Anne Anderson, Director of the Muskrat Metis of the St Clair Region (formerly Voyageur Metis)

Anne was raised in a Metis family and community in Belle River, with ancestry from early Detroit, and is an advocate for preservation of culture and heritage.

With more than 40 years of experience studying the genealogy and kinship ties of French Canadian and Metis families and communities, and their cultural presence in North America, she has written numerous articles and has given presentations on Metis identity and the importance of gathering our hidden families to document and preserve our culture.

Anne's Indigenous ancestry includes 1800s fur trade Cree, 1700s Illinois, plus other Huron-Wendat and Abenaki ancestry. Anne has known since early childhood of her identity as a Metis person and her fur trade family history and has been vocal about her family and community history since she was a child. She and her uncle played traditional fiddle at their yearly rendezvous while cousins and extended kin square-danced.

Anne is also a 3rd grand niece of Cuthbert Grant Jr., first leader of the Metis and initiator of the idea that the Metis had their own identity with a unique culture and heritage. He also led the Metis into the Battle of Seven Oaks when Lord Selkirk first brought settlers into Red River and the ban on trading pemmican affected the Metis families there.

Based on a journal written in 1803 about one of Anne's other Native American 4th great Grandmothers and her fur-trading husband, she has performed "living history" personification of her ancestral fur trade grandmother, giving her a voice to address what was written about her, and illustrating the social and political issues of being a Native woman in the fur trade.

http://www.voyageurmetis.org/culture/culture_e.htm