About Us

The Mountain Métis are descendants of Iroquois and European fur traders who traveled west with the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company during the early 18th century. The Mountain Métis identity emerged as a result of Scottish and French bloodlines intermingling with Iroquois, Sekani, Chippewa and Beaver tribes. These fur trader families settled in the Athabasca Valley and homesteaded the region for over a century until the Jasper Exodus.

In the early 1900's, an order and council was passed by the Government of Canada in order to create Jasper National Park. The Mountain Métis families were forcefully evicted from the area by government officials who sealed their guns, leaving them with no means of survival. They eventually re-settled in areas of west-central Alberta, including Edson, Robb, Brule, Marlboro, Hinton and, Grande Cache.

Today, Mountain Métis members continue their close connection with the land and follow traditional practices such as hunting, fishing, and plant harvesting. They are known as the horseback people who guide and outfit in the Canadian Rockies, as did their Ancestors.