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The Métis Sash 
The Sash is a finger woven belt made of wool approximately three metres long. Traditionally it was tied at the waist to hold a coat closed, including being used as a scarf or rope.
Today, the sash is still worn by the Métis people. Métis women occasionally wear it over the shoulder, while others wear it the traditional way, around the waist & tied in the middle, with the fringes hanging down.
The colour variations of the sash include; Red, which is the historical depicted colour for the Métis Sash; Blue & White symbolizing the colours of the Métis Nation flag; Green signifying fertility, growth and prosperity and; Black, symbolizing the dark period in which the Métis people had to endure dispossession & repression.
Métis Resource Centre
 The Métis Flag
Métis resistance fighters prior to the Battle of Seven Oaks first used the flag in 1816. It is the oldest Canadian patriotic flag indigenous to Canada. The Union Jack and the Royal Standard of New France bearing the fleur-de-lis are older, but these flags were first flown in Europe. As a symbol of nationhood, the Métis flag predates Canada’s Maple Leaf flag by about 150 years! The flag bears a horizontal figure eight, or infinity symbol. The infinity symbol represents the coming together of two distinct and vibrant cultures, those of European and indigenous North America, to produce a distinctly new culture, the Métis.
The flag symbolizes the creation of a new society with roots in both Aboriginal and European cultures and traditions. The sky blue background of the flag emphasizes the infinity symbol and suggests that the Métis people will exist forever. The Métis flag has two variants: the more popular blue flag, and the red flag. Nobody knows why the early Métis chose these two colour patterns for their flags. However, conjecture seems to indicate that the Métis created the blue and white infinity flag because these were the colours of the North West Company, the fur-trading firm which employed most of the French Michif speaking Métis. The blue Métis infinity flag bears a striking resemblance to the blue and white flag of St. Andrew, the national flag of Scotland. The blue and white colours of the Métis flag are also the traditional colours of French Canada, as seen on the provincial of Quebec. That the creators of the infinity flag may have had some Scottish and French Canadian input when creating their flag is not surprising, because these two groups dominated the North West Company and had the most Métis descendants. However, the flag was uniquely Métis and was recognized as such.
Métis employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company may have created the red Métis flag. The traditional colours of the fur trade giant were red and white. The Métis used neither the blue and white, nor the red and white flag during the two great resistance movements of 1869-70 and 1885. During this period, the Métis used flags that contained French Canadian and Catholic religious symbols. The Métis infinity flag was temporarily forgotten, and remembered only in oral tradition. With the rebirth of Métis pride and consciousness, the flag was brought back. Today the flag remains a potent symbol of Métis heritage.
Gabriel Dumont Institute
 Red River Métis Cart
According to the journal of North West Company fur-trader Alexander Henry (the younger), the carts made their first appearance in 1801 at Fort Pembina, just south of what is now the United States border. Originally, the carts were small horse-drawn affairs, with three-foot solid wheels cut from large trees, carrying up to 450 pounds. Later, larger wheels with four spokes were used and gradually the red river carts with their huge, spoked wheels evolved, carrying nearly twice as much. Some had "tires" made of shaganappi (green rawhide).
In 1878 Harper’s Magazine carried a description of the red river cart, written by reporters who visited the territory:
It is simply a light box with a pair of shafts, mounted on an axle connecting two enormous wheels. There is no concession made to the aversion of the human frame to sudden violent changes of level; there is no weakness of luxury about this vehicle. The wheels are broad in the felloes (rims), so as not to cut through the prairie sod. They are long in the spokes, so as to pass safely through fords and mud-holes. They are very much dished so that they can be strapped together and rawhide stretched over them to make a boat. The whole cart is made of wood; there is not a bit of metal about it, so that, if anything breaks, the material to repair it is easily found. The axles are never greased and they furnish an incessant answer to the old conundrum: "What makes more noise than a pig in a poke?"
Each wheel was said to have its own peculiar shriek, announcing the coming of a train from a great distance. (Grease or oil would have only mixed with the dust, wearing down the axles.) As it was, a cart often used four or five axles on the trip to St. Paul from the Red River settlement. Harness was made from a buffalo hide, often in one piece. Carts moved single file, except when in danger from Indians, when they traveled several abreast. Each driver controlled five or six carts strung out behind him, each ox tied to the cart ahead.
Métis Resource Centre
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Telephone (780)455-2200 Toll-Free Alberta (800)252-7553 Fax
(780)452-8946
100-11738 Kingsway Ave, Edmonton, AB T5G 0X5
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