One of Canada's 3 Aboriginal peoples.
In Canada's colonial times, many French settlers (and sometimes British as well) married First Nations women and engaged in the fur trade. The children were a mix of both First Nations and French, and often grew up biculturally. Many married other bicultural children, though some married a European or First Nations instead, whose children would be raised biculturally as well. After a while, these bicultural people grew to become their own nation and their own people - The Métis. Called by many names, Half-Breed, Métis, Chicot, the people who own themselves, etc. The Métis are a proud people with a rich culture and heritage deeply embedded in Canadian History. Some Métis are called pretendians due to misunderstandings of their culture.
In Canada's colonial times, many French settlers (and sometimes British as well) married First Nations women and engaged in the fur trade. The children were a mix of both First Nations and French, and often grew up biculturally. Many married other bicultural children, though some married a European or First Nations instead, whose children would be raised biculturally as well. After a while, these bicultural people grew to become their own nation and their own people - The Métis. Called by many names, Half-Breed, Métis, Chicot, the people who own themselves, etc. The Métis are a proud people with a rich culture and heritage deeply embedded in Canadian History. Some Métis are called pretendians due to misunderstandings of their culture.
"You're Métis, cool, so which of your parents is an Indian?"
"Neither, my mother is Métis."
"Oh so you're like 1/4 Indian? Dude you're such a Pretendian."
"No, that's not how it works. Métis are a distinct people based off of a mixed race, we don't really think much of blood quantum since we're a mixed race as it is, and there's people all over the map on the blood quantum scale, but we're all still Métis anyway. We're not 1/2 Métis if one of our parents is Métis, we're just Métis."
"Neither, my mother is Métis."
"Oh so you're like 1/4 Indian? Dude you're such a Pretendian."
"No, that's not how it works. Métis are a distinct people based off of a mixed race, we don't really think much of blood quantum since we're a mixed race as it is, and there's people all over the map on the blood quantum scale, but we're all still Métis anyway. We're not 1/2 Métis if one of our parents is Métis, we're just Métis."
by Métisgirl August 20, 2013
1. In France, "métis" is a general word referring to anyone who is mixed race.
2. In Canada and the northern USA, the Métis are a distinct ethnic group, descended from French and Scottish men who married Amerindian (mostly Cree, Ojibwa and Algonquin) women.
2. In Canada and the northern USA, the Métis are a distinct ethnic group, descended from French and Scottish men who married Amerindian (mostly Cree, Ojibwa and Algonquin) women.
There are around 390,000 people in Canada who identify as belonging to the Métis people: around 1.3% of the Canadian population.
by backpacker_x2 February 1, 2011