“Métis”: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood
Chris Andersen
Ask any Canadian what “Métis” means, and they will likely say “mixed race.” Canadians consider Métis mixed in ways that other indigenous people are not, and the census and courts have premised their recognition of Métis status on this race-based understanding.
According to Andersen, Canada got it wrong. Our very preoccupation with mixedness is not natural but stems from more than 150 years of sustained labour on the part of the state and others. From its roots deep in the colonial past, the idea of “Métis as mixed” has pervaded the Canadian consciousness until it settled in the realm of common sense. In the process, “Métis” has become a racial category rather than the identity of an indigenous people with a shared sense of history and culture.
Andersen asks all Canadians to consider the consequences of adopting a definition of “Métis” that makes it nearly impossible for the Métis nation to make political claims as a people.
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About Chris Andersen
Reviews for “Métis”: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood
Monique Giroux
Acadiensis
Andersen's book is thorough and deep, insightful and provocative. Some will find it unsettling. But, for anyone interested in questions of Métis identity, or more generally Indigenous rights in Canada, it is an essential read.
Dwight Newman
Review of Constitutional Studies
Andersen does a superb job of engaging with the scholarship of the field, allowing the reader to gain a clear understanding of its historical trajectory and where Andersen’s work stands in comparison ... Métis is an important contribution and I expect that it will spur lively discussions, productive critiques, and shift the scholarship in the field.
Jill Doerfler (White Earth Anishinaabe)
NAIS (Native American and Indigenous Studies) Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2015