Métis

In Canada, the Métis, as defined by the Constitution Act 1982, are Aboriginal people. They are descendants of specific mixed First Nations and European ancestry who self-identify as Métis, and are accepted into their current community. The Métis people are the modern descendants of Indigenous women in Canada and the colonial-era French, Scottish and English trappers and fur traders they married.

The descendants of these unions formed communities, first around hunting, trapping and fur trading, that to this day have a unique and specific culture. The term "Métis" does not mean any white person who believes they also have some Native ancestry. It refers to specific, intact communities of Aboriginal people and their culture. The majority of Métis people have combined Algonquian and French ancestry.

Etymology

The word "Métis" (from Old French mestis, from Late Latin mixtīcius) was first used to refer to people of mixed race born generally to indigenous women and French men in New France and La Louisiane. Over time in Canada, many mixed-race people married within their own group, maintaining contact with their indigenous culture. The term developed in association with these particular communities of mixed-race people and their unique culture.

Métis people (Canada)

The Métis (/meɪˈtiː/; Canadian French: [meˈtsɪs]; Michif: [mɪˈtʃɪf]) people are Indigenous North Americans of mixed race. Métis are recognized by the government of Canada as one of the official Aboriginal peoples. They developed as the mixed-race descendants of unions between, generally, First Nations women and Western European men, but over time there were more intermarriages within the group. The term historically described all mixed-race people of First Nations and other ancestry. Within generations in the 19th century, particularly in central and western Canada, a distinct Métis culture developed. Since the late 20th century, the Métis people have been recognized as an Aboriginal people, with formal recognition equal to that given to the Inuit and First Nations peoples.

The early mothers were usually Mi'kmaq, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Cree, Ojibwe, Menominee, or Maliseet, or of mixed descent from these peoples. After New France was ceded to Great Britain's control, at one time there was an important distinction between French Métis born of francophone voyageur fathers, and the Anglo-Métis (known as "countryborn"') descended from English or Scottish fathers. Today these two cultures have essentially coalesced into one Métis tradition. Such mixed-race people were referred to by other terms, many of which are now considered to be offensive, such as Mixed-bloods, Half-breeds, Bois-Brûlés, Bungi, Black Scots, and Jackatars.

Metis (mythology)

Metis /ˈmiːtᵻs/ (Μῆτις, "wisdom," "skill," or "craft"), in ancient Greek religion, was of the Titan generation and, like several primordial figures, an Oceanid, in the sense that Metis was born of Oceanus and his sister Tethys, of an earlier age than Zeus and his siblings. Metis was the first great spouse of Zeus, and also his cousin. Zeus is himself titled Mêtieta, "the wise counsellor," in the Homeric poems.

By the era of Greek philosophy in the fifth century BC, Metis had become the Titaness of wisdom and deep thought, but her name originally connoted "magical cunning" and was as easily equated with the trickster powers of Prometheus as with the "royal metis" of Zeus. The Stoic commentators allegorized Metis as the embodiment of "prudence", "wisdom" or "wise counsel", in which form she was inherited by the Renaissance.

The Greek word metis meant a quality that combined wisdom and cunning. This quality was considered to be highly admirable in the Mycenean era, with the hero Odysseus being the embodiment of it. In the Classical era, it was regarded by Athenians as one of the notable characteristics of the Athenian character. Metis was the one who gave Zeus a potion to cause Cronus to vomit out Zeus' siblings.