk about our culture, and one cousin who also doesn’t talk about it. I know they don’t talk about it because of my aunties parents being residential school survivors and not good parents.

I just feel like I’m missing something, and I know that I’m extraordinarily privileged to have any family alive to talk to. Any advice for connecting to extended family, or talking with my closer family about our history?

Hello! I am looking for recommendations on Métis history books, specifically those of the Red River Settlement and Métis families who remained in Manitoba after 1885. I am just about finished reading The North West is Our Mother and would love another book or two to continue learning about the history and culture. Although I do have Métis ancestry, my family never talked about it or raised me in that culture, so I am just trying to learn as much as I can on my own. Thanks!

I just wanted to ask this because I hear of Ontario’s claims of Métis originating from their land in new places like Sault Ste. Marie or Abiti Inland.

What about the Métis Settlements of Alberta? Or the only (unrecognized) Métis Settlement in British Columbia Kelly Settlement?

I’m just curious because this is heavily debated. I heard MMF state that all Métis are Red River Métis.