When, exactly, the first Métis organization was formed, depends largely on how you define organization and on how you define Métis.  Under a broad definition (i.e. any mixed-blood group organized to achieve a specific common goal or goals for its community) the early Halfbreed/Métis communities that developed in what is now the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario in the mid-1700s would certainly qualify.  There is no question that the resistances of Cuthbert Grant  and Louis Riel in the western territories prior to joining Confederation were highly organized initiatives.  The resulting Grant siegniory at White Horse Plains, (1821+) and the Riel Provisional governments in Manitoba (1869) and Saskatchewan (1885) were certainly "organizations" by anybody’s definition.

The Métis section of the final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal peoples lists a partial selection of the development of western Métis organizations.  Unfortunately it also repeats much of the mythology of the Métis National Council which has been addressed elsewhere on this site.   From the formation of the Union Nationale Métisse de Saint-Joseph du Manitoba in 1887, the Report lists the creation of various political organizations from the 1920s to the modern era.

What the RCAP Report fails, for the most part, to mention is that a parallel development took place on the eastern half of the continent as well.  An unpublished 143 page report written in 1973 by Don Whiteside, PhD. entitled "Efforts to Develop Aboriginal Political Associations in Canada -1850-1973" lists 146 organizations for that period -- excluding Band and Tribal Councils etc.  It indicates that Métis, Halfbreeds and Non-Status Indians were heavily involved in the formation and executive councils of many if not most of the so-called Indian organizations during that era.  In the late sixties those individuals were excluded from their respective organizations by the emerging status Indian leadership on the basis that the founders were not Indians registered under the Indian Act.  Whiteside also traces the rise of Métis specific organizations outside the western provinces from Ontario in 1969 through Quebec and the Maritimes up to 1973.

For the purposes of this article, the most important Métis organizations are those old-line organizations who either themselves, or through their successor organizations, still survive today.  Most of these organizations were formed or reformed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  It was in this era that the foundations for today’s Aboriginal organizations were laid.  To understand the emergence of these organizations in general, and their relationship to various Canadian governments in particular, the context in which they emerged must be understood.

Governments Need Métis Organizations

It was in the late 70’s that I first made contact with Aboriginal organizations through my friend and mentor, Duke Redbird, who became President of the Ontario Métis and Non-Status Indian Association.  It was he who, in the early sixties, gave me my first and most lasting lesson in understanding the context in which political Aboriginal organizations exist. He told me, quite bluntly, that representative Aboriginal organizations exist because governments need them to exist.  Governments are simply not equipped to deal with individuals.  They much prefer to deal with the spokespersons and representatives of local, regional or national groups of people - even if they have to pay them to do it.  In the seventies and early eighties the government’s need for Aboriginal representation was becoming acute.

There were several factors driving that need.  The first was the increasingly embarrassing publicity the federal government was experiencing in relation to the third world living conditions being experienced by many Aboriginal peoples.  The second was an equal amount of publicity being earned by the Canadian Red Power movement dedicated to achieving equity for Aboriginal peoples on a variety of economic, social and political levels.  Perhaps most important was the huge negative reaction of Aboriginal peoples to the infamous federal White Paper of 1969 which proposed the elimination of all distinctions between Native peoples and mainstream Canada.  All of these factors were brought to the verge of political crisis by the Supreme Court split decision on the N’ishga case on the continuing existence of Aboriginal title and rights.

The federal response to all of these issues was to apply the principles of Trudeau’s twin themes of participatory democracy and multiculturalism and provide financial resources to emerging Aboriginal organizations.  At first - and only after persistent lobbying by nascent urban Aboriginal leadership - Aboriginal people were included in the multicultural context of the funding programs of the Ministry of the Secretary of State.  When more able and astute lobbyists insisted that Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples were a distinct class of indigenous collectives and should be not be treated like a run of the mill immigrant ethnic group, the government created a distinct program for funding Aboriginal representation.

In order to avoid the appearance of de facto recognition of unregistered Indians and Métis by the then Department of Indian and Northern Development (DIAND), this funding was funnelled through the Ministry of the Secretary of State under a newly created Aboriginal Representative Organizations Program (AROP).  The funding was designed to cover the basic operating costs of office rent, executive salaries, staff and administration and was designated as core funding.

From the very outset Métis organizations were faced with federal resistance to funding them separately from Indian organizations.  The western Métis organizations, on their own, did not have the kind of national presence that federal funding required.  The mistaken perception of the day - which was to be soundly contradicted by claims research to be described later -- was that there were no Métis outside the western provinces, therefore the western Métis - as a regional group -- did not qualify for federal funding designed for national organizations.

 At the same time status Indian organizations were making it increasingly clear that they would not even accommodate unregistered Indians, much less Halfbreeds and Métis.  The government was fearful that federal funding unregistered Indians would be interpreted as de facto recognition of fiscal responsibility for such people.  Federal officials insisted that those unregistered or non-status Indians excluded by their status cousins would have access to core funding only if they joined hands with Métis groups in a common set of organizations.

As a result the National Métis Association formed by Métis organizations from the prairie provinces in 1970 became the Native Council of Canada (NCC) in 1971 before it could even incorporate under its original name.  As affiliates to the NCC were created in each province and territory they took on names which usually began with "The Métis and Non-Status Indian Association of ……"  (insert province or territory in the blank.) By 1972 There was an NCC affiliate organization in every province but one and in the two territories. 

This shotgun marriage of Métis and Non-Status Indian organizations had a number of both positive and negative effects.  On the positive side it ensured core funding for both groups and gave them easier access to program dollars for their communities.  Since the number of unregistered Indians in Canada outnumbered Métis by at least two to one it also provided Métis organizations with a numerical punch they had previously lacked at the national lobbying level.  To the extent that both groups had common problems in terms of social and economic issues and particularly in terms of lack of recognition by Canadians and their governments, the marriage enjoyed a considerably extended honeymoon.

 What was not well understood by governments or even the organizations at the time, was that the hoped for solutions to their common problems were, from the outset, quite different.  For example both had a problem of lack of recognition of their "status" as indigenous or Aboriginal people. Most, but not all, non-status Indians saw the solution to this problem in the context of being admitted or readmitted to the Indian lists and band membership under the Indian Act.  Métis, on the other hand first required that fundamental recognition that Indians already "enjoyed" under 91(24) of the BNA Act 1867, and then the provision of a land base (or its equivalent for purpose of community decision making or self-government.)   These differences were originally submerged under a set of common bread-and-butter issues mentioned later - but eventually they resulted in tearing many of the organizations in half.

A secondary effect of the shotgun wedding was a considerable blurring of the lines between the family of the groom (Métis) and that of the bride (non-Status Indians).  As the membership of the affiliate organizations increased - particularly in urban areas - many people of Aboriginal descent who had little or no connection with their Indian culture were more likely, and were often encouraged by their respective organizations, to identify themselves as Métis. 

When government and academic analysts began to examine the phenomenon of the existence and growth of Aboriginal organizations, they were poorly prepared to make the fine (from a non-Native point of view) distinctions between the two sets of peoples.  Increasingly writers on the subject fused the two groups and treated them, semantically, as if the terms were interchangeable. In some contexts where Halfbreeds had entered treaty and were later excluded from registration as Indians via various enfranchisement techniques, for example, both terms could correctly be applied - at different times - to a single individual.  But for the time being, at least, the resulting confusion seemed to have little practical significance.