The Eastern Woodland Metis (our ancestors) were here 150 years before they even thought about the Canadian Northwest. (They have been trying to pass it off that they were here first. That is untrue.) We have documented proof that the birth of the Metis Indian People began in Newfoundland in the early 1600's with the marriages between Eastern Woodland, or Algonquin women and French settlers. Explorers and traders then moved westward through New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI then to Quebec and Ontario before reaching the Prairie provinces.

This interracial culture started in the 1600's and reached it's peak in the late 1800's (but it began in the Eastern Canadian provinces), then and only then did it move to the Western part of Canada. Many of our ancestors helped to settle the Red River area.

The very first term of the word Metis occurred in the St. John River Valley of western New Brunswick. It referred to an island inhabited by Maliseet Indian Community which included a number of mixed breeds.

The word Metis comes from the French word Metissage which means to Mix or Combine. By 1770 the Eastern Metis Indians (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, Quebec and Newfoundland) were assimilated by the Catholic Church. This lasted for over 200 years.

We are back now, and we will not be as weak as we once were, there will not be any genocide through assimilation this time. We shall take our rightful place in history as we were meant to be, by the Creator, as we should have done many years ago.

Our ancestors were the first to develop our own Aboriginal Language before Prairia Michif was developed.

The very first Metis Indian chosen to be Chief of an aboriginal tribe was from the Eastern Woodland Metis of Atlantic Canada.

The very first Freedom Fighter was not Louis Riel, but Joseph Brossard and Joe Lebeuf from the Memremcook/Monkton area, the bend region of New Brunswick, they were also the very first Metis Indian Freedom Fighters to be arrested for treason (100 years before Louis Riel). The EWML were the first to be sold into slavery. The very first practice of paying cash bounties for human scalp was directed toward the EWMI and their Micmac allies from 1755 - 1758 (this bounty remains in effect today).

The Eastern Woodland Metis are the only aboriginals who were part of the great deportation of the Acadians.

In 1780 the EMWI were forced to renounce their Metis-Indian identity, or face persecution of both Acadian and Indian communities from both government and Catholic Church.

They were assimilated into the Acadian population or hidden in Indian communities until 1988 when the very first modern day Metis was registered.

We are back, we are not going away nor will we be pushed aside again. We have Treaties and we also have documented Proof of our Heritage. We are the descendants of the Eastern Woodland Metis Indians. We are the Eastern Woodland Metis Nation Nova Scotia and we are here to stay. We believe in diversity not assimilation.

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