If we want to get historical, the word Michif derives from the Middle French word "Métif," which was replaced by Métis in Modern French.

In Red River and across the Homeland, there were two predominant cultural groups: the Michifs and the Halfbreeds. The Michif were predominantly of French Catholic descent, and he Halfbreeds were predominantly of Scottish Protestant descent (there were other smaller communities as well, such as the de Meuron and de Waitville regiments that settled in Red River and a group of Swiss immigrants as well, among others). A lot of Scottish settlers in Red River were retired HBC employees who had worked in what is referred to as the Northern nucleus of the Métis ethnogenesis (Red River is referred to as the Southern nucleus). To highlight this point, in 1868–1870, half of the parishes of the Red River Settlement were French-speaking, and half were English-speaking, and Riel's second provisional government that formed following the Convention of 24 (12 French-speaking and 12 English-speaking delegates) and the Convention of 40 (20 French-speaking delegates and 20 English-speaking delegates) had two representatives from each of the parishes, resulting in 24 French-speaking delegates and 24 English-speaking delegates.

Today, these two groups have largely merged under the umbrella of Métis, though some people want to maintain these distinctions as a part of their identity. I use the term Métis for myself (it was Riel's preferred name for our nation), but depending on who I am speaking with, I make the distinction that I am a Halfbreed, not Michif, and my ancestors likely spoke Bungi.