The Metis Lifestyle
Food/Environment/Transportation
Food/Hunting
. This diet was necessary because they lived a very active life, a life that was physically demanding.
. The energy produced by this certain diet was then used to live a subsistence lifestyle. .There was always the possibility that on a bad year many families would run short of fresh food making those demanding trips hard.
.Most Metis families tried to ensure they could make it through difficult years and harsh winters by preserving and storing food from gardens, fields and kills.
.Storing fruits and vegetables in small cellars or in root houses ensured that families had fresh sources of vitamins and minerals during winters.
. Bannock was also a high-energy food eaten by travelers or other people engaged in a great deal of physical activity who did not have time to prepare food. It also supplied long term energy.
. Metis meals and recipes consisted of products people obtained from hunting, gathering or farming.
. If fishing was available in the area it was also a major source of food for the Metis people.
. The buffalo hunts provided the Metis with an impressive feature of life for all individuals on or near the Red River and other Metis communities.
Environment
. The Metis didn't have much a certain environment because they were always moving.
. Metis communities were established along the major fur trade routes mostly near the important freighting waterways.. On buffalo hunts and trade expeditions, the Metis camped in tipis. The Metis also had canvas tents that were brought over by the Europeans.
. The Metis lived in Red River lots, farm houses that were built along the Red River. Log houses were the most common Metis dwellings.
Transportation
. Canoes were a big way the Metis traveled, they lived along water so the only way to get across from one side to the other was to take a canoe.
. Rivers were important for transportation during the fur trade as well as lakes for fur trade.
.The introduction of the horse on the Plains, greatly changed the lifestyle of the Metis because they had something other than canoes to travel on.
. Horses allowed the Metis too:
. Travel a great distance
. Hunt buffalo in a wider area (cover more ground)
.Kill more buffallo
. Use Red River Carts (pulled by horses
. Canoes and horses were the number one way the Metis were transportated.