On the drive north from Edmonton, signs along the roadside point to farms selling Taber corn and peaches. Silver silos glint across the flat fields. Then, just before the prairie meets the vast northern boreal forests, I arrive at Métis Crossing. It’s a new 40-room lodge on the banks of the Red River and Alberta’s first indigenous cultural centre.
It sits on a section of the Old Victoria Trail, part of a trading route that ran from Fort Edmonton to Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Known as Otipemisiwak, or ‘The People Who Own Themselves’, the Métis have mixed European and First Nation ancestry — born from unions between European fur traders and First Nation women(blocks of powdered dried meat, mixed with berries and lard), often working as interpreters and guides for European arrivals. Only in 2016 were their distinct indigenous rights recognised by the Canadian government.
