Berger | Metis, Mixed heritage | Surname Anchor Post

Index: Indigenous, Metis & Mixed-Heritage Surname Anchor Posts

Each of these posts is dedicated to one surname that is carried by someone connected to indigenous, Metis or mixed-heritage people in Canada. Please be aware that it’s a synthesis of the information I’ve collected in my personal research throughout the years and is by no means complete!

SURNAME NOTES | BERGER

Surname lists: Surname Anchor Posts, Metis (ON)
Regions: Manitoba, Ontario, Western Canada
Ethnicity: Metis, Mixed heritage: French
Associated surnames: Beaudoin, Boyer, Brissette, Deschamps, Dumont, Dusome, Ecuyer, Fortier, Gaudette, Giroux, Gourneau, Houle, Keplin, Labatte, Laframboise, Larmandin / Lamorandiere, Messier, Normandin, Ouellette, Patenaude / Pattenaude, Pilon, Perron / Perreault, Pilon (Upd. 2023), St. Pierre / St. Peter, Tyne, Vasseur / Levasseur, Wheeler, Wilkie.
Misc.:
1. The Ontario Metis Bergers descend from Joseph Berger and Marie Beaudoin through their children: Charles Berger (n. Angelique Dusome), Philemon Berger (m. Ellen Normandin & Anais Perron / Perreault), Christina Berger (m. Joseph Lamorandiere), Therese Berger (m. Cleophas St. Pierre).
2. The 1885 North-West Resistance by the Metis and the Cree, Kainai, Piikani, Saulteaux and Siksika peoples took place against a backdrop of starvation, broken treaties and encroachment by new settlers in Saskatchewan and Alberta. The resistance fighters eventually lost and Canada’s federal government asserted its control over the area. Catherine Berger’s husband Modeste Rocheleau / Vivier was involved in this Resistance: [Source: Veterans and Families of the 1885 Northwest Resistance, Lawrence Barkwell, Louis Riel Institute].
3. One early Red River settler was Pierre Berger (son of Jacques Berger & Cecile Dumont) who married Judith Wilkie (daughter of Jean Baptiste Wilkie and Amable Azure). The couple and their children eventually received U.S. land through the 1863-1864 Chippewa of Red Lake and Pembina Treaty (on the grounds that they were Metis). “In 1879, Judith and her husband Pierre Berger, led twenty-five Metis families to central Montana in search of the diminishing buffalo herds. Pierre, Judith, and their family, as well as Judith’s brother’s family (Alexandre Wilkie) were hunting on the Milk River. When the U. S. government and reservation agents pushed the Metis out of the Milk River area, Pierre led a group of families to Spring Creek in the Judith Basin of Montana where they founded the town of Lewistown. They applied for homestead land in 1883. Their cabin was located three miles east of the trader’s establishments along what was later called “Upper Breed Creek.” Pierre and his brother-in-law Alexandre Wilkie held the church services in their homes.” Bergers who had left with Pierre Berger and Judith Wilkie included: Isaie Berger and Clemence Gourneau, Jean-Baptiste Berger and Betsy Keplin. Later, the Bergers (with many of their offspring) led a group of settlers to a new location (St. Peter’s Mission, Montana) “where there was an abundance of wild game, and other good chances of good prospects” [Source: Pierre “Kitkianiapnatch” Berger Sr., by Lawrence Barkwell, Louis Riel Institute]
4. Variations for the Berger surname include Bergier, Burger and Burgie.