Coureurs de Bois, written by Phillip & Wendell d’Eon
Lyrics
Je suis coureur de bois, je connais les Mi’kmaq. Leur sang coule en moi, J’ai refusé de signer, ce maudit papier, Trahissant mes valeurs. Mais maintenant je face, de perdre un trésor, ma langue tirée d’un bord. Je suis le future, je porte la clé, de l’avenir de Grand-Pré.
English translation
I am a woods roaming Metis, I know the Mi’kmaq, their blood flows in me. I refused to sign, that cursed document, betraying my values. Yet now I risk losing a treasure, my language torn aside. I am the future, I carry the key, of the destiny of Grand-Pré.
I wish to offer my respect to Phillip and Wendell d’Eon for their fine song and want to congratulate them for their patriotic inclination to write a song about the Sang-Mêlés Acadien, but I believe they are in error and the AAMS is at fault for promoting the false Land of Evangeline history while claiming to represent the Sang-Mêlés Acadien.
To begin with there are no Métis people east of Manitoba. The AAMS and the Eastern Woodland Métis Nation exist in profound error. In 2019 the Manitoba Métis Federation prohibited all non-Métis people from using this word to self-describe themselves. We are not Métis, we are Sang-Mêlés Acadien, a distinct aboriginal/indigenous people in Canada.
The song Coureur de Bois presents a false history of the Sang-Mêlés Acadien. We are not the Acadians of Grand Pré. The Acadians of Grand Pre, Beau Basin and Mines were traitors to the cause of L’acadie who fearing miscegenation with the Mi’kmaw and Sang-Mêlés requested removal from Acadia rather than fight in Pére Le Loutre’s War. The Acadien people of western Nova Scotia are all descended from first generation mixed blood Acadien who went to New Brunswick before the so-called deportation. The preposterous false genealogies used to link us to the Grand Pré traitors must be abandoned. The story given on the monument at Butte de la Croix is racist and a-historical.
The words coureur de bois and Métis are not interchangeable as is presented in the translation. The coureur de bois are a particular people from the history of Canada who lived in present day Québec. They were actually outlaws working outside the royally sanctioned fur trade under punishment of death. There were no coureur de bois in L’acadie.
Our destiny, as the song suggests does not proceed from or lead to Grand Pré. We have lived in our own territory since the beginning of time. I call on the AAMS to abandon the gratuitous use of the word Métis and reject the old racist Land of Evangeline paradigm. We are not Métis, nor are we Acadians, we are the Sang-Mêlés Acadien People of Western Nova Scotia.
