Finding family friendly activities while socially distancing this summer has been challenging as a mom. I want to enjoy the beautiful weather and the fleeting summer days before they’re gone! We have a few short months of summer before the snow comes (around late September usually!) so every summer I make a bucket list of fun, easy things to do as a family with the kids. This year I didn’t bother with a bucket list (most places are shut down and everything is pretty limited this year) so instead I’m looking outside the box and finding fun family activities to do that are easy to do post-Covid. I found out about Metis Crossing and it looked like a really fun afternoon! I happen to really enjoy learning about history and visiting old settlements so finding fun places like this is always a must. I could spend all day wandering through heritage sites.
Metis Crossing is a cultural center built on a historic site east of Edmonton on the Victoria Trail alongside the North Saskatchewan river. It’s about an hour and a half drive from the city center. The drive alone is beautiful – long prairie fields and very little traffic. I was heading to Edmonton to visit family with my son last weekend so I thought the two of us would spend the morning at Metis Crossing and take a tour. They have a brand new Cultural Gathering Center that is gorgeous. It was designed to mimic the historic riverlot homes in this area (along the ceiling inside there are x beams that criss cross each other – the Metis riverlot homes had similar x’s).
There is a really cute dragonfly garden that’s being built outside the front entrance. This is to bring in the dragonfly’s to use them as a natural mosquito deterrent. Metis are very spiritual and have a deep respect for nature and the creatures on earth. At Metis Crossing they don’t use pest control chemicals or spray any of the weeds. You could pick the dandelions that grow and make tea or use the leaves in salads if you wanted to. The dragonflies really do work thought because there weren’t that many mosquitos out!
Starting the tour off, there were several areas to explore. We walked over to the hunting and fishing cabins first. My son loved hearing about the Bison hunts and how the Metis prepared for them.
My favourite part of the tour was chatting with Lily-Rose, one of the employees who was at the fishing cabin. We drank tea she steeped on the fire and she chatted about the different seasonal camps the Metis had, starting with the fishing camp. Women, men and children would pack up and head out to fish for several weeks in the spring. Next was berry picking and the winter was for the bison hunt.
The river lot homes were next, and we were able to walk inside and check them out. There are two homes on the property that we explored, you can see the x’ in the ceiling that I mentioned earlier in the second home.
Also note the Metis flag hanging proudly. The white infinity symbol represents the mixing of European and First Nations, to create a unique and distinct culture that goes from one to the next.
These were the owners of this house.
The snowshoes, I was told, can be different shapes depending on where they were used and where the home was located. These ones in particular are for deep snow and would be for a family living on the prairies.
You can see their garden that was planted in the 1800’s. This is so fascinating to me and I’m totally one of those people who imagines the family, hundreds of years ago working in the garden and now here it is today in 2020, still growing and suppling vegetables. I mean, that’s amazing. Some of the plants in there don’t exist anymore today, the seeds aren’t ones you could buy at the store because they’re so old. I just love that.
We walked over to another riverlot home and this family was quite well off, you can tell by the amount of windows in the home (which were very pricey), as well as the stove and furnishings. The snowshoes hanging are a different shape, very long and skinny. They would be used in more wooded areas where the snow wouldn’t be so deep.
This horseradish was also planted in the 1800’s! They have tried to get rid of it but it continually grows back so now it’s left to thrive on the property.
After the tour we stayed for lunch. My son and I ordered the bison sausage, a chef’s salad and a kid’s lunch which had bannock, homemade rhubarb strawberry jam and some veggies. It was delicious! This was actually my first time trying bannock and it’s so good!
It was a lovely day and I absolutely loved learning about Metis culture. The history here dates back thousands of years and I definitely recommend this for a fun family afternoon! We spent several hours here, including lunch, but there are a ton of fun things to do throughout the year (including winter). I would love to check out ‘Tales of the Trapline’ experience!
Thank you to Metis Crossing for hosting us!
