Ongoing Political Discussions Regarding First Nations Rights and the Métis Nation of Ontario

Ongoing Political Discussions Regarding First Nations Rights and the Métis Nation of Ontario

Posted on March 24, 2025

Notice: Ongoing Political Discussions Regarding First Nations Rights and the Métis Nation of Ontario

For more information, including peer reviewed academic reports, please visit the Chiefs of Ontario Rights Assertions webpage: https://chiefs-of-ontario.org/priorities/justice/rights-assertions/

Greetings Community Members:

This notice is regarding an important and ongoing conflict between First Nations and the so-called Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) which has been making headlines and sparking conversation across our region for the last few years.

As you may know, Leadership across our region, through the Ontario Chiefs-in-Assembly, are standing in solidarity against the MNO – a corporation without any s. 35 rights that is claiming lands and resources that belong to First Nations across Ontario. The MNO corporation is actively working to undermine First Nations rights in many ways. Our fight is not against individuals or against legitimate Métis peoples. This is an issue against a corporation that is trying to steal our identities, and in turn, our Ancestral and Treaty territories, by claiming to be something it is not and trying to rewrite both our histories and those of actual Métis peoples.

Actual Métis people originated in the Prairies as a result of mixed-race people living in separate communities and intermarrying with each other over many generations prior to the Crown asserting control of an area, and developing their own distinct culture, language, and systems for self-government. In contrast, the MNO is a corporation that was only formed in the 1990s to represent Prairie Métis that moved to Ontario (outside their homeland). Today, there is much evidence that the MNO recognizes non-Indigenous people as Métis and wrongly claims First Nations’ Ancestors as “Métis”.

Actual Métis scholars have noted in a recent report that “simply living in a place does not make a Métis community…there is a critical different between being in a place and being Indigenous from a place.”

While we work together as a region to combat yet another attack against our First Nation identity, we encourage all our citizens to stay informed, ask questions, and engage in respectful conversations.
Chief and Council are available to provide further information and to address any concerns you may have.

Together, we remain committed to protecting our inherent and Treaty rights.

Chief and Council