16 METIS NA TION Of ONT ARIO Annu A l Repo R t 20122013 m e TI s n a TI on of o n T ar I o sT a T emen T of p r I me p urpose Wher e W e Got o ur n ame T he pater nal ancestors of the Metis wer e the for mer employees of the Hudson Bay Northwest Fur Companies and their mater nal ancestors wer e Indian women of the various tribes The Fr ench wor d Metis is derived fr om the Latin participle mixtus which means mixed in Fr ench mele it expr esses well the idea that is sought to be conveyed However appr opriate the cor r esponding English expr ession Halfbr eed might have been for the frst generation of the mixtur e of blood now that Eur opean blood and Indian blood ar e mixed in every degr ee it is no longer general enough The Fr ench wor d Metis expr esses the idea of this mixtur e in the most satisfactory manner possible and thus be comes a pr oper race name Why should we car e to what degr ee exactly of mixtur e we possess Eur opean blood and Indian blood If we feel ever so little gratitude and flial love towar d one or the other do they not constrain us to say WE ARE METIS Louis Riel 1885 Who W e ar e as a p eople W e the Metis ar e a people of the lands which gave rise to our histor y and tradition and cultur e W e call those lands the Metis Homelands The Homelands str etch fr om the lakes and rivers of Ontario cr oss the wide prairies traverse the mountains into British Columbia and into the norther n r eaches of the North west T erritories They include the hills and valleys of the northcentral Ameri can States These ar e our lands They ar e Metis lands They ar e the lands of our past which nurtur e us today and which we value as the pr ecious foundation of our futur e As Metis who live in the Homelands we hold it to be a fundamental truth that we ar e one of the Aboriginal peoples of the Americas The Metis Nation continues today to be the embodiment of our past the sour ce of sustenance for our pr es ent while giving rise to our hopes and aspirations for the futur e W e ar e a Nation bor n of independence and selfsuffciency whose teachings ar e founded on the values of honesty and truth W e ar e pr oud of our rich heritage W e ar e inspir ed by the values and traditions of our ances vISI on t he s tatement of p rime p urpose expr esses t he values and principles of t he Met is Nat ion of Ontario MNO The Statement embod ies t he vision of t he Met is nat ion and is central to al l aspects of t he MNO fr om t he genesis of our writ ten const itut ion pol icies and laws to our democrat ic pr ocesses and inst itut ions The MNO operates in accor dance wit h a developing const itut ion which includes not only t he Statement of Prime Purpose but also t he MNO Secr etariat ByLaws t he MNO Electoral Code t he MNO Community Charter Agr eements and t he Met is Nat ion Rules of Or der