Hivernants

Hivernants was used during the North American fur trade to describe Métis who spent the winter months hunting and trapping on the Canadian prairies where they built small temporary villages. The word is French for "winterer".

The Southbranch settlements of Batoche and St. Laurent de Grandin in Saskatchewan were founded by French Métis hivernants from the Red River settlement in Manitoba, Canada.[1]

Beginning in the 1850s, the hivernants were active in hunting buffalo (bison) during the cold-weather season (mid-November to mid-March) when the bison's hair was thick enough for the production of buffalo coats. This was as opposed to the summer hunt, which was primarily aimed at harvesting meat.[2]

Hivernant was also applied to a fur trade employee who wintered in the wilderness (usually at a trading post). "Hiverner" the verb means to overwinter.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ John Welsted (1 January 1996). The Geography of Manitoba: Its Land and Its People. Univ. of Manitoba Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-88755-375-2.
  2. ↑ Foster, 67
  3. ↑ John Francis McDermott (1941). A glossary of Mississippi Valley French, 1673-1850. Washington University. p. 88.