Among their many other names, the Metis were also known as the "Buffalo Hunters". During the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Metis Nation established themselves as the processors and suppliers of Pemmican to the new world. The nation's gross national product from this source was larger than either fledgling nation of Canada or the United States.

Although the Metis sustained themselves in a variety of ways (such as fishing, trapping for furs, practicing small-scale agriculture and working as wage labourers for the Hudson's Bay Company) they were first and foremost buffalo hunters. The buffalo herds were their major source of subsistence and trade goods. Every summer, and again in the fall, hundreds of Metis families with their Red River carts, horses, oxen and dogs set out for the buffalo plains of North Dakota. These buffalo hunting expeditions were carefully organized and became the foundation of Metis government. A leader of the hunt was selected, scouts were chosen and rules were arranged before the expedition ever set forth.

The great size of these hunting expeditions has drawn comment. Alexander Ross, a resident of the Red River Settlement writing in 1856 felt that the camp of the 1840 hunt covered an area equal to that of a modern city. This particular expedition contained 620 men, 650 women, 360 children and 1,210 Red River carts. This hunt was by no means the largest Red River hunt ever assembled.

The North American Plains buffalo (bison) was a creature ideally suited to the central grassland areas of North America. They wandered in huge herds (estimated in the millions) north-south or east-west. Their range of territory was anywhere the grass grew. Click here to see a map. The buffalo was considered a very sacred animal by all Aboriginal people of the Plains. The buffalo was their main source of food, clothing, household articles, and in the case of the Metis, their livelihood.

All parts of the animal were used and many parts had many uses:

No wonder Aboriginal people thought this animal was sacred and little wonder their lives where impacted and almost destroyed by the decline and eventual extermination of the Plains Buffalo.

Metis people were very familiar with the way of the New World and how to capitalize on the needs of the people. They had been brought up and created through the fur trade. The Metis had forged and changed the very presence of the companies entering this arena and had opened their own trading company in the 1700s (The NorthWest Company). So it's not surprising that the Metis dominated in the Pemmican trade in the late 1700s and into the 1800s: beginning with their organization of the buffalo hunt and institution of Laws of the Prairies.

Go onto learn about the Metis Buffalo Hunts.