Collection search - General administrative records relating to Métis scrip compiled by N.O. Coté [textual record]

This series contains scrip documents, which are foundational documents of the Métis Nation. In the late 18th century in the northwest, the Métis people coalesced into a distinct nation with their own culture, traditions, and language (Michif). Their homeland extends across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, as well as parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the Northern United States. Scrip certificates indicated the right of the holder to receive payment later in the form of money or land. Scrip was distributed to the Métis by the federal government of Canada in exchange for their land rights as a method of extinguishing their Aboriginal title to the land.

Title is based on the contents of the sub-series.

No further accruals are expected.

Some of these records are copies of records found elsewhere in the Department of the Interior fonds. For example, other compilations by Coté can also be found in the records of the Dominion Lands Branch registry series (R190-36-2-E, RG15-D-II-1, volume 227), and the Lands Patent Branch series (R190-48-9-E, RG15-D-III-8, volumes 2114 and 2115). The compilations retained in these last three volumes were put together just before the closing of the Department of the Interior (i.e., in the late 1920s and early 1930s). They were generally assembled in response to the information requirements of the three royal commissions which were established to oversee the transfer of natural resources administration to the western provinces. It is possible, therefore, that some of the Coté material held in this sub-series were compiled for a similar reason., Researchers should also consult the Narcisse-Omer Côte fonds in Manuscript Division (MIKAN 106542, MG55/29-No.1).