The Oblate construction of the Metis other: Mission ambulante among Les hivernants, 1830--1880

This thesis has as its focus the ways in which the Oblate missionaries of the North West conceptualized, understood and constructed the plains Métis. When the Oblates of Mary Immaculate were dispatched to the North West of what is now Canada, they arrived with specific ideas and perspectives of the world and their goals. The Métis, the children of European fathers and Indian mothers, were a crucial component of the Oblate mission. They already showed signs of a separate identity distinct from either parentage and many of the French Métis had been exposed to Catholicism through their fathers and in some cases even remembered prayers that had been recited. The Métis and the Oblates shared a language, a religious experience, and the difficulties of surviving in a harsh climate. It is the Métis and Oblate relationship that this thesis is concerned with, in particular the relationship between the wintering plains Métis and those Oblate fathers who followed them to these remote hivernant camps. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)