[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by Rafter

During the early 1800's the Metis used to travel from Red River in what is now Manitoba all the way to the Rocky Mountains in what is now Alberta by horse and Red River cart to do their subsistance harvesting.

Thanks,
Rafter

The Metis DID NOT travel to what is now Alberta for the purpose of subsistence hunting, being defined as harvesting for FOOD. These journeys were made for the purpose of reaping financial reward through participation in the un-sustainable slaughter of bison for the robe trade!

Strict interpretation of Metis hunting in Alberta based on history suggests that they should have the right to harvest wildlife to extripation for financial reward.

My ancestors also settled in pre-confederation Alberta, and harvested wildlife for food while farming and doing business. Shouldn't all other cultures that lived and continue to live and practice their culture today have the same rights as the Metis are asking for?








From http://www.albertasource.ca/metis/en...ra_buffalo.htm

Buffalo Robe Trade
As trade decreased and the number of Métis employed in the trading companies began to diminish, Aboriginal and Métis emphasized another product, which stemmed from the bison or "buffalo" centred economy – the buffalo robe. The buffalo robe trade was part of the end of the buffalo. It has been suggested that the buffalo herds amounted to 60 million individual animals in North America before European settlement. The bison travelled in two vast herds, the southern herd and the northern herd, each with its own migration route. The northern herd travelled in a huge loop down through what is now Saskatchewan, south of Cypress Hills into Montana, and back up beside the Rockies, across the Oldman River, north across the Red Deer River and up to the North Saskatchewan, before bending back east and then south again.

A market for the robes developed in the eastern states, not only for coats and robes for carriages, but also as a source of leather for industrial belts. As prices, driven by demand, increased in the south, some of the northern Aboriginal buffalo robe product made its way into the American markets. The HBC, realizing they were losing profits, increased their prices as a result. Since much of the bison came from the Aboriginal communities it is estimated that the Aboriginal people were only eating four out of every one hundred animals they slaughtered. The Métis who at this stage sought an alternate income other than the fur trade had a number of economic strategies. They did some subsistence farming, they fished, trapped and hunted, and they combined the buffalo robe trade with freighting goods between the large trade centres. The Métis took on a middleman position, purchasing hides from the Aboriginal people and re-selling them to the HBC or to companies across the line.

Over time, the Métis took on more of the hunting and hide preparation. Whole communities moved out to the plains in the fall to hunt buffalo all winter. They settled where there was shelter, and where they knew the buffalo could be found. These outposts became winter villages, and before 1870 some were becoming permanent settlements. The Métis people from St. Albert and Lac Ste. Anne (a little north and west of Fort Edmonton) made use of the territory between Battle River and Red Deer River, settling at the river fords and around Buffalo Lake. The best known hivernant settlements were Tail Creek, on Red Deer River southwest of Buffalo Lake, and Buffalo Boss Hill, on the eastern side of the lake.

The involvement of the Aboriginal and Métis communities in the hide trade resulted in the disappearance of the buffalo and their whole economy and way of life. By 1860, it was becoming obvious to everyone in the area that the buffalo were disappearing; they were already scarce in the Canadian prairies. The Great White Hunt across the northern states, from 1870 to 1873, in which over 5000 white hunters and skinners participated, took over 3 million buffalo and spelled the end of the great herds. By 1887 it was estimated that there were 1100 buffalo left alive, and by 1890, the estimate fell to 750 animals.

From http://auspace.athabascau.ca:8080/dspace/handle/2149/81
open file f09.pdf near the bottom.

As early as 1850 the Metis had become commodity manufacturers, particularly of buffalo robes for eastern capitalist markets. Both Ens and Foster demonstrate that the Metis were divided into a merchant class and a buffalohunting class who worked almost entirely on the production of buffalo hides for the Eastern markets. In turn the Metis were paid in manufactured goods, upon which they increasingly relied.

The Metis then were not pushed out of Red River, rather they were
attracted by opportunity to move into the Western interior.^ Many like
Diane Payment now accept Ens's thesis but argue as well that racism and
economic hardships imposed by unfair land allocation practices contributed
to drive the Metis into the South Saskatchewan area. She notes in her book
that the Metis adapted well to their new economic realities and achieved
considerable success as farmers, merchants and professionals particularly
with the demise of the buffalo.