Eastern Métis

This is a challenging book that weighs in on the controversial and divisive debate of who has the right to claim capital "M" Métis status in Canada. The collection assembles essays by scholars of anthropology, sociology, law, history, linguistics, geography, and interdisciplinary studies, purporting to present historical and social evidence of the origins and continued existence of cohesive Métis communities in Ontario, Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and (despite the title) the Pacific Northwest region of Canada. Challenging the "nationalist trope" that only the Red River Métis of the northern Plains can claim Métis identity, this collection directly challenges the perspective of scholars like Jacqueline Peterson, Darryl Leroux, Adam Gaudry, and Jesse Thistle, not to mention the established Canadian legal view asserting that other claims to Métis status are little more than "race shifting"—a tactical use of long-ago racial mixing to reimagine a "Métis" identity and thus assert treaty rights. This book by no means settles the debate, but is nonetheless a thought-provoking contribution to the complicated topic of mixed Indigenous-settler identity, which will undoubtedly continue to spark controversy and inspire further study. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

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Eastern Métis: Chronicling and Reclaiming a Denied Past is long overdue and opens up important new understandings of our shared pasts.

-- Jean Barman, University of British Columbia; author of French Canadians, Furs, and Indigenous Women in the Making of the Pacific North