I descend from a person receiving Manitoba Script, a "half-breed" as they were called in the day. I descend from the Johnston(Johnstone), Calder, Foulds family lines, in the Red River Valley on my fathers maternal line.
On his paternal line, we were from Cumberland County, NS. My grandfather and his two living brothers moved to Winnipeg in 1902, to obtain employment. My grandfather and his brother Jack went to work for the Winnipeg Fire Department. His brother Jack (John Hector Stewart), died as a result of frostbite sustained fighting a fire in December 1907. He is memorialized on the Winnipeg Fire Museum Web Site in their "Last Alarm" section.
My father moved to the States during the "dirty thirties", my father being an "illegal alien". He was never legally admitted to the US, he just came and told everyone he had been born in Minneapolis. He voted and lived as a US citizen, but never actually was one.
My grandmother was not allowed to attend schools in Manitoba, because she was a "half-breed". She was born in what is now the R.M. of Franklin, where her father had a farm. She hated being a "half-breed", because of the extreme prejudice that she experienced as a child. It was only shortly before she died, that she told me that she was 1/4 Indian, and about her mother and grandparents.
I would love to correspond with anyone that can teach me more about the Métis culture. Unlike my grandmother, I am proud to have some native ancestry, and i am trying to learn as much about that ancestry as possible.
On his paternal line, we were from Cumberland County, NS. My grandfather and his two living brothers moved to Winnipeg in 1902, to obtain employment. My grandfather and his brother Jack went to work for the Winnipeg Fire Department. His brother Jack (John Hector Stewart), died as a result of frostbite sustained fighting a fire in December 1907. He is memorialized on the Winnipeg Fire Museum Web Site in their "Last Alarm" section.
My father moved to the States during the "dirty thirties", my father being an "illegal alien". He was never legally admitted to the US, he just came and told everyone he had been born in Minneapolis. He voted and lived as a US citizen, but never actually was one.
My grandmother was not allowed to attend schools in Manitoba, because she was a "half-breed". She was born in what is now the R.M. of Franklin, where her father had a farm. She hated being a "half-breed", because of the extreme prejudice that she experienced as a child. It was only shortly before she died, that she told me that she was 1/4 Indian, and about her mother and grandparents.
I would love to correspond with anyone that can teach me more about the Métis culture. Unlike my grandmother, I am proud to have some native ancestry, and i am trying to learn as much about that ancestry as possible.
