Ambivalent Relations: How the First Nations, French Canadians and Hollywood
have viewed the Métis - Darren R. Préfontaine
Module Objective: In this module, the students will learn about the relationship
between the Métis and their two main ancestral groups: First Nations and
French Canadians. The students will also learn how Hollywood portrayed the
Métis in its golden era.
Métis Relations: The First Nations and the French Canadians
The Métis are predominantly the descendents of First Nations (primarily
Algonquian – Cree and Ojibwa) and French Canadians.
Besides inheriting
genetic traits from these very diverse groups, the Métis also inherited a
profound cultural legacy, which they have adapted to make a unique syncretistic
culture. From these disparate groups, the Métis borrowed and adapted culture,
language, religion/spiritualism, clothing and economies. Also, since the Métis
were a mix of these cultures, it is only natural that their culture was a mélange
of all these traditions, but not derivative of them. One would assume that the
relationship between the Métis and their two parent groups would be cordial.
However, from the beginning relations between these groups have been
ambivalent. That is not to say that in certain instances in the past and within
families and communities that there were not any warm ties among the Métis
and their two parent groups.
Métis-First Nations Relations
Much has been written about the historical relationship between Métis and
Euro-Canadians and Euro-Americans; however, there are no monographs or
probing essays discussing the very ambivalent relationship between Métis and
First Nations. Oral tradition from First Nations and Métis Elders on this topic is
sparse. Nonetheless, the pattern that emerges is one of ambivalence. This
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ambivalence is demonstrated by the numerous names given to the Métis by
various First Nations. These include the Cree terms Apeetogosan (Half-son)
Apihtawikosisanak (Half-Breed) and Otipemisiwak (those who own
themselves), or the Ojibwa Wissakodewinimi (half-burnt stick men), which was
the equivalent of the French terms of similar meaning “bois-brûlé” and “chicot”.
The Dakota also called the Métis the “Flower Beadwork People” because of the
Métis’ bright floral adornments on their clothing and personal affects. Finally, in
Plains Indian sign language, the Métis were known as “Half-wagon men”
because of their frequent use of Red River carts. For the Michif and Frenchspeaking Métis, the First Nations were known as “sauvages ” – or the “wild
people”.
The historic Métis borrowed and adapted from First Nations culture, particularly
languages, worldviews, and spiritual systems. Perhaps the most important
aspect of Amerindian cultural retention by the Métis was their use and
knowledge of First Peoples' languages (and worldviews).
Most Métis spoke
Cree or Saulteaux, and many more could speak Lakota, Dakota, Sarcee, Crow,
Black Foot and Dene. This served the historic Métis well for they were in high
demand as interpreters. Their multilingualism also made them excellent liaisons
between Europeans and First Peoples. The Red River Métis also embraced First
Nations spiritualism, which they participated in when the priests were not
present. Many attended sweat lodges, gave offerings to the Creator and used
sweet grass and sage for cleansing.
Indeed, some Métis were devout Roman
Catholics, who also practiced Aboriginal spiritualism, seeing no conflict between
the two.
Métis Elders, like their First Nations counterparts, also remitted
stories and knowledge through the Oral Tradition. First Nations' traditional
medicines and modes of healing were equally practiced alongside European folk
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medicine.
The Métis gathered such plants and shrubs as Seneca root for
medicinal purposes and prepared them in traditional First Nations methods.
Space and time indicated how the Métis related with their Cree/Ojibwa or
French-Canadian parent cultures and vice versa.
Some First Nations had
amicable relations with the Métis; others were less cordial and some were
hostile. Today, the gulf between First Nations and Métis political, social and
economic agendas appears quite wide. However, earlier in history, particularly
when the Métis had a small population, relations were almost always amicable
between the Métis and their parent cultures.
Historically, before the Canadian state legislated varying degrees of Aboriginal
status, Métis and First Nations living in the Great Lakes region, while knowing
their distinctness, nevertheless lived in relative harmony.
Many great First
Nations chiefs such as Tecumseh (1768-1813) or Shingwaukonse (1773-1854) were
biologically Métis, although they identified as First Nations. Many early Great
Lakes Métis such as Charles-Michel (Mouat) de Langlade (1729-1800) were
considered warriors and were highly regarded by the First Nations for their
martial process.
For instance, the Menominee called Langlade
“Akewangeketawso” or “he who is fierce for the land.” Indian leadership at the
time also honoured their Métis cousins. For instance, the great Ojibwa Chief
Shingwaukonse worked diligently to ensure that the Métis would be included in
the provisions of the 1850 Robinson Huron and Superior Treaties.
In fact,
Nicholas Chastelain, a French Métis, was a spokesperson for these treaties. He
was also a signatory on behalf of the Métis at Fort Frances where the Métis took
adhesion to Treaty 3.
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Throughout the nineteenth century, relations between the Métis and First
Nations were strained on the Prairies, specifically when the Métis began to
challenge other Aboriginal groups for control of the bison hunting grounds. For
instance, in the 1830s and 1840s, the Métis fought a number of skirmishes –
culminating on 13 June 1851, at the Battle of Grand Coteau – with the Dakota
and Lakota over the use of the rich bison hunting fields of the Dakota Territory.
The Cree, Assiniboine and the Saulteaux also had tense moments with the Métis
over the use of this vital resource.
In fact, many First Nations Elders believe
that the Métis greatly contributed to the extermination of the bison. In the
1970s, John Yellowhorn, an hereditary Chief of the Peigan Reserve said that “the
white people and half-breeds were killing all the buffalo, just to sell the hides to
the Hudson’s Bay Company.” (Price p.141) Recent scholarship about nineteenth
century Cree leaders Ahtahkakoop (1816-1896), Big Bear (Mistahimusqua 18251888), Poundmaker (Pitikwahanapiwiyin 1840-1886) and Mistawasis show that
the Métis “forced” the Cree to comply with their regulation of the bison hunt.
The Métis are also accused of using poison on fur bearing animals and of
indiscriminately selling whisky to First Nations.
During the signing of numbered treaties on the Prairies, the Métis served as
interpreters. Many First Nations Elders and scholars believe that the Métis,
while having an excellent commend of Cree, did not understand Blackfoot, Tsuu
T’ina or Dene. As a result, much was lost in the translation between what the
First Nations expected and what the government granted to them. Worse still,
some Elders accuse the Métis translators of colluding with the government. In
particular, Jerry Potts (1840-1896), a hard-drinking Métis of Scots-Blood
ancestry, was singled out as being incompetent in all Treaty 7 languages and in
being duplicitous in his dealings with the First Nations.
Many First Nations
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Elders and scholars feel that the Métis sided with the government when dealing
with the Indians. Other First Nations, particularly the Saulteaux welcomed the
intermediary role played by such Métis as the James McKay (1828-1879).
Largely lost in the discussion of scrip and treaties was the fact that many First
Nations took scrip and many Métis took treaty.
In fact, it was common
government policy that those Métis who lived as Indians could be allowed to
take Treaty. For instance, in 1905, Treaty No. 9 commissioners visited Fort
Albany and admitted over thirty Métis into treaty. In Denendeh or Dene
Country, many Métis took treaty in Treaty 8 negotiations. In both the Robinson
Huron and Superior Treaties (1850) and in the varied Numbered Treaties (18711909), many “Indians” who took treaty had French-Canadian names, which
suggests a large presence of at least biological Métis entering treaty rolls.
The gulf between First Nations and Métis seems at its greatest when discussing
the events of 1885. A First Nations view of the 1885 Resistance is very different
than the Métis one.
For instance, Cree Elders argue that the Cree and Métis
were involved in two separate and unrelated resistances – the First Nations in a
peaceful resistance to have their treaty rights honoured and the Métis in a
bloody resistance. It was the Métis who forced some Cree and Assiniboine to
fight – with the end result being the eventual crushing of the Cree’s peaceful
efforts to have their treaty promises honoured. In particular, many First Nations
are angered with Louis Riel’s and Gabriel Dumont’s efforts to recruit Indians to
fight with the Métis, all the while feeling that the Indians should be made to
work “ as Pharaoh made the Jews work” in order to receive their entitled food
rations. This is an original quote, from Riel’s pen in 1884, which was later
discarded.
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Que le gouvernment Canadien nourrisse les Sauvages. Qu’on ne donne pas
à la chrétienté le spectacle navrant de les faire mourir par la faim. Si la
civilisation de notre siècle le permettait, et si la Puissance le veut; que le
gouvernment fasse travailler les Indiens autant que Pharaon a fait travailler
les Juifs, mais `a tout prix qu’il ne les pas en proie aux halluncinations, au
délire de la faim.
On ne veut pas que les gens parlent pour ces sauvages; mais les Sauvages
accablent les établissements métis. Les métis et autres colons dépensent
plus pour les Sauvages que le gouvernment. Et on veut défendre au peuple
de mentionner cet était de choses. Ce n’est pas ainsi que le gouvernment
Féderal devrait aministrer les affaires indiennes. (3-014. Mémorandum
préparé par Riel et montré à Mgr Grandin)[ St.Laurent]. [84/09/05]
Regarding the Canadian government feeding the Indians. It is not with a
Christian spirit that this annoying spectacle of making death by famine
occurs. If our century’s civilization has the power and the will, then the
government will make the Indians work much like Pharaoh made the Jews
work, but at all cost – it cannot let them fall prey to their hallucinations or
fear of hunger.
It (the government) does not want people to speak for the Indians, but the
Indians are overwhelming Métis communities. The Métis and the other
colonists pay more for the support of the Indians than the government. If
the government wanted to support these people, it would have done
something. This is not how the federal government should administer Indian
affairs. (Translation by Darren R. Préfontaine and John Leclair)
Even though this passage was never used in a formal document, First Nations
scholars see it as an example of Riel’s racism. However, the quote is never put
in its proper context nor is it used in its entirety. Riel was arguing that the
federal government was starving the First Nations and was in a sense abrogating
its responsibilities to them.
Many Métis would further argue that their
ancestors often played the role of cultural brokers for First Nations and EuroCanadians. This often meant using the colonizer’s and the colonized frame of
reference when negotiating with them.
Following the 1885 Resistance, many Métis and First Nations continued to
intermarry, even if it meant losing status for Indian women. Many Aboriginal
activists such as James Dion, Malcolm Brady and Jim Norris tried desperately to
ameliorate the desperate living conditions of both the Métis and First Nations.
In fact, the Alberta Cree chief Papasschayo provided great spiritual, emotional
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and spiritual support to Alberta’s Métis. During the early twentieth century,
relations at the community level were according to Métis Elders, very cordial.
Family ties often allowed Métis children access to reserve schooling, which was
important because Métis Elders stress that they were not allowed to attend nonAboriginal schools. Many Métis Elders also fondly remember taking part in First
Nations dancing competitions. Today, however, as Métis and First Nations move
towards self-governing agreements, there appears to be little cooperation.
The Métis and French Canadians
With unstinting love I give praise/ To French-Canadien-Metis:/ A young people whose
yesterdays/ Are now alive as history../.Canadiens alonside Metis/ Fueled to the French,
three elements/ That fuse quite well. An entity/ Increasing by increments.
Louis David Riel, The French-Canadian-Metis
The Métis and the French Canadians have a parallel and intertwining history and
often have the same family names. However, the Métis and the French
Canadians have an ambivalent relationship.
The historic Red River Métis borrowed and adapted from their Canadien
relatives. Arguably, the most important thing borrowed from French Canada
was the French language.
The Métis spoke the same patois as rural French
Canadians in Lower Canada (present-day Québec).
Grammatical and syntax
changes to the French language came in the eighteenth century. However, the
historic Métis were unaware of these changes until the mid-1800s, when FrenchCanadian, French and Belgian missionaries began to settle among them. Most
historic Métis spoke Michif French and Michif Cree – a distinct language
consisting of Cree verbs and French nouns. The nomadic buffalo hunters largely
spoke Michif Cree, while the Métis farmers of Red River usually spoke Michif
French.
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The French-Canadian voyageurs passed on a vibrant folk culture with a love of
storytelling, recounting legends, singing and dancing on to the Métis. The
historic Métis clearly inherited the "joie de vivre" or “joy of life” lifestyle of their
French-Canadian voyageur fathers. They enjoyed social interaction with their
peers. Le réveillon, or New Years’ Eve was their most important social event of
the year: everybody danced and listened to fiddle music all night and ate
tortières, or meat pies, bison stew, maple syrup treats (from Manitoba Maples),
and poudine or blood sausage. Men wore brightly coloured ceintures fléchées, or
sashes, a voyageur shirt, clothe pants, buckskin coat, moccasins and leggings
adorned with elaborate flower beadwork patterns. Women and girls were long
colourful dresses, with large crucifixes, kerchiefs, leggings and beaded
moccasins. At this and other festive occasions, extended families would sing and
tell stories such as that of the Métis shapeshifter – Li Roogaroo (loosely based on
the French-Canadian werewolf, the loup garou).
French-Canadian ideas about nationalism, religion and farming also influenced
the Métis. Early Métis nationalism tried to deviate from French-Canadian
patriotic symbols at first with the creation of the blue and red Métis infinity flag,
which symbolized the coming together of two different peoples to produce a
distinct new people.
However, by the mid-nineteenth century, the Métis
adopted Saint Jean Baptiste, the French-Canadian patron saint, in addition to the
fleur des lys. St. Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, later became the recognized
patron saint of the Métis by the time of the 1885 Resistance. Métis nationalists,
from Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont, to the founders of the L'union nationale de la
métisse du Manitoba, also looked to French-Canadian nationalists for support
and ideas.
In the French-Canadian tradition, almost all of the Métis
communities were named after saints (children were also named after saints),
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and all religious observances were followed. As devout Catholics, the historic
Métis had very large families. French Canadians also provided the Métis with
the sash, the river lot farm system, Catholicism and a distrust of the English and
English Canadians.
Throughout the fur trade period, the Métis and the French Canadians
constituted the same community, albeit with two distinct populations. FrenchCanadian voyageurs lived in Métis communities and married Aboriginal women
à la façon du pays (according to the custom of the country). In the present-day
Canadian West, French-Canadian voyageurs worked under the leadership of
Cuthbert Grant during the Battle of Seven Oaks (June 16, 1816) and Jean-Louis
Riel during the 1849 Guillaume Sayer free trade trial in 1849. In fact, the FrenchMétis and French-Canadian voyageurs were so similar that English and American
chroniclers could not distinguish between them.
To contemporary Anglo
population, they were usually called “Canadians”, “Indian French” or “Canada
French”. However, among themselves the Métis and French Canadians could
distinguish between one another. For the French Canadians, the Métis were
“Bois-Brûlés” or “burnt-wood men” because of the darker hue of their skin and
the Métis called the French Canadians “Canayens1”, a derivative of Canadien.
The historical record has lead some to assume that the voyageurs were Métis or
exclusively French-Canadian. In fact, most voyageurs prior to 1821 were French
Canadian and after that date and with the amalgamation of the Hudson’s Bay
Company and the Northwest Company, the Métis became the largest group of
fur trade workers. In contemporary times, this idea of who the voyageurs were
has caused tensions between French Canadians and Métis.
For instance, the
1
In fact, the Michif word for any French person or Francophone is “Kanayen”. Source: Laverdure, Patline
and Allard, Ida. Editors. The Michif Dictionary. Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications, 1983.
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Métis often wonder how Franco-Manitobans, descendants of farmers and
merchants who came out West in the late nineteenth century, could sponsor the
“Festival du voyageur” every February. Some Francophones may find it odd that
there are Métis voyageur games. In fact, the voyageurs were “Habitants”, who
went to work in the fur trade to supplement their meager incomes as peasant
farmers.
Thus both Métis and local French Canadians can claim the heritage of
voyageurs.
The second group of French Canadians to interact with the Métis were priests.
As early as the late 1810s, French-Canadian priests began conducting missionary
work among the Métis and First Nations of Rupert’s Land. In fact, the Métis
were eager proselytizers for Catholicism, working with the missionaries to bring
the faith to the Cree, Dene and Saulteaux. French-Canadian missionaries such as
Pères Georges-Antoine Belcourt and Lestanc were often well-loved among the
Métis because they treated the Métis with admiration and respect; often
administering the gospel and taking sacraments while on the bison hunt. Others
such as Bishops Provencher or Taché were overtly paternalistic since they
wanted the Métis to integrate into the newly emerging Euro-Canadian society
at Red River. Paternalism was an aspect of French-Canadian Catholicism that
the Métis did not welcome. For instance, in 1896, Père Albert Lacombe started
a Métis colony in northeast Alberta, known as St. Paul des Métis, which was
meant to instruct the landless Métis on how to become self-sufficient farmers.
An inflexible paternalism led to the colony’s demise in 1907, with the coup de
grace coming in 1905 when mistreated Métis children burned down the day
school.
The Métis saw their dream shattered and their land, which they had
cleared and toiled on for a decade, was given to French-Canadian farmers.
Finally, a wound that deeply hurt the Métis occurred in 1885 when the French
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and French-Canadian priests at Batoche, particularly Père André, assisted the
government in putting down the resistance.
While the historic Métis borrowed from French Canadians, they were not French
Canadians. Relations between the two groups were often cordial, however,
there was often tension, particularly after French-Canadian farmers and
merchants came to Manitoba after 1870.
It is also commonly assumed that the Métis and French Canadians had a great
deal of solidarity during the 1860-70 and 1885 Resistances. In fact, real divisions
were evident between the two groups at this time despite Louis Riel’s claim that
his “Métis-Canadiens” or “French-Canadian-Métis” had a great deal of cultural,
linguistic and religious solidarity with French Canadians. Québec’s response from
the Red River Resistance was muted, although local French-Canadians supported
the resistance. After the Métis lost their political power in Manitoba, French
Canadians began taking over the judicial, political and economic infrastructure
built up by the Métis. Some French-Canadian scrip speculators made small
fortunes in Manitoba. In 1885, French Canadians in the Batoche area such as
shopkeepers Philippe Garnot and Philippe Chamberlain were “conscripted” by the
Métis; Garnot actually became one of Riel’s secretaries. Other local French
Canadians such as Willow Bunch’s Jean-Louis Légaré opposed the resistance and
compelled local Métis to stay neutral.
In Québec, French Canadians reacted as if the assault on the Métis and the
execution of Louis Riel was an attack on themselves and not upon an Aboriginal
people living in Western Canada. Moreover, contemporary French Canadians’
reaction to the 1885 Resistance and the execution of Riel was a mixture of
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legitimate sympathy and paternalism. In the eyes of the French-Canadian elite,
an apostate (an orthodox follower who became a heretic) and mad Riel led an
uneducated body of people into rebellion, which was precipitated by the federal
government’s (read English Canada’s) callous treatment of the Métis’ legitimate
claims. With Riel’s execution on November 16, 1885, the response from French
Canada was nonetheless visceral. Tens of thousands of French Canadians, led by
Wilfrid Laurier and Honoré Mercier, descended upon Montréal’s Champs de
Mars and protested Riel’s execution and provided a searing indictment of the
Macdonald government’s lackluster Métis policy.
Following 1885, French-Canadian, French and Walloon (French Belgian)
immigrants came to the Prairie West, and settled in such Métis communities as
Batoche, St. Louis, Willow Bunch, Val Marie in present-day Saskatchewan, St.
Paul des Métis and St. Albert, in present-day Alberta and in the former French
Métis parishes in Manitoba.
Intermarriage was common because of linguistic
and religious similarities. In addition, having a sufficiently large body of
Francophones present also allowed some Métis to escape racism and the stigma
of being “Half-Breed rebels” by stating that they were “French”. This angered
some French Canadians.
In the Pioneer Period (1896-1921) of the Prairie West, many French Canadians
were openly racist towards the Métis. There are historical reasons for this. For
instance, in the tit-for-tat between English and French Canada, much has been
made about Samuel de Champlain’s cliched dictum that “Our children will marry
and become one people”. In fact, historians, genealogists and geneticists all
concur that French Canadians have a significant amount of First Nations
ancestry. English Canadians used this and other documented and circumstantial
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historical evidence to argue that the French Canadians were a “bastardized”
branch of the French “race”.
French Canadians recoiled at such tribalism by being equally racist towards
Indians and the Métis both in historical writing and in society. This meant, of
course, denying those components of their identity, which are of non-French
origin, and the acculturation, and intermarriage of their Canadien ancestors, the
Coureurs de bois and even the Habitants, with Aboriginal women is the easiest
to eschew. Miscegenation, or race-mixing, was long denied to have been of any
consequence in New France. Clerical-nationalist historians, particularly Lionel
Groulx and Thomas Chapais, were responsible for articulating the myth that
French Canadians were a "pure laine" race of exclusive French ancestry.
The old historiography of French Canada and its dominant clerical-nationalist
canon, in vogue from the 1840s to the 1960s, was arguably, the factor most
responsible for French Canada’s ambivalent relationship with the Métis. The
creation of the Métis was traditionally treated as a peripheral and insignificant
event to the development of New France and French Canada. By contrast, the
historiography delineating the lives and resistances of the historic Métis has
been a staple of Prairie historical writing for at least a century. Furthermore,
French-Canadian historians and social scientists analyzed the Métis' resistances
not as the creation of a "new nation" but rather as an example of an unjust and
racist "Anglo-Saxon" conspiracy against fellow Catholics and Francophones,
which occurred throughout Canada. French-Canadian intellectuals, therefore,
treated the Métis as a Prairie phenomenon with French-Canadian rather than
Indigenous concerns.
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This is the cultural legacy, which French-Canadian farmers brought out West
when they encountered their Métis cousins. Many French-Canadian settlers,
imbued with such racist thinking, often derisively called the Métis “les michifs”.
In places such as Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan, the Métis were even
dispossessed and disenfranchised by French Canadians.
The relationship between the Métis and the French Canadians was not always
hostile. According to Métis Elders James Lavalley and Clementine Longworth,
the French Canadians and Métis got on amicably near the Métis settlement at
Crooked Lake, Saskatchewan.
Mr. Lavalley said that the French Canadians
enjoyed Métis stories:
Grandpa (Xavier Lavallée) used to talk French. But… the French people
used to come down there and give him tobacco, and he knew what tobacco
was. He knew that he had to tell them stories. They’d sit around.
Similarly, Louis Schmidt, Louis Riel’s former secretary, is fondly remembered by
the Fransaskois (Saskatchewan Francophones) for fighting for Francophone
rights in Saskatchewan in the early twentieth century. During the early half of
the twentieth century, the two groups had similar positions on national political
issues. For instance, like French Canadians and Treaty Indians, French Métis also
opposed conscription in the 1917 federal election and during the 1942 federal
plebiscite. They also voted Liberal and shunned the Conservatives, when they
were allowed to vote, like French Canadians.
supported cooperatives and credit unions.
Like French Canadians they
However, by World War II, both
Métis and French Canadians in Western Canada began to raise their children in
English-speaking environments. Any commonality that existed between the
two groups disappeared as assimilated French Canadians integrated into the
larger English-speaking environment, while the Métis continued to encounter
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racism and poverty.
This divide still largely continues as both groups seek to
define their place in Prairie and Canadian society.
Métis in the Movies
The Métis, or “Half-Breed” as they were once derogatorily known, were once a
permanent and menacing figure in North-American popular culture, particularly
dime-store novels, serials and golden-age movies. The way that the Métis were
portrayed in classic cinema was, according to popular historian and author Pierre
Berton, scandalous:
This unrelenting libel on the Métis… can neither be excused by pointing
to the tenure of the times in which it occurred, nor explained away by the
essential naïveté of the silent films, nor condoned by the need of
screenwriters and directors to inject drama and conflict into their stories.
Nobody – not the blacks, not the Indians – has suffered as badly at the
hands of the filmmakers as have the Métis. (Berton p.99)
Essentially, classic filmmakers found the perfect scapegoat for the social ills
plaguing American society with the “degenerate”, “sneaky”, “dirty”,
“promiscuous” “Half-Breed” or mulatto who schemed to “deflower” virtuous
white women, all the while killing, cheating and thieving. Miscegenation (racemixing) produced this “monstrous” hybrid, which had the worst characteristics
of First Nations, Euro-Americans or African-Americans. D.W. Griffith’s crude
film “The Birth of a Nation”(1917) in which the Ku Klux Klan puts down an
uprising by sexually-depraved mulattos and African Americans is the archetype
of racist cinema. However, the original film warning against the perils of racemixing was Cecile B. DeMille’s “Squaw Man” (1914), which critiqued NativeAmerican and Euro-American intermarriage. It is apparent that filmmakers’
preoccupations with these vile caricatures underlined a fear of what would
happen if Euro-Americans lost control of American society.
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The Métis appeared in westerns, and movies about Canada, particularly about
the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) and the fur trade. They were always
the villains and appeared in the following caricatures: the deceitful and cowardly
French-Canadian Half-Breed, the promiscuous and violent female FrenchCanadian Half-Breed, and the English-speaking Half-Breed in American
Westerns. Other than the accents, the Canadian and American Métis in early
cinema was the same character. He sold whisky to the Indians, tried to seduce
innocent and unsuspecting white women, and murdered valiant white men in a
cowardly and underhanded fashion. The Métis woman in cinema was ruled by
lust, revenge and was lewd, savage and insanely jealous of the principled and
morally pure Anglo-Saxon woman. They were also the mirror opposites of the
quiet, dignified and delicate Indian “princesses” (who were played by white
women) and the virtuous and loyal white woman. In only one film, “Ramona,
the Dawn Maiden” (1916), a Métis woman was portrayed positively.
Some of the more early memorable films in which the “savage” and “hotblooded” Métis temptress appeared include:
•
“The Trapper’s Revenge” (1915) in which the character of Marie Duprée, a
Métisse, was described by a reviewer as a “capricious coquette” who
torments her mounted policemen lover “without mercy”
•
“The Law of the North” (1917) Marie Beaubien is the scheming mistress of an
evil fur-trade factor
•
“Canadian Pacific” (1949) in which a lady doctor and a Métis women compete
for the affections of a CRP railway surveyor
•
“Gunman’s Walk” (1958) in which a rancher’s son falls in love a wild SiouxMétis woman.
Other “savage” Métis women from the golden age of cinema include: Marie in
“Paid in Advance”, Woolie-Woolie in “Men of the North” (1930) and Neenah in
the “Calgary Stampede”. These women were one-dimensional and pathetic
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creatures who wore “the standard Hollywood Female Half-Breed Costume: long
black hair in braids, long necklaces of beads or animal teeth, buckskin or leather
skirts, and high boots”. (Berton p. 97)
However, the most infamous film of this genre was the Cecile B. DeMille epic
“North-West Mounted Police” (1940), which centres on the violent and deceitful
Métissse Louvette (Paulette Goddard) and her love affair with a Mountie.
Louvette, from “The North-West Mounted Police” has become the prototype of
this racist caricature. In the film, she lures her Mountie lover, Ronnie, away
from his post just prior to the 1885 Battle of Duck Lake, which according to the
movie precipitated a massacre of hapless Mounties by hundreds of Métis.
Ronnie was warned to stay away from Louvette from a fellow Mountie who tells
his friend “I told you to stay away from that klootch. She’s poison. Never trust a
blue-eyed squaw”. (Berton p.98) Of course, the Mounties were not as virtuous
as film and myth have portrayed. Recently, scholars such as Sarah Carter have
erased the mythic veneer of the North West Mounted Police by arguing that
members of the Mounted Police sexually exploited Aboriginal women
throughout their early history. Perhaps in the future, film roles will be reversed
to better reflect historical reality.
Métis men were portrayed with equal venom in classic cinema. Indeed, very few
portrayals of Métis men in early cinema were positive. These include Douglas
Fairbanks who played a virtuous Métis in “The Half-Breed” (1916), George Walsh
in “The Test of Donald Norton” (1926) and the “good” Half-Breed character in
“Flaming Arrow” (1913) who assisted the white settlers in their struggle against
the Indians. However, most characterizations of Métis men in early cinema
were less savory. The Métis man was a licentious, deceitful, cowardly, perverse
and grasping figure. For instance, John Ford’s “The Iron Horse” (1924) uses a
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particularly violent Métis villain.
This caricature was developed in cinema as
early as 1909, in the film “The Cattle Thieves” in which the Half-Breed Pierre
“coveted” a white women named Mary in a “greedy way”. This same illiterate
and degenerate French-Métis character was portrayed in “The Savage” (1917),
“Pierre of the North”, “God’s Country and the Law” (1921), “A Romance of the
Canadian Wilds”, “A Romance in Fur Country”, “Jacques the Wolf”, “The Flaming
Forest”, “Rose Marie, and “Red Riders of Canada” (1928).
In “Northern
Pursuit”(1943), a Métis trader even betrays Canada to the Nazis! In one of these
racist films, a Métis was actually described as “an alien intruder…of degenerate
blood”. (p.93 Berton).
These caricatures always squared off against their rivals, Mounties who stood
for purity, law and order and all that was good against unhealthy promiscuity,
thievery, treachery, and the threat of a monstrous progeny. Jacques Corbeau
(George Bancroft), the villain in the film “North-West Mounted Police” (a
former CBC late night staple) was the beau ideal of this treacherous Half-Breed
character. In the film, he sells whisky to the Indians, tricks them into rebelling
against the Crown, forces an indecisive Riel into fomenting rebellion and takes
demonic delight in mowing down unarmed Mounted Police with a Gattling Gun
before being stopped by the NWMP and a Texas Marshall (Garry Cooper). Of
course, the Canadian military used this early machine gun against the Métis
during the Battle of Batoche. Corbeau appears to have been loosely based on
Gabriel Dumont.
After WWII, a collective guilt began to set in Hollywood and the Métis were
portrayed more positively. They were no longer the “other”; now, however, in
film they had to make the agonizing decision about choosing between their
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Native and Euro-Ameircan heritages. These films include Stuart Gilmar’s “The
Half-Breed” (1952), Roger Corman’s “Apache Woman” (1955) and Elvis Presley’s
“Flaming Star” (1960). With the rise of the Civil Rights movement and a social
conscience in Hollywood, in the 1960s, films finally tried to be more sympathetic
to the plight of disadvantaged minorities. Some of these attempts at addressing
wrongs done to the Métis were ham-fisted and closely mirrored that other genre
of 1970s cinema, the “Blackploitation” film.
The “Billy Jack” movies by Tom
Laughlin: “Born Losers” (1967), “Billy Jack” (1971), “The Trial of Billy Jack” (1974)
and “Billy Jack Goes to Washington” (1977), in which a Pueblo Half-Breed battles
racists with his martial arts/special forces training are the best examples of this
socially-conscious exploitation genre. Other films of this nature include “Johnny
Tiger” (1966), Lee H. Katzin’s “Hondo and the Apaches” (1967), Paul Hunt’s “The
Great Gundown” (1975), the two Charles Bronson movies “Chato’s Land” (1972)
and “Chino” (1977) and Chuck Conner’s “Standing Tall” (1978).
Canadian filmmakers made similar movies in the 1960s and 70s. For example,
Québécois director Gilles Carle’s film “Red” or “Red the Half-Breed” (1970)
chronicles the pain which a Métis man faced because of his mixed heritage. In
the late 1970s, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) even got into the
act by airing Gregory Bloomfield’s television movie “Riel” (1977) starring
Québécois actor Raymond Cloutier in the lead role, with Christopher Plumber as
Sir John A. Macdonald. The film also included expatriate Canadian actors
William Shatner, Leslie Neilsen and Dave Thomas. Despite being a CBC
melodrama, the film managed to make both Riel and Macdonald heroes, without
belittling their differing visions of the country.
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In the 1980s, the Métis began to be portrayed as proud and independent
survivors in cinema. Often, Aboriginal filmmakers and actors ensured this
transformation. Strong Métis characters appeared in such Canadian films as
“Mistress Madeleine” (NFB -1987), “The Wake” (NFB- 1986), “Revenge of the
Land” (1999) and Anne Wheeler’s “Loyalties” (1987) staring Tantoo Cardinal.
These films all have strong Métis women in starring and supporting roles. These
films portray systemic racism against the Métis, the difficulty of being a person
living in Euro-Canadian and Aboriginal worlds, and the strength of Métis
women. During the 1980s and 90s, such Hollywood actors as Val Kilmer and
Billy Bob Thornton portrayed mixed-decent people. However, the most
recognizable Métis in popular culture may well be Joseph Dribble from “King of
the Hill”.
In conclusion, the menacing Métis has disappeared from both
Canadian and American cinema. When the Métis does now appear, they do so in
a much more positive light than previously.
Questions and Activities:
1) What are some aspects of Métis culture that have been taken from the
First Nations?
2) What are some aspects of Métis culture that have been taken from
French Canadians?
3) How have the Métis made these aspects of their parent cultures their
own? List examples such as language, spirituality and music.
4) Why have French Canadians discriminated against the Métis?
5) What are some First Nations against the Métis?
6) Have relations between the First Nations and the Métis always been
strained?
7) What role did the Métis play with their two parent cultures: First Nations
and French Canadians? Have the Métis been cultural brokers between
First Nations and Euro-Canadians?
8) What were some of sterotypes which early Hollywood cinema put on the
Métis? What does this say about American and Canadian society at that
time?
9) If you have an opportunity, watch several of the movies listed above. Pay
particular close attention on how the Métis characters talk, look and act
around others. Then compare them to their foil: the Mountie. Why do
you think the characters were portrayed so differently?
10) In current cinema, how are the Métis portrayed? Why are the Métis
portrayed so differently today than in the past?
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