I was barely able to get into the 'cat this morning, but I got the link given by Big Mick and went through most of it's linked info. It gives a pretty good outline; and although I'm still a little uncertain how much of the history I understand it should be sufficient to help with some additional searching.

My original search for "Baptiste" with a search within those results for "Metis" got a couple of "ethnic preservation" symposia that described "Metis" as the descendants of French and Scots immigrants, but made no mention of native persons. Perhaps they just assumed everyone knew .... With the information Lin provided from the book, it just really confused things.

I'm a bit surprised that I hadn't heard of the Metis from our good Native friend in the northwest US, but not at all surprised that the term apparently isn't talked about down here in the more central US "res country," especially after going through the site BM provided.

As Q comments, I did find "Jean-Baptiste" as a common enough name, but haven't yet found sufficient reference to confirm (or exclude) the usage as a sort of a "John Doe" of the Metis. It does make sense either way.

The description of "Metis music" is fascinating, but I believe the book implies that the "lament" is atypical - not in the style described. Just another random uncertainty ....

Thanks for the inputs. They'll let me narrow the search down possibly to less than a few million hits per query - a really great improvement over my first few digs. (And that's a serious thank you, not a joke.)

John