The Songs of Their Fathers

by Lynn Whidden

During 1989-1990 I collected Métis songs across the northern plains for the Saskatchewan Music Educators, who then published a songbook (Whidden 1993). At the time my concern was to record faithfully the unforgettable tunes sung by the 33 Métis women whose songs are in the collection. (See Appendix).  Two of the singers, Mme Jean Lafrénière and Mme Alphonse Carrière, both in their seventies when they were recorded, had clear lilting soprano voices. Their songs, passed through the generations, were honed to polished beauty after decades of singing for the pleasure of their families. More recently, I have come to realize that these songs offer us much more than beautiful sounds. The song words the Métis women sang during the nineteenth century up to the mid twentieth century, show us the dramatic culture change experienced by these inhabitants of the northern plains.

During the last several decades scholars have begun to write the long neglected history of the Métis. The songs of the Métis leader, Louis Riel, are in print as are the songs of the "bard of the prairie Métis", Pierre Falcon (Macleod: 1959). Moreover, most of us have heard of the fiddle tunes and voyageur songs of the men, but less well known is the large repertoire of songs sung by the women who were their partners in the Métis settlements. Women sang during the long hours of working hides to mend and make jackets, moccasins, harness and snowshoes. The sources of the tunes were eclectic: many are old French folksongs; a lesser number were popular tunes of the day; and some are "ditties" of no particular origin but known by everyone, such as the following variant of the tune and words to  "Twinkle, twinkle little star":

Je voulais vous dire chère maman
Quel couvent c'est ennuyant
On se couche à l'heure des poules
On se lève à  l'heure du coq
On se rend à la chapelle
Pour géler comme des grenouilles

(See Appendix #28)

While historians show the causes of change due to non-native contact, and document the visible effects, less well known are the thoughts, feelings and expectations of the Métis women. In this paper I want to add another dimension to our knowledge of nineteenth century women's history, for their songs hold insights into their interior lives, accessible in few other ways. Alan Merriam wrote, "...music may be useful as a means of understanding other things (than the music itself) about other cultures. In music, as in other arts, basic attitudes, sanctions, and values are often stripped to their essentials (1964:10). Although we can't be sure the song words and music express the particular feelings of the individual we do know that folksongs tend to express the thoughts and concerns of the community. Moreover, singing requires a considerable investment of energy and in an oral tradition, songs will not live if they are not loved: they must resonate with the feelings and the ethos of the singers or they will not be sung.

By the nineteenth century Métis women were singing the French folksongs of their fathers, in addition to the Native songs of their mothers.  The Native songs live on in the form of gentle lullabies; the existing non-native songs in this paper show Métis mastery of European solo singing. The pathos of these songs may have been reinforced by the composed songs of the time. For example, Victorian sheet music includes a group of songs called "Indian Intermezzi" in which the beautiful Indian maiden is most likely to die an untimely death. 

Metis women may have heard these composed songs in the Red River community. Still, most of the women's songs listed in the Appendix are from an equally sombre European folk tradition that antedates the Victorian popular songs: songs that their fathers sang. Nevertheless, Métis song, was undoubtedly influenced by church and school music: on September 8, 1897 only four days after their arrival in St. Laurent, Manitoba, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, opened their school, and the "first singing lesson was given on September 27" (Mercier 1974:3)

Métis women sang in Cree, Saulteaux, French, Michif, English and sometimes combined several languages in one song. For example, Mme Carrière sang "My girl is an Irish girl" in English and Plains Cree, with the French words "à la main", commonly used in the square dance. In 1872, this song "travelled" with Mme Carrière's family from the Red River colony to North Dakota and then back to Manitoba.  So far, the tune, which sounds like a dance hall tune of the Victorian era, remains unnamed (see Whidden 1993). Here are the words to verse two:

First time I met that girl
It was at an Appleski dance
The way she threw her feet around
Her arms, and around she danced
À la main left and elbow swing
Ayi wesh day hi now
Ni-sâkih-ik, ni-sâkih-aw (She loves me, I love her)
Kwayês nama cî? (Isn't that right?)

(See Appendix #2)

The Métis women performed the long legato lines of the haunting European tunes with clear voiced ease. Many tunes are in minor or sometimes modal keys that enhance the pathos and the yearning quality of the songs. The songs are strophic, that is, the tune repeats as many times as necessary to allow a singer to fully express a thought or tell a story and they often have a refrain, a frequent attribute of oral narrative, for it helps the memory.  Following is Tout le long du rivage (See Appendix #17) to illustrate some of the music elements of old European song living on in the new world: the Aeolian mode (like a western music scale with flattened third, sixth and seventh degrees); phrases which arch up and descend and which are slightly changed upon repetition. Note also that the words focus on the suffering of married women.

There is little evidence of Métis effort to combine Native with European song to create a new sound. [1] This is in keeping with the absence of syncretism between European and Native song everywhere, and attributed to profound differences in music use and structure. Indeed, there is written evidence that the secular French folk songs were not readily accepted by Natives, as were the sacred hymns. A Recollet priest, Gabriel Sagard, writing about the Natives he encountered in New France in the seventeenth century, noted that they enjoyed the ritual music of the church. On the other hand, these Natives "expressed repugnance at the profane and dissolute songs of the French" (Amtmann 1975:63). Sagard regarded the affinity of Natives for church music as the result of the similarity between traditional Native and religious music, believing that  "the sensuous melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic structure of the French chanson was too different from traditional Native song" (1975:63).

The reluctance to combine Native and European song styles may be as related to the difference in function as to the sound and lyrics of the song. For example, in a subsistence hunting culture, male love songs tended to be for, and about the animals, rarely to women. We know also that Cree women sang constantly: songs for carrying water, chopping wood and and songs to their children.(Whidden 1986). To the Native, song was a spiritual force and an essential part of their survival "toolkit". To the French, folksong was for entertainment, although it must be noted that many of the songs were infused with the supernatural. The mystical words sung across Canada by the Europeans who explored and traded must certainly have appealed to the Métis singers for they have been repeated by many generations. For example, all eight verses of "Si tu reviens dimanche" sung in 1971 by Mme Carrière of St. Boniface contain images of bodily transformation. Following are verses seven and eight:

7. Si tu mets prêtre pour me precher,
Je me metrai soleil au firmament,
De même tu n'auras pas aucun agrement
8. Si tu mets soleil au firmament
Je me mettrai nuage pour te cacher
De même tu n'auras pas aucun agrement.

(See Appendix  #3)

Still there is a substantial difference in the use of the supernatural. The French folksongs contain passive descriptions of wonderments: the Native hunting songs are forces in themselves and believed to have power to change winds or to bring animals.

Hence, while both Métis and Native shared in the compartmentalization of Native and European songs, the Métis love and acceptance of the new European music, its language, sound and context, contrasts sharply to the Native disinterest, and shows them to be "la nouvelle nation", a truly new people. The Metis not only adopted secular song but indeed, became well known for their love of song, story, and visiting. Joe Venne, interviewed by Whidden in Birtle, Manitoba in 1988, sang in French, English, Cree and Saulteaux. He recalled the women visiting in one room and the men in the next. The men took turns singing for each other. Joe said that he did not compose songs, they were songs he heard; songs for passing the time. Sometimes the furniture would be pushed against the walls and the men and women would dance. Joe could play the fiddle, mouth organ, accordion, spoons, comb, jaw's harp and was a caller for the square dance.

While the music of the Joe Venne's songs and of the others listed in the appendix shows little change in the Métis renditions; the pronunciation of the words varies considerably. Thus the music transcriptions were readily achieved; translation of the words was more difficult. One of the translators described the words as "Indian French". Following is an example of  Joe Venne's rendition of "The Young Girl Who Wanted to Get Married" (Whidden 1993:46) , to contrast a Métis-French version with a French version:

Although we do not know the learning process involved, song and language interacted to create this radical musico-culture change. In a few instances, the Métis singers were unsure of the meaning of the French words they were singing, yet negotiated the tunes perfectly. Yet certainly the language of their French father was necessary for the adoption of a structurally different music, a culture change almost impossible for the Aboriginal.  For example, in 1984, when I asked an eastern Cree hunter from Chisasibi, Quebec, if he liked country music, popular among the younger generation of Cree, he replied, "If I understood the songs of the white man I would probably like them. But since I don't understand them I get nothing from them." (Whidden 1986:26)

Clearly, the French songs in my collection had great appeal to the Métis women. They are sung with such intensity that one feels they were treasured, perhaps in a way that the red cloth of the European traders was treasured.  Let's examine first the general qualities of the songs to explain their survival both in European and Métis oral tradition and then specific lyrics that must have resonated with the Métis singers who heard them.

As in most old folksongs the Métis song words tend to dwell on a single situation and show us, rather than tell us, what is happening; they create suspense through repetition and with references to exotic, far distant sights such as le roi d'Espagne and mon château. They have a stream of concrete, yet beautiful language: colours are primary, as in un lit blanc; and "bel habit blanc"; synecdoche abounds, for example, women are frequently referred to as la belle or une brune. Some of the phrases are formulaic, "Adieu père, adieu mère" and stock phrases are commonplace: gagner ma fortune; un sabre à mon côté; le doux parfum du gai printemps; un beau Dimanche matin; beau comme un ange; and un doux baiser. Such phrases often occur in parallel, as in,

C'est comme toi, belle tendresse
C'est comme toi, que tu vis d'amour

And

Un doux baiser sur ta bouche
Un doux baiser confiance

(See Appendix #18)

At other times parallelisms display oppositions such as:

C'est n'est point pour un an
C'est pour le reste de mes jours

(See Appendix #17)

Ses beaux yeux bleus
Ses beaux bas blancs

(See Appendix #25)

Also noteworthy is the frequent reference to birds, such as des pinsons; l'hirondelle; le rossignol sauvage; le rossignol des bois; un oiseau sauvage, translated respectively as chaffinches, the swallow, the wild nightingale, the nightingale of the woods and a wild bird. Perhaps the apparent freedom of the birds appealed to a people whose lives were becoming more and more restricted. Métis elders have described the great number of prairie birds (and flowers) and in a volume entitled Vanishing Spaces, Memoirs of a Prairie Metis, Guillaume Charette wrote, "For example, who wouldn't stand amazed and overwhelmed at the sight of immense flights of ducks, geese, swans, cranes and pelicans, not to mention other winged creatures? The country was swarming with life all year long. ... In April the crows, thrushes, grosbeaks, sparrows, meadowlarks and a host of others would arrive as harbingers of the return of the sun, which had just opened the first buds" (1976:32)

There is no evidence of imitation of bird calls in these Metis songs, although the phenomenon is described in ethnomusicological literature such as that of Steven Feld's study of the Kaluli in New Guinea. It's interesting to note also that the classical counterparts of the Métis in Europe, were consciously adopting bird calls. Mozart used starling sounds and Beethoven, Schubert and Haydn echoed a quail species that has now disappeared in Europe.

But these Métis songs do show how nature is interpreted by means of culture. In the French folksongs, bird songs were understood as meaningful, for example,

Là-haut, j'entends la voix d'un oiseau,
Disant dans son langage,
Que Dieu benisse ces jeunes gens
Qui veulent se mettre en ménage

(See Appendix #17)

It is likely that bird song is shaped into human song that can become a sound metaphor for longing and sorrow. In the songs of this collection birds are implored to carry messages of love; to waken sleeping loved ones with their songs so that they will hear their lover's words; to teach their love songs to the lover; to bring news of a beloved. Indeed, all creatures can point to love, and pastoral European scenes are sung about with conviction by the Métis women, perhaps while they were working the bison hides!

Les moutons vivent à l'herbe
Les papillons aux fleurs
C'est comme toi, belle tendresse

(See Appendix #18)

Romantic love, in all its aspects, is the most common theme to be found in the 33 songs, further evidence for Richard Slobodin's observation (1981:363)  that "....what is distinctive for Red River Métis is an ideology of sexual passion, a sense that each person's life is likely to include an irresistible, stormy love affair." Slobodin continues,  "Several observers have noted that the Red River Métis love affair, like the courtly love of the late Middle Ages in Europe, is not regarded as a basis for marriage" (363). The songs show the extent to which the Métis women adopted the concept of western romantic love, perhaps strengthened by the Roman Catholic veneration of the Virgin Mary. Falling in love became a near-ecstatic experience and, to my mind, replaced the mystical experiences experienced by the hunters living with nature. Even Riel's execution of Thomas Scott is unofficially attributed to a love triangle. "Riel finally shot Scott....over the love of a girl not the love of country" (Desjarlais 1984:6).  There are two types of love revealed in the songs: the first is love given freely and the second is married love. Married love is imposed from without, and solemnised by church sacrament. Both types tell about suffering: in the songs about love without marriage, individuals suffer in the lover's absence, while marriage songs emphasise the importance of leaving youthful pleasure behind and accepting the duties of marriage.

In the first type, carefree love and even its consequences are extolled. The songs celebrate youth as a time of great promise for love is yet to be found:

Vingt ans, vingt ans, c'est la belle âge.
On trouve l'amour, dans chaque mot dit.
V'là le moment
T'as le courage
Les yeux fixés sur l'avenir

(See Appendix #6)

And from the perspective of old age, the singer yearns for the "burning moment" when "I love you" is said:

Verse 2

Te souviens-tu de même
De ce moment brûlant
Que tu me dis: "Je t'aime"
J'avais alors vingt ans.
Moi, jeunet, Toi, coquette,
C'était là les beaux jours
Le temps que je regrette
C'est le temps des amours.

(See Appendix #4)

There are many songs of disappointed loved, Là-bas dans ces montagnes for example:

Verse 2.

Car il faut donc que la belle
Qu'elle vive ou tant pleurer
Oh, si je pleure c'est la tendresse
C'est le défaut d'avoir trop aimé
3.
De vous aimer, la belle
Ne nous defénds point
Il faudrait avoir le coeur bien dur
Pour ne pas vous aimer, la belle!
Là-bas dans ces montagnes.

(See Appendix #18)

Unrequited love is a constant theme:

Un soir en allant voir la belle
J'avais le coeur tout réjoui
J'avais le coeur tout réjoui
Mais cependant j'étais en peine
J'ai rencontré son cavalier
Qui revenait de la demander
Je lui ai dit charmante brune
Tu n'as plus d'aimitié pour moi
Tu n'as plus d'aimitié pour moi

(See Appendix #19)

Métis women did not hesitate to sing songs presented from a male point of view. They sang about male disappointment for it sometimes happened that the girl left behind would have another child upon her lover's return or his beloved would greet him thus,

Son nez fièr, son air sèvere,
Elle lui dit: Je suis mariée

(See Appendix #11)

With results as follows,

Je suis l'amant malheureux dans ce monde
J'aime une brune, je n'ose lui parler
Je m'en irai dans un bois solitaire
Finir mes jours à l'ombre d'un rocher
Finir mes jours à l'ombre d'un rocher.

(See Appendix #20)

Note also the common motif of a young man proving his worth in battle to win the girl back home in the following two songs sung by Lea Regnier. Her family history is typical of the Métis who moved from the Red River in the 1880's to the Saskatchewan River area. The musical style and words of the tunes of  "Francoeur" and the previous "La chanson du Capitaine Huet" which Lea sang indicate a recent arrival in Canada from French speaking immigrants in the past 100 years or so; they may not be known in eastern Canada. The two songs are similar in music style with their march-like rhythms and simple harmonies. Francoeur is clearly about the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 while the last verse of La chanson du Capitaine Huet tells us he was a commander in the Northwest  regiment. Was the last verse added to appeal to those Métis who participated in the 1885 resistance in Saskatchewan? 

Verse 2

Mes bons parents étaient malcontents
Quand ils m'ont vu au régiment
Mon tendre père
Ne fait que soupier, ma chère mère
Elle ne fait que pleurer
3.
Quelle est la cause de cet ennui?
C'est une fille de mon pays du marriage,
Dont il n'y a pas question
Je pris pour gagner, un sabre à mon côté
4.
Il y avait un temps que j'étais brigadier
Mais à présent, ju suis officier maître
Capitaine commandant,
Dans le nord-ouest maître du régiment.

(See Appendix # 7)

In Francoeur the women of the northern plains used images from European history, such as the Zouaves, French army regiments, to sing about the bravery of their young men.

Francoeur caporal des zouaves
A la guerre était un démon
Il raconta ainsi l'histoire
D'un jeune Prussien qu'il tua
Oh mes amis de celui là
J'en garderais longtemps mémoire
Je suis zouave
Je le sais bien
Que tout n'est pas rose à la guerre
J'attends hélas c'est mon tour de main
Ma foi, trempez encore un verre
Oh souvenir d'un Prussien
Oh souvenir d'un Prussien.

(See Appendix #10)

Overall, lovers are portrayed as unhappy, for loving leaves one vunerable to loss as in Les Vallons et les plaines:

Verse 2.

Pleurez pauvres yeux, mon sort funeste
J'ai perdu, j'ai perdu mon amant!
Funeste sort, vois-tu ce qu'il me reste!
Oh! rendez moi l'amant que j'aimais tant,
Oh! rendez-moi, oh, rendez-moi,
L'amant que j'aimais tant!
Refrain:
J'ai parcourru les vallons et les plaines
J'ai entendu le rossignol chanter,
Et il disait dans son joli ramage,
Les amoureux sont souvent malheureux.
Les amoureux, les amoureux sont souvent malheureux..

(See Appendix #9)

Mme Alphonse Carrière of St. Boniface, Manitoba sings another tune of lost love:

Verse 1.

Mais il n'y a point longtemps
Mais par ma maîtresse
J'ai perdu ma maîtresse
L'autre jour c'est pour toujours
L'autre jour c'est pour toujours
À qui j'irai me plaindre
Moi qui suis délaissé
J'irai trouver bocage
Pour me cacher
En entendant le rossignol chanter
Rossignol sauvage
Rossignol des bois
Apprends-moi ton langage
Mais apprend-moi
Et dites-moi des nouvelles
De Marilou

(See Appendix #16)

"Là  bas dans ces montagnes", known throughout French Canada and France, is a pastourelle, a song describing a rural love scene.  In the following song, nature reflects the lover's emotions and also hints at an illicit love:

Verse 3.
De vous aimer, la belle
Ne nous défends point
Il faudrait avoir le coeur bien dur
Pour ne pas vous aimer, la belle
4.
 Les moutons vivent à l'herbe
Les papillons aux fleurs
C'est comme toi, belle tendresse
C'est comme toi, que tu vis d'amour

(See Appendix #18)

The second type of love, married love, is imposed from without by parents and church. Those who do become engaged, are viewed as special, on the edge of a new life. Although the songs are sad, there is no mention of longing, desire or passion. The following song speaks of the bride's great regret at leaving her birthplace and her family forever. The change is symbolized by the wearing of a white dress, hat and necklace:

1.
Tout le long du rivage
Tout le long du ruisseau
La haut j'entends la voix d'un oiseau
Disant dans son langage
Que Dieu bénisses ces jeunes gens
Qui veulent se mettre en ménage

(See Appendix #17)

2.
 Pour se mettre en ménage
Il faut avoir du souci
Le lendemain des noces
Quel habit mettrons-nous
Nous mettrons bel habit blanc
L'habit de réjouissance
Aussi le chapeau du souci
Le collier de souffrance

(See Appendix #4)

Métis women were faced with strong pressure from the Roman Catholic priests to be married in the church. When Louis Riel met Marguerite in Montana, there was no priest so they lived together until a proper marriage was possible. Riel wrote a poem in which he tried to assuage Marguerite's discomfiture with their unofficial relationship:

Verse 4

C'est la longue absence du Prêtre
Ma fille, qui nous a contraints
De nous marier ainsi.
Ma fille, vous n'aurez pas honté
Louis Riel
(Lussier 1979:106)

As Riel experienced, often no priest was available. But even where there was a marriage with Christian rites, the trader usually obtained permission from the bride's parents; paid a bride price; and smoked a pipe. The bride would be lectured publicly on her future behaviour. Perhaps these lectures were the basis for the cautionary songs to the bride that you will read below.

When there was a priest, European style marriage ceremonies were commonly practised.

Following the religious vows a supper and dance would be held, which lasted most of the night. People jigged to fiddle music and "...no one but the happy swain was allowed to go sober to bed" (O'Meara 1968:115). Jules Desjarlais of St. Laurent recalled going around the whole village with friends in a cutter, sleigh, and caboose following his marriage after the Second World War. At one point, two of the sleighs had a race with the best man holding the reins for the groom. The horses were covered with ribbons and bells. Jule's wedding consisted of two days of eating, drinking and dancing. (Métis Oral History Project, 1984)

The wedding celebration would be festive and involve days of dancing and singing drinking songs. Note the reference to taking credit that had to be paid back when a new catch of fur was made.

Les gens de St-Ambroise sont touts les bonheurs
Les petits comme les gros aiment tout le whiskey
Verse "back" ce que tu auras crédit
Tes tellement s'les nerfs
Tu te payeras samedi

(See Appendix #32)

After the marriage ceremony the entire family would gather at the wedding feast and sing together the often hymn like "chansons de table".  The following song explains the sacred duties of marriage i.e., the young bride will no longer go to dances or gatherings but stay home and look after the family.

Nous sommes ici à soir
Assises à votre table
Salut la compagnie
Aussi la mariée
Avez vous bien compris la belle mariée
Avez vous bien entendu que le cure vous a dit?
Fidèle à votre amant envers et contre tout
Fidèle à votre tour amant cmme vous
Tu n'iras au bal, Madame la mariée?
Tu n'iras plus aubal ou aussi d'assemblée
Vous gardez tout ce logis avec votre mari

(See Appendix #14)

Surely a change from Native life where their Cree mothers were married with little formality, where the women would go to live in their husband's tent. Marriages were dissolved as easily. Husbands did not tolerate wifely infidelity, but, on their own terms, they permitted wife exchange or loan and sometimes had more than one wife. And it is likely that births were well spaced because of nursing and indeed, we are told that Talon "was concerned that the fertility of Indian women was reduced by their custom of nursing their children longer than necessary..." (Brown 1980:4). In contrast, married Catholic women could be pregnant for most of their childbearing years. It's not surprising that the finality of a church marriage was viewed as a bittersweet occasion for the brides. Written accounts portray "le mariage" as a sacred, joyous occasion, but the songs show another side. Women were under no illusion about the hardships of married life in western Canada.

Un jour sa mère lui dit:
Qui est-ce que vous a poussé?
Qui est-ce que vous l'à fait prendre?
C'est votre volonté
Je te l'avais toujours bien dit
Que dans le mariage
Il fallait quitter les plaisirs
Aller dans la misère

# 17 Tout le long du rivage

After marriage the Métis brides struggled to fit into a hierarchical and mercantile structure quite unlike the Aboriginal. And in early contact times their marriage relationship, whether formalized or not with the mobile non-native fur traders, was insecure despite the fact that such liaisons brought social and economic benefits to both. "Abandonment appears to have been a very real fear for a mixed-blood wife because the alternatives open to an Indian wife were no longer feasible for her" (O"Meara 1968:120) When their husbands went on furlough their wives were anxious for they could never be sure they would be back. Indeed, several infanticides were reported as a result of the fear of being left alone.  Metis wives, particularly those of the second and third generation no longer had immediate family in an Aboriginal group who would willingly help raise children, even those of another race.

But an unmarried woman had little place in society, and an unhappy marriage was better than no marriage. In fur trade society, women needed a male protector and because of the constant movement of the men it was not uncommon for the Métis women to have two or three husbands. "The mixed blood woman was increasingly deprived of the autonomy that the Indian woman had enjoyed with regard to marriage and divorce." (O'Meara 1968:121) Indeed, by the middle of the nineteenth century, women were losing their important role as active players in the fur trade.  Notice that many of the singers in the Appendix are listed by their husband's name only. In the song "Tout le long du rivage" a young bride regrets that she must leave her birthplace and says goodbye to her parents forever.

Le lendemain des noces
A fallu faire le paquet
En regardent la porte
Avec un grand regret
Oh, oui, je regreterai longtemps
L'endroit de ma naissance
Là haut j'avais tant de plaisir
Ah, que de misère
Adieu père, adieu mère
Adieu tous mes parents
Je m'en vais en ménage
Ce n'est point pour un an
C'est pour le reste de mes jours
Je m'en vais en ménage
C'est pour le reste de ma view
Quitter le badinage        

(See Appendix #17)

Separation, both physical and mental, was a very real part of Métis women's lives. Even after the bison hunt became part of their way of life, groups such as the plains Cree, took their families and mostly stayed in familial territory among people of their own culture. In contrast, for some Métis women the sadness of parting was constant. Women had no freedom to travel; one could only wait and pray for a loved one. People were truly separated by distance:

J'aimerais partir Dimanche
Que j'apporte rien de toi
Un doux baiser sur la bouche
Doux baiser de confiance
Pour me souvenir de toi

(See Appendix #21)

The songs of melancholy, regret, even despair, reflected events in many lives, particularly the lives of the women. Most had many children, and infant deaths were frequent. It was the women who attended the sick and dying, usually in their own homes. They were poor and their lack of freedom is almost incomprehensible to contemporary women. It seems to me that they could readily identify with many of the song themes and it does not surprise me that country music, with its message of broken homes and hearts, assumed the role of these traditional folksongs!

Pour se mettre en ménage
Il a fallu de faire soucis
A fallu quitter père et mère
Ave toutes ses bags de linge
Il ne reste plus qu'un mouchoir blanc
Pour essuyer nos larmes

(See Appendix #22)

I have emphasized the song words here for they are intrinsically poetic. Moreover, I believe that they not only confirm much of what we know about Métis life, but also lead us to a deeper realization of the women's thoughts about their place in the society. Like many early folksongs they do not protest social structures and situations; they are an appeal rather than an assertion. They reveal acceptance of life as it is. This quality gives them good potential to contribute to the history of a people. Moreoever, another study of the song melodies, their origins, styles and uses, can tell us much about the influences on Metis women from, for example, the church, school and other groups. Perhaps the songs acted as communicative vehicles to help bring about agreement on the values of the new society.

The songs were definitely entertainment; a way of passing time as Joe Venne said. But surely they were more, as music ethnographies have shown for other cultures. For example, in a large and early (1968) study entitled, Folk Song Style and Culture, Alan Lomax used the huge repertoire of recorded song in archives and an analysis technique called cantometrics. Lomax was able to substantiate, to my satisfaction, his thesis that song style symbolizes and reinforces important aspects of social structure in cultures around the world. It's also especially relevant to this article, that Lomax lamented and predicted a cultural "grey-out" expressed as follows:

"The loss in communicative potential for the whole human race is very grave, for these threatened communication systems represent much of what the human race has created in its thousands of years of wandering across the earth. In them lies a treasure, a human resource, whose worth is incalculable, and which can never be replaced when it has been wasted and lost" (1968:5).

Although arguments about the reality of loss of human cultural diversity continue apace, as an ethnomusicologist, I share Lomax's concern: I have witnessed the total disappearance of the Cree hunting songs during the decade of the 1990's. If culture allows us to adjust to changing environments without awaiting the corresponding slower genetic change, (with a flexibility that animals do not have), then cultural diversity is an important aspect of human survival. Certainly culture change can be too rapid for human populations to be healthy, and even to survive. For example, the Cree hunting songs that "grew out" of their ecological niche, have been replaced by popular music, both sacred and secular. One must question the value of "imported" music for, in its present form it is of little use to the hunters. Yet to those northerners who live essentially urban lives, it is appealing.

Sound archives are treasure troves of human history and ethnography. The songs in this paper were selected from singers living and deceased, but special note must be made of M Henri Letourneau's collection of oral traditions, now housed in the St. Boniface Archives of Manitoba.  M. Letourneau worked to discover what it is that creates a culture and filled over 100 tapes with the songs, stories, sayings, beliefs, recipes and cures of the first Franco-Manitobans, many of whom who were Métis. Many of the elderly singers whom he recorded, primarily in the 1970's, must certainly have had grandparents who were at the heart of the daily life in the fledgling Red River colony. Their songs are an invaluable record of the roots and disposition of a people. Through their songs, we see the quite different lives of the historic Métis women many of whom had Native mothers and French fathers. And, hearkening back to my view of music as an essential mode of communication, we can offer valid insights into the lives of Métis women, although I would caution that this is an initial study: more songs are needed to arrive at a consensus concerning meaning and to refine  song use and preference through the different generations of Métis in the Red River area.

Lest the songs lead you to think Métis women were a sad, spiritless lot, there are songs of great vivacity. In 1989, I recorded two songs from Susan Ducharme of St. Ambroise, Manitoba. She stated that she had learned them from her father and that they had never been written down. Their age remains unknown to me. Both are delightfully rhythmical and were used for dancing. The first, Marie Rouvin, tells of a flirtation, the second, C'est pas l'affaire des filles could have been written by a woman of the twenty first century.

1. C'est pas l'affaire des filles de balayer la maison(2)
De balayer la maison, da ree dum allons sux bois
De balayer la maison (2)

(See Appendix #24)

APPENDIX

Following is a list of the 33 songs, numbered consecutively, upon which this paper is based; the origin and singer of each song; the collector and date of recording and other historical notes. All the transcriptions are by Lynn Whidden.  Each song is referred to in the text by number.

References Cited

Amtmann, Willy. 1975. Music in Canada, 1600-1800. Cambridge, Ontario: Collier-Macmillan Canada Ltd.

Bakker, Peter. "A Language of Our Own" The Genesis of Michif. The Mixed Cree-French Language of the Canadian Metis. Academisch proefschrift, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1992.

Barkwell, Lawrence J.; Dorion, Leah; and Prefontaine, Darren R. ed. Metis Legacy. Winnipeg: The Louis riel Institute of the Manitoba Metis Federation, 2001.

Brown, Jennifer S. H. Strangers in Blood. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1980.

Charette, Guillaume. Vanishing Spaces: Memoires of a Prairie Metis. Translated by Roy Ellerman. Winnipeg: Editions Bois Brules, 1980.

Crawford, David. 1967. "The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Early Sources for an Ethnography of Music Among American Indians". Ethnomusicology 11: 199-206.

Desjarlais, Jules. Metis Oral History Project, 1984. Items 6-8. C342. Interviewer N. St. Onge.

Feld, Steven. Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvaniz Press, 1982.

Friedmann, Albert B.  Folk Ballads of the English Speaking World.  New York: The Viking Press, 1956.

Lederman, Anne. 1987. Old Native and Metis Fiddling in Manitoba. Vol. 1. Toronto: Falcon Productions.

Lomax, Alan. 1968. Folk Song Style and Culture. New Jersey: Transaction Books.

Lussier, A. S. Louis Riel and the Metis. Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications, 1983.

MacLeod, Margaret Arnett. Songs of Old Manitoba.  Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1959.

Martel, Gilles; Glen Campbell and Thomas Flanagan, eds. Louis Riel: Poesies de jeunesse. Saint Boniface: Editions du Ble, 1977.

Mercier, Soeur Pauline. Renseignements sur Saint-Laurent, Manitoba. Elie: Division Scolaire de la Prairie du Cheval Blanc, 1974.

Merriam, Alan P. 1964. The Anthropology of Music. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

Merritt, Susan E. Her Story ll, Women from Canada's Past. St. Catharines Ontario: Vanwell Publishing Limited,  1995

Nute, Grace Lee. The Voyageur. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1955.

O'Meara, Walter. Daughters of the Country. New York: Harcourt, 1968.

Peterson, Jacqueline and Brown, Jennifer S. H. Being and Becoming Metis in North America. University of Nebraska Press, 1985.

Slobodin, Richard. "Subarctic Metis". In Helm, June, ed. 1981. Handbook of North American Indians. Vol 6.  The Subarctic. Washington: Smithsonian Institute.

Van Kirk, Sylvia. Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur Trade Society, 1670-1870. Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer Publishing Ltd., 1980.

Vrooman, Nicholas Curchin. Ed. Turtle Mountain Music. Minot: North Dakota Council on the Arts.

Whidden, Lynn, 1986. An Ethnomusicological Study of the Traditional Songs of the Chisasibi (James Bay) Cree. Ph.D. unpublished,  Universite de Montreal.

Whidden, Lynn. 1993. Metis Songs: Visiting Was the Metis Way. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Gabriel Dumont Institute.

Notes

[1] Although descriptions are rare, it seems that dancing may exhibit syncretism as described by O'Meara, "The women enjoyed the balls as much as the men, but curiously, they often did not follow the same dance steps as their male partners. Perhaps mixed-blood women who adopted a grave countenance and slower step were influenced by the solemn ritual of the dances performed by the Indian women" (1968:128). Also, the fiddle tunes show considerable Native influence, particularly in rhythmic elements, as Lederman(1987) has shown.