Revealing and Reconciling Métis History in Saskatoon

Dr. Cheryl Troupe

This project brings together academic, City of Saskatoon and Métis community partners to better understand Métis presence and place-making in the city. It uses community-engaged Indigenous research methods, oral history and HGIS methods to document and map Métis place-based stories and histories in the city, providing nuance to urban Métis experiences from the early twentieth century, creating critical knowledge and increasing public awareness of prairie Métis history and Indigenous peoples' historical experience in prairie urban centres. This work is guided by Li Vyeu, Senator of the Métis Nation, Nora Cummings. Project partners include Gabriel Dumont Local #11 and City of Saskatoon partners: Melissa Cote, Director of Indigenous Initiatives; Kevin Kitchen, Manager of Community Development, and Jeff O’Brian and Ken Dahl, City of Saskatoon Archives. This project is funded by the University of Saskatchewan and the City of Saskatoon’s Research Junction grant.

This project began with a SSHRC Explore Grant in 2021 focused on documenting and deep-mapping the life history and social and political activism of Nora Cummings. The process of “deep-mapping” provides a place-based lens to Cummings’ stories. She grew up on a road allowance on the outskirts of Saskatoon and became politically active in the city’s urban Indigenous community in the 1960s-70s. She was involved in forming Métis Local #11 in the late 1960s and instrumental in forming the Saskatchewan Native Women’s Movement in the 1970s.

Li Vyeu Nora Cummings sharing her story in front of a City of Saskatoon bus shelter on Clarence Avenue and Taylor Street, Saskatoon. The bus shelter, in front of Aden Bowman Collegiate, is located on land where road allowance Métis families, such as Nora’s, grew community gardens.