Michif language gets a boost

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It was a simple question but few could provide the answer.

Ed St. Pierre asked if anyone could understand what he was saying. Of the 50 people in the audience at the Lebret Metis Farm on March 17, only six raised their hands, and many of them were senior citizens.

That's because St. Pierre asked his question in a language which, 150 years ago, was the working language for those living on the Canadian prairies. Today it is spoken, according to best estimates, by fewer than 1,000 people in Saskatchewan.

The language is Michif, and as chairman of the Metis Language Association, St. Pierre says it's his mission to keep the language alive.

"When we are gone, it's up to the youth in order to preserve our language," he said.

The Metis Nation of Saskatchewan is holding several workshops on the Michif language throughout the province, said Bruce Lamont, a Metis activist who spoke to the crowd at the seminar.

"We can get it back if we all work together," he added. "If we lose it now it will never be regained."

Preserving the language is an integral part of keeping Metis heritage and culture alive, said Lamont.

"A people can't possess a culture without an understanding of their unique language."

St. Pierre said only about 50 people living in the Qu'Appelle Valley can speak the language, a hybrid of Cree and French, with a few words of English and Saulteaux thrown in the mix. Michif mostly mixes Cree verbs with French nouns, and came about after contact between the First Nations people on the prairies and Quebec-based fur traders in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The rise and fall of the Michif language reflects the rise and fall in the Metis people's fortune, Lamont said.

Over time, Michif became the common working language for those on the prairies, from those buying and selling fur and other goods to farmers and hunters.

After the Saskatchewan Rebellion ended with Metis leader Louis Riel's execution in 1885, the Metis people and the Michif language were driven underground. Fearing reprisals, many refused to speak the language of their forefathers, Lamont added.

"Our Elders, when they were children, faced corporal punishment if they spoke Michif when they were at school. Many of the teachers said at the time the best way for those children to learn English was to beat Michif out of them."

The MNS is concentrating its efforts to re-establish the Michif language by recording the language and getting translations from those speaking the language today, St. Pierre said.

"We're 'banking the language' - kind of creating a bank of reference for the language," he explained.

The MNS will be holding several Michif workshops throughout Saskatchewan in order to get more of the language from Elders.

The MNS and the Gabriel Dumont Institute, a Metis culture-based, post-secondary educational institution, taped the event at the Lebret Metis Farm and will use the tapes for classroom instruction.

St. Pierre said the future of the Michif language rests with young people, the target for the seminar. Of the 50 who attended, about 30 were Native Studies students from Bert Fox Comprehensive High School.

The MNS estimates that about 75,000 people of Metis ancestry live in Saskatchewan.