Steve MacLellan

One really has to wonder about the mindset of the people who govern us. I often wondered what the Métis people were like, ever since watching movies about Louis Riel, when I was a kid. Then a couple of years ago i had to go do some work at the Elizabeth Metis Settlement which is south of Bonnyvile, AB.

Well, they were like most people when you get out of the big city centers. They were warm and friendly and everyone wants to feed you. Beautiful land up there. I could see my self spending days just hunting and fishing.

In out history, Métis people lived on the sides of the road illegally — although Thistle would argue it wasn’t illegal — and hunted using illegal traplines too. The circumstances they were forced to live in were also policed by the government, making it difficult for communities to survive.

It’s why few specifically Métis settlements remain today, save for a few areas in Alberta.

It’s a history, Thistle said, that is hardly taught because there isn’t much visible history remaining.