Metis

METIS are people of mixed aboriginal and European background, formally recognized as an aboriginal people in Section 35 of the Constitution Act 1982. Historically Metis were "children of the FUR TRADE," offspring of European traders and FIRST NATIONS women. In BC an indigenous Metis population began with the establishment of the first trading posts in the Interior after 1805. It was augmented over the years by the arrival of Metis employees of the major trading companies. Following the suppression of the 1885 Northwest Rebellion in Manitoba, many Metis dispersed across the West, including into northern BC; there they made their living by trapping and hunting. In 2001, 37,145 people of Metis ancestry were recorded as living in the province, though the Metis National Council estimated the BC population to be closer to 70,000. Beginning in the 1950s increasing numbers of Metis moved to the cities, principally to VANCOUVER, where they took whatever jobs they could find. According to one estimate, approximately 20,000 Metis migrated to the LOWER MAINLAND during the 1970s and 1980s. A 1996 report by Howard Adams for the Vancouver Metis Assoc (VMA) found unemployment to be very high (62%) among these urban Metis, most of whom were surviving on very low incomes. Metis began organizing politically in 1969 as part of the BC Assoc of Non-Status Indians (see SMITHERAM, Henry) where they took a leading role. The association became the United Native Nations in 1976, but by that time most Metis had left to found their own organizations, the largest of which, the VMA, promotes Metis customs and values. The VMA operates a pre-school program for Metis children and a youth training program for teaching computer and business skills. There is also a Circle of Metis Women organization and a Metis Housing Project for the elderly and families in critical need. There is a Louis Riel Metis Council in SURREY and several other associations around the province.