Michel Band

The Michel Band also called the Michel Caillehoo, Michel Caillehouis, Michel Caillehow, Michel Calahoo, Michel Calistrois, or Michel Calliho Band[1] was a group of "Indians" (First Nations people]) united under a band government. The band signed Treaty 6 with the Queen (and the Canadian government), signing an adhesion to Treaty Six in 1876. In 1880, a 40-square-mile reserve was surveyed as "Michel I.R. 132" on the Sturgeon River, about eight miles from the Roman Catholic Mission at St. Albert, 15 miles 5 miles northwest of Edmonton. Reserve confirmed by Order in Council PC 1151 on May 17, 1889. Like all First Nations in the Edmonton area, the Michel Band members came under heavy government and settlement pressure to surrender their rich agricultural land. Land sales marked by government corruption steadily eroded their land base through the next half-century.

In 1958, the Michel Band became the only First Nation in Canada in the 20th Century to enfranchise.[2]

In 1985 many descendants of the historic Michel Band regained Indian Status through Bill C-31. They have since that time lobbied the federal government to once again recognize them as an Indian band with Aboriginal and treaty rights.[3]

Many band members trace their ancestry to Louis Callihoo, also known as Kara Komptee, Kwarakwante, a Mohawk born in 1782, Sault St. Louis, in what is now called Kahnawake, Que.[4]

In 1800, Louis Kwarkwante signed on as a voyageur with the North West Company (a clerk changed his name to: Caliheue) [5] and travelled West to Northern Alberta to work as a fur trader from Montreal region. He married three local women (a Sekani Native and two French-Cree Metis sisters). Iroquois may at one time have been the language of the band, but by the late 19th Century Father Albert Lacombe wrote that most band members spoke Cree or French.[6] It seems likely that Michif, a mixed Cree-French language, was used by the Band.

References

  1. ↑ "Index of Bands in Western Canada - Western Canada - Bands and Agencies - Library and Archives Canada". collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  2. ↑ Disinherited Generations: Our Struggle to Reclaim Treaty Rights for First Nations Women and their Descendants, Nellie Carlson, Kathleen Steinhauer, University of Alberta, Jul 3, 2013
  3. ↑ "Aboriginal, Issue 20, Evidence". parl.gc.ca. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  4. ↑ The Sun Traveller: The Story of the Callihoos in Alberta, Elizabeth Macpherson, Musee Heritage Museum (St. Albert, Alta.)1998
  5. ↑ Edmonton, In Our Own Words, Linda Goyette, Carolina Jakeway Roemmich, University of Alberta, Apr 1, 2005
  6. ↑ "Michel Band: Metis Who Left Treaty". Father Lacombe wrote of the Iroquois at the Michel reserve saying their language was almost extinct, replaced by Cree or French
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