Fort McKay Métis community stands strong in its history

“We've always said that, in this community, to be able to understand where you want to go, you need to know where you come from. I think this book is a cornerstone in that,” said Ron Quintal, past president of the Fort McKay Métis Nation.

Quintal was one of a number of people that non-Indigenous author Peter Fortna relied on to write The Fort McKay Métis Nation: A Community History. It was published last month by the University of Calgary Press. The book project was funded by the Fort McKay Métis Nation and the Alberta government.

Quintal met Fortna 23 years ago when the young university graduate was in northern Alberta working with a nearby Métis organization. Over the ensuing years, Fortna has worked with both the Fort McKay Métis and the Fort McKay First Nation, as well as the Fort McKay community in a number of capacities.

“Peter's been very integral in the community, and he knows the people and the history,” said Quintal. He said Fortna was “well qualified” to write the book, which has been embraced by the Fort McKay Métis community.

“Just the trials and tribulations the community had to go through throughout the years and having their ancestors and family members and relations mentioned in the book and stances that they took, I think is an important story for them,” said Quintal.

Fortna spoke to community members and also drew heavily on studies, documents, government records, and media reports, including from the Alberts Sweetgrass and Windspeaker news publications, to recount the story of the Fort McKay Métis starting well before members took scrip or the Fort McKay First Nation signed Treaty 8 in 1899.

Fortna paints a picture of Fort McKay Métis and the First Nation with a shared “community culture (which) was the bush economy…closely connected to kinship, reciprocity, and the use of the land.”

It’s this connection, writes Fortna, that permitted treaty commissioners to allow Métis to take treaty if they chose or take scrip.

“The different designations seemed to mean little to the community itself, which continued to remain structured around the bush economy and to one another,” writes Fortna.

That’s a valuable reminder, says Quintal.

“I think what (the book) does is it allows (the Fort McKay Métis) to show the rest of the world that our people have always been fighting this fight and we've always been, from a unified approach, Indigenous, in terms of First Nations and Métis. There's always been a collective narrative that we choose to stand together,” he said.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t challenges, Quintal says, pointing to when he first became president of the precursor to the Fort McKay Métis Nation in 2005.

“There was zero regard or respect for the Métis community at that time. Industry and government both refused to work with us. They would answer our letters (and) simply say… ‘Métis don't have rights associated with this.’ It was an uphill battle starting from then,” he said.

Those external fights were nothing compared to the internal fights, Quintal says, with polarization among Métis families.

“That was the toughest fight of all, to get the community to trust each other again, to begin to work and paddle the canoe, if you will, in the same direction again,” he said.

Families realized that despite their differences they shared the same goals of wanting to be recognized politically, to be rights-based and to benefit from the development that was beginning to occur in the territory, along with defending their traplines and fighting water disturbances.

“Once the community was brought together…we really started to see barriers knocked down,” said Quintal. He says the book shows that progression, particularly with industry and the economic benefits the Fort McKay Métis have gained.

The book also chronicles the evolution of the Fort McKay Métis Nation and the battle it has waged to gain its independence from the Otipemisiwak Métis Government (formerly the Métis Nation of Alberta). The Fort McKay Métis Nation was recognized with credible assertion status by the province, which commits Alberta to consult on Crown land management and resource development. However, the battle remains for recognition from the federal government.

“But I think the biggest thing for me, what I see from this book, is it's not just telling the story, but it can also be a how-to for other communities who are choosing to go down their own path, because it's not an easy road to go down. But once you begin down that path, you can find success,” said Quintal.

There’s more ahead for the Fort McKay Métis Nation, says Quintal, and he is confident that in 10 years there will be another two or three chapters added to Fort McKay Métis Nation: A Community History.

“Peter and I actually talked about this the day after he brought the book to the community, and I think the federal aspect is going to play a major part in terms of… adding to our history, in terms of what Fort McKay has been able to achieve,” said Quintal.

“But I think the next chapter is from an economic perspective: How is the nation able to take advantage of these energy projects that are in our traditional territory?”

Quintal points to the upcoming federal election. A Pierre Poilievre Conservative government is promising a massive expansion in oil sands development and LNG, as well as a national energy corridor. Mark Carney and the Liberals are pushing reconciliation as well as pitching Canada as an “energy superpower.”

“How does the Nation become involved in being able to use its financial wherewithal to be able to invest in projects like those? I think that's the next question,” said Quintal. “We've always been after recognition of our rights so that we can go out and earn those dollars ourselves, as has been the philosophy of the community.”

Fort McKay Métis Nation: A Community History can be purchased online at press.ucalgary.ca/books.

Local Journalism Initiative Reporters are supported by a financial contribution made by the Government of Canada.