Мэтисы Альберты: история, права и самоуправление.

Aboriginal group of peoples

Alberta's Métis people are descendants of mixed First Nations/Indigenous peoples and White/European families. The Métis are considered an aboriginal group under Canada's Constitution Act, 1982. They are separate and distinct from First Nations, though they live in the same regions and have cultural similarities, and have different legal rights. Different Métis groups attempted to combine the joint influences of the Manitoba Métis Federation, the Métis Nation of Alberta, and the Métis Nation Saskatchewan. This was done in hopes that Alberta's Métis would receive land and resource rights. In Alberta, unlike in the rest of Canada, Métis people have certain lands reserved for them under the Métis Population Betterment Act of 1938, known today as the eight Métis settlements. These Métis settlements federated in 1975 to protect existing Métis settlement lands following the Alberta Government's dissolution, by order in council of four Métis settlements from 1950 to 1960. Following legal challenges by the Federation of Métis Settlements in 1975 for the loss of natural resource against Alberta, the Crown in Right of Alberta settled out of court and passed a suite of legislation that would see self government, land, and money transferred to the newly formed government of the Métis Settlements General Council (MSGC), Canada’s only Métis self government. The MSGC is the legislator of the Federation of Métis Settlements. The MSGC is the second largest land owner in the Province of Alberta. Most people who self identify as Métis in Alberta do not live in a Métis settlement. According to the 2016 census, 57.7% of self reported Métis in Alberta lived in either Census Division No. 11 (which includes the Edmonton Metropolitan Region) or Census Division No. 6 (which includes the Calgary Metropolitan Region), with the majority of those residing in Edmonton. These Métis people are represented politically by one of three organizations – the Métis Nation of Alberta (founded in 1928), the Alberta Métis Federation (founded in 2020), or the Aboriginal Congress of Alberta Association.

Métis history in Alberta begins with the North American fur trade. The Métis developed as a people by the interactions of European fur trading agents and First Nations communities. From 1670 to 1821, Métis populations grew regionally, typically around fur trading posts of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. For example, Fort Edmonton spawned a large Métis population that was involved in an annual buffalo hunt for many years. These Métis helped to establish the nearby settlements of Lac Ste. Anne (1844), St. Albert (1861), Lac La Biche (1853), and St. Paul de Métis (1890). The Hudson's Bay Company's land claim in the west (called Rupert's Land) was sold to the newly formed Dominion of Canada with the passing of The British North America Act, 1867 (Canadas founding Constitution, 1867). The sale of the Hudson's Bay Company's territory in 1869/70 officially ended its legal monopoly on the fur trade (not enforced since the trial of Métis trapper Guillaume Sayer in 1849). The fur trade was an economic boom for the Métis as it opened the fur and buffalo meat trades to private Métis and non Metis traders. However, it also exposed them to a flood of European and Canadian colonists seeking to profit and disenfranchise the Métis from their lands. Métis living closer to Canadian occupied territory such as the Red River Métis, today in parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, took up arms against the Canadian government in the two failed Riel Rebellions (or "Riel Resistances" in 1869 and 1885) in an attempt to assert their rights in the face of the newcomers. Following the rebellions, some Red River Métis fled northwest, married into the northwest Métis populations of northern Alberta (formerly known as the District of Athabaska in the North West Territories) or assimilated into surrounding Euro Canadian society. The end of these rebellions, combined with the collapse of the fur and buffalo meat industries, forced many Albertan Métis off their lands and reduced them to critical levels of poverty. On the whole, the Métis cultures and communities survived with farming, ranching, fishing, and industry replacing their traditional economy of fur trading as the main economic activity in the Parkland Belt, though trapping and hunting have remained very important in the Rocky Mountain and boreal forest regions. More urban Métis who live in close proximity to other cultural groups may have intermarried and assimilated into mainstream Euro Albertan society to the point that their descendants no longer recognize themselves as Métis. However, in much of northern Alberta, the Métis in more remote rural and isolated communities have remained culturally distinct. Many of the contemporary Métis settlement population have retained their unique cultural heritage and history due to land grants provided by King George V by way of the Metis Population Betterment Act of 1938. This act gave back a certain amount of land to the Métis for their use. In 1990, the constitution would be the Alberta Amendment Act 3. In the early 20th century, as a response to Métis dispossession and impoverishment following the collapse of the fur trade and marginalization of Métis by the newly dominate Canadian society, Métis political organization, dormant since the Riel Rebellions, was revived in the 1920s by a number of competing organizations such as the Half Breed Association, the Métis Association, and the Half breed Association of Northern Alberta. In 1932, a lasting and successful organization was founded following large half breed gatherings in Frog Lake and Fishing Lake. These gatherings were organized by grassroots leaders such as Charles Delores and Dieudonne Collins. They called upon the expertise of a local enfranchised Indian named Joesepf Dion of the Kehewin Cree Nation, approximately from St. Paul Des Metis. The lasting organization would be known as "L'Association des Métis d'Alberta et les Territories du Nord Ouest" by the Métis "famous five" – Malcolm Norris, Jim Brady, Peter Tomkins, Joseph Dion, and Felix Calliou. This organization would fight for the recognition and formal establishment of the Métis settlements. The famous five would go on to pressure the Government of Alberta on behalf of the Metis populations for a protected homeland. In response to the pressured lobbying, the Alberta legislature would call for a Royal Commission, entitled "The Ewing Commission", to investigate the conditions of the "Half Breeds" (Métis) within the province. The Ewing Commission's (Ewing royal commission) final report called for a Métis land base and that it be provided by the provincial government under the Natural Resource Transfer Act, 1930. In 1895, permanent settlements were erected. Ottawa had allowed the Oblate missionaries to enter into a 21 year lease under the Dominion Lands Act. The Alberta Federation of Metis Settlements, now Metis Settlements of Alberta, was formed in 1975 as the umbrella organization to unite all eight settlement councils. Different Métis groups attempted to combine the joint influences of the Manitoba Métis Federation, the Métis Nation of Alberta, and Métis Nation Saskatchewan. This was done in hope that the Métis of Alberta would receive land and resource rights. that involved the payment of $310 million to the Métis and the passage of four bills. The legislation consisted of the Metis Settlements Accord Implementation Act (Bill 33), the Metis Settlements Land Protection Act (Bill 34), the Metis Settlements Act (Bill 35), and the Constitution of Alberta Amendment Act 1990 (Bill 36). Through this legislation, title to a total of of land was transferred to the Metis Settlements General Council (MSGC). As of the 2006 Canadian census, Big Lakes County had the most Métis people per capita of any Canadian census subdivision with a population of 5,000 or more. This was due to the inclusion of the population of three Métis settlements within Big Lakes County's totals. Recently, many other Métis people have moved to larger urban centres, becoming urban aboriginals. In 2006, a total of 27,740 persons living in the Edmonton census metropolitan area (CMA) identified as Métis, accounting for just over half (53%) of the region's Aboriginal population. Between 2001 and 2006, the Métis population in the Edmonton CMA grew by 32%.

The Mountain Métis are a distinct Métis group who are descendants of Métis who lived in the Athabasca River valley near Jasper House in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. In 1909 and 1910, a small group of families were evicted from Jasper National Park by the federal government to enable the creation of the park. They were compensated only for their improvements made to the land and not the land itself. Their descendants have fought since that time for compensation and recognition of their rights as an Aboriginal group. Their lobbying (along with non Métis trappers and guides) was partly responsible the creation of the Willmore Wilderness Park in the 1950s, which they hoped would protect this hunting and trapping ground from oil and gas exploration. They have since come into conflict with some environmentalists and government officials who would prefer to exclude hunting and trapping from all parks in Alberta. The Mountain Métis are represented by Grande Cache Metis Local 1994, a local affiliate of the Métis Nation of Alberta.

The Powley Case, which wound through the various levels of Ontario courts starting in 1993, was a law defining case that is recognized as the first time the issue of Métis rights were recognized under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. Steve Powley was scrutinized and almost punished for knowingly hunting without a license in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. When the case eventually made it to the Supreme Court of Canada, Powley's actions were confirmed as being protected by the Métis Aboriginal right to hunt, and the case was dismissed in 2003.