Wahkootowin : Family and Cultural Identity in Northwestern Saskatchewan Metis

Abstract

Utilizing genealogical and ethnohistorical methodologies, an examination of Metis family, economy, and society in northwestern Saskatchewan during the nineteenth-century fur trade is conducted to better understand how Metis people affected development of the economy. Specifically, through the use of the Cree concept of relationships as expressed through the term wahkootowin, both the theoretical and conceptual, rather than literal, framework is used to explain the Metis style of life and how actions and reactions to internal community relationships were expressed intergenerationally through the extended family structure. By reconstructing the extended family system utilizing genealogical methods, it was possible to use textual records related to the freemen and free traders who operated in the English River District fur trade to further evaluate how the Metis established economic relationships and asserted independence from the Hudson's Bay Company. The family linkages between the women and men who worked for the HBC were familial, but their relationships were reinforced through socio-economic activities that brought them together and transformed family into community. Through the HBC, Metis families made strategic marital alliances with other company families and established a complex web of inter-familial alliances that not only affected the trade, but shaped it according to Metis societal values and expectations. À l'aide de méthodes utilisées en généalogie et en ethnohistoire, on examine le système économique et social des communautés métisses du nord-ouest de la Saskatchewan, à l'époque de la traite des fourrures au XIXe siècle, afin de mieux comprendre le rôle joué par les familles métisses dans le développement de leur économie. Plus particulièrement, on cherche à savoir comment le concept des relations chez les Cris, exprimé par le terme « wahkootowin », d'un point de vue théorique et conceptuel plutôt que littéral, a servi à décrire le style de vie des Métis, ou encore comment leurs actions et leurs réactions en ce qui a trait aux relations internes dans la communauté se sont manifestées sur le plan intergénérationnel, dans le cadre de la famille élargie. En examinant le système des familles élargies à l'aide de la méthode généalogique, on a pu se servir de documents mentionnant des citoyens d'honneur et des antiprotectionnistes qui ont participé au commerce des fourrures dans le district d'English River pour évaluer plus en détail comment les Métis ont établi des relations économiques avec la Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson tout en gardant une certaine indépendance. Même si les liens qui unissaient les femmes et les hommes qui ont travaillé pour cette compagnie étaient de nature familiale, leurs relations ont été renforcées par des activités socio-économiques qui les ont réunis et qui ont transformé la famille en une communauté. Par l'entremise de la Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson, les familles métisses ont établi des alliances matrimoniales stratégiques avec d'autres familles travaillant aussi pour la compagnie, ainsi que des réseaux complexes d'alliances interfamiliales qui ont influé sur les échanges commerciaux, et qui les ont modifiés en fonction des attentes et des valeurs sociétales des Métis.

Revisiting the historic Métis-Syilx McDougall family in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada

“…The genealogical and residency patterns described above, taken with continued Syilx philosophies of inheritance described by Jeannette Armstrong above and Syilx matrilineal practices indicate that the descendants of intermarriages between Métis and Syilx prior to and post-1900 effectively became Syilx, a practice that is incidentally consistent with Métis matrilocal patterns. In her study of 19th-century Métis in Île à la Crosse, Saskatchewan, Macdougall (2006) reconstructed genealogies through the cross-referencing of scrip, fur trade, and census records to reveal the ways in which wahkootowin, a Cree (group of Indigenous people in central to southeastern Canada) principle of relating that informs the social structure of family networks as follows:…”

“…The genealogical and residency patterns described above, taken with continued Syilx philosophies of inheritance described by Jeannette Armstrong above and Syilx matrilineal practices indicate that the descendants of intermarriages between Métis and Syilx prior to and post-1900 effectively became Syilx, a practice that is incidentally consistent with Métis matrilocal patterns. In her study of 19th-century Métis in Île à la Crosse, Saskatchewan, Macdougall (2006) reconstructed genealogies through the cross-referencing of scrip, fur trade, and census records to reveal the ways in which wahkootowin, a Cree (group of Indigenous people in central to southeastern Canada) principle of relating that informs the social structure of family networks as follows:The women Indigenous to the region became the centrifugal force incorporating successive waves of outsider males who carried with them the surnames that came to mark northwestern Saskatchewan communities and identified the families locally and patronymically. Aboriginal women—Cree, Dene [a group of Indigenous people in central to northwestern Canada ] and then Métis—grounded their families in their homelands, creating for them a sense of belonging to the territory through a regionally defined matrilocal residency pattern and, therefore, female-centred family networks.…”

“…Consequently, the relationship that Métis people had to the land was defined by that of the women born of that land (Macdougall, 2010). Macdougall (2006) describes the ways in which worldviews of First Nation women trickled down into the lives of their Métis descendants to produce “a system of social obligation and mutual responsibility between related individuals—between members of a family—as the foundational relationship within communities” (p. 434).…”

Walking with the Grandmothers and Aunties Wisdom

“…In discussing Cree ownership, clarifies that its origins in the Cree language infuse the Métis philosophy with our "dominant maternal ancestry" (p. 7), just as some Michif dialects are ancestrally tied to Cree. Wahkootowin is inherited from Cree thought and is often equated with "all my relations" (Adese et al, 2017;Gaudry, 2014;Macdougall, 2006Macdougall, , 2008Macdougall, , 2017. In research, Wahkootowin dictates how we must behave; as Campbell (2007) states, "from birth to death our responsibilities and reciprocal obligations" (p. 5) must be upheld, including how we conduct ourselves in the academy.…”

Collaboration in Virtual Environments: Honouring the Métis Method of Visiting

“…This original Cree word embodies the Cree natural laws. We also acknowledge that there is a constant underlying concept of connection and kinship regardless of spelling (Macdougall 2006;Northern Michif Dictionary n.d.). For our discussion, we are using the Northern dialect and spelling common to Northern Alberta where Hanna's community connections are rooted in Buttertown.…”