METIS

plural Mtis, in Canadian history, a person of mixed Indian and European ancestry. The first Mtis were the offspring of local Indian women and European fur traders in the Red River area of what is now the province of Manitoba. They resisted the Canadian takeover of the Northwest in 1869. In the course of half a century they had developed a distinctive way of life and thought of themselves as a nation with rights in the Northwest. Fearing the oncoming wave of settlers from Ontario, they established a provisional government under the leadership of Louis Riel (184485). In 1870 their government negotiated a union with Canada that resulted in the establishment of the province of Manitoba.