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I admit to having little knowledge of First Nations history. But I recently met a visitor who elevated my appreciation for Indigenous culture.

Pamela Vanderburg was born in Cayuga, Ont., near Lake Erie:

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“My mother is an Empire Loyalist. My First Nations DNA enters because of bonnie Scot Prince Charlie who led the Scottish rebellion in the 1700s. My Dad’s ancestors, the Grant family, hid Charles in their barn, and the British found him and hung him and exiled the Grants to Canada. William Grant married a Mohawk near Cayuga, so from a First Nation’s perspective I am a Métis woman from Grand River Territory next to the Six Nation Reserve.”

Then she explained how there are two basic roots of Métis in Canada: “One is the Louis Riel line from the French colonists who migrated out west. The other main branch is Scottish. Now, if you have ancestry that goes back to Canada before around 1800, chances are you have First Nations blood in you and therefore are Métis. In those years, it was all fur trappers who married local First Nations women.”