page_title: North Slave Métis Alliance
section_title: History of the North Slave Métis people
hierarchical_section_title: North Slave Métis Alliance / History of the North Slave Métis people
caption_attribution_description: English: Fort Reliance, showing the chimney erected by Back in 1833, and the remains of the cabin built by Buffalo Jones. John Russell hired Métis Sousi Beaulieu to guide him while surveying the northern shore of the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. Beaulieu stands in front of the cabin remains wearing a traditional Métis sash. Template:NWT archive
context_page_description: The North Slave Métis Alliance is a non-profit society that represents the indigenous rights-bearing Métis people of the Northwest Territories, who primarily exercise their indigenous rights north and east of Great Slave Lake. The NSMA’s mandate includes: The assertion, protection, and implementation of the indigenous rights of the North Slave Métis People; and the exercise of Métis responsibility to protect the environment and to promote and enhance Métis education, economic, social, and cultural development. The NSMA is vitally concerned with the protection, preservation, and sustainable use of its traditional lands and resources. With that in mind, the NSMA is committed to principles of economic sustainability, environmental stewardship, and self-determination in respect to its traditional lands and resources.
  The North Slave Métis Alliance has been registered as a non-profit society in the Northwest Territories since 1996. The organization exists for the stated purpose of negotiating a regionally based comprehensive claim centred in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories.
context_section_description: The North Slave Métis have continuously used and occupied the territory north and east of Great Slave Lake since the mid-18th century. By the early-19th century, the North Slave Métis community in the Great Slave Lake area was distinct from other indigenous groups. Outsiders easily identified them, largely because of their occupation and employment patterns. They were "prized as fur-trade employees for their language ability, skills in living on the land, and influence in the Indian populations". North Slave Métis people tended to be highly mobile and have a regional consciousness. Communities were characterized by a regional network within which there would be certain fixed settlements, connected by transportation systems of river routes, cart trails, and portages along which people settled. Their traditional territory followed hunting, trapping, and trading trails north to the Great Bear Lake and east into what is now Nunavut. Historic North Slave Métis settlements, such as Old Fort Rae, Lac La Martre, Yellowknife River, Old Fort Providence, Fort Resolution, Beaulieu Fort (now known as Łutselk'e), and Fort Reliance, existed before European powers established effective political and legal control over the geographic area.
caption: Sousi Beaulieu wearing a traditional ceinture fléchée (Métis sash)
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