The first Métis settlement in the Turtle Mountains was established in 1908, by descendants of the Red River Métis who had been living at Belcourt, North Dakota. Some of them homesteaded on the land around Lake Metigoshe, near the Canada-US border in what is now the Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester, and buried their dead in a small cemetery situated here that is believed to contain eight graves. Over time it has been called the McLeod Cemetery and Nelson Cemetery, after two successive owners of the land. To some it is the Partridge-Racine Burial Site. Local historians prefer to call it the Fish Lake Cemetery, Fish Lake being the earlier name for nearby Lake Metigoshe. Wooden crosses once marked the grave sites but they have long since decomposed. Only a few low mounds offer any clues as to the location of individual graves.
Metigoshe Metis Cemetery (no date)
Source: Ken StorieSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.00632, W100.35433
denoted by symbol on the map above
A list of burials in this cemetery is available from the Manitoba Genealogical Society, including a searchable online database available to members at the MGS Manitoba Name Index (MANI). Some additional information is contained in the 1996 MGS publication Carved in Stone: Manitoba Cemeteries and Burial Sites, revised edition, Special Projects Publication, 106 pages.
Métis Cemetery, Turtle Mountain - Souris Plains Heritage Association.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Ken Storie.
Page revised: 20 February 2021
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