Being Métis in Canada: an Unsettled Identity
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BEING MÉTIS IN CANADA: AN UNSETTLED IDENTITY A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities. 2017 SINÉAD O’SULLIVAN SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................ 2 Acronyms ............................................................................................................................................ 4 List of Images ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 6 Declaration .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Copyright Statement ........................................................................................................................... 7 Dedication ........................................................................................................................................... 8 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 9 General introduction ....................................................................................................................... 9 A short history of Métis ................................................................................................................ 11 Research questions ....................................................................................................................... 28 Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 32 Structure of this thesis .................................................................................................................. 40 Chapter 2. “Seeing no feathers or beads, the white authorities saw no Indians at all”: the background to Métis aboriginal rights claims ................................................................................... 47 Introduction: legal aboriginality in Canada ................................................................................... 47 The legal category of “Indian” ...................................................................................................... 50 The legal category of “Métis” ....................................................................................................... 56 Political organisations and the 1982 Constitution ........................................................................ 60 One Métis Nation, or several Métis peoples? .............................................................................. 64 The concept of aboriginal rights ................................................................................................... 74 Aboriginal rights in other post-colonial contexts .......................................................................... 76 The judicialisation of aboriginal rights in Canada ......................................................................... 84 Métis aboriginal rights .................................................................................................................. 89 Chapter 3. Métis in the courts: R. v. Hirsekorn, 2013 ....................................................................... 93 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 93 Background to the Hirsekorn case ................................................................................................ 98 The Hirsekorn trial ...................................................................................................................... 108 Hirsekorn at the Calgary Court of Appeal ................................................................................... 115 Conclusion: Métis in the courts .................................................................................................. 140 Chapter 4. “Beads, bibles and buffalo”: Métis in museums and festivals ...................................... 149 2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 149 Museums and aboriginal peoples: a brief discussion ................................................................. 151 Indigenous museums .................................................................................................................. 162 The Michif Cultural and Resource Centre (the Michif museum), St Albert ................................ 168 The Michif museum as a community or ‘gathering place’ .......................................................... 179 A Métis community beyond the Michif: in the ‘Festival City’ of Edmonton ............................... 186 The Métis Spring Festival, May 2013 .......................................................................................... 188 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................. 198 Chapter 5. “I used to be Métis” ...................................................................................................... 202 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 202 ‘I’m Aboriginal; I should be able to do this!’ ............................................................................... 207 Identity, ethnicity, and groups: borders and boundaries ........................................................... 222 ‘I used to be Métis’: the borders of Métisness ........................................................................... 227 ‘Aboriginal heritage, but not aboriginal’ ..................................................................................... 234 Conclusions: The boundaries of Métis identity .......................................................................... 248 Chapter 6. Conclusions: ‘The struggle for recognition is gradually transformed into the struggle for “definition”’ .................................................................................................................................... 252 Afterword: the context in 2017 .................................................................................................. 266 Reference List .................................................................................................................................. 270 Books and Articles ....................................................................................................................... 270 Jurisprudence .............................................................................................................................. 295 Laws and statutes ....................................................................................................................... 296 Final word count: 79,171 words 3 Acronyms AFN Assembly of First Nations CAP Congress of Aboriginal Peoples HBC Hudson’s Bay Company IMHA Interim Métis Harvesting Agreement MCA Métis Constitutional Alliance MCC Métis Constitutional Council MHA Métis Harvesting in Alberta MMF Manitoba Métis Federation MNA Métis Nation of Alberta MNAHP Métis Nation of Alberta Harvesting Policy MNC Métis National Council MNS Métis Nation of Saskatchewan NCC Native Council of Canada NDP New Democratic Party RCAP Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police 4 List of Images Fig. 1.1 Métis trade routes map, p.13. Fig. 2.1 National definition of Métis, image, p.66. Fig. 3.1 Map of Alberta, p.106. Fig. 3.2 Métis beaded jacket, photograph, p.115. Fig. 3.3 Métis Homeland map, p.128. Fig. 3.4 First Nations in Alberta, map, p.135. Fig. 4.1 Historic Juneau House, image, p.168. Fig. 4.2 Métis beadwork, photograph, p.173. Fig. 4.3 The Sash, image, p.194. Fig. 5.1 Moccasins, photograph, p.208. Fig. 5.2 Hand-made moccasins, photograph, p.212. 5 Abstract The University of Manchester Sinéad O’Sullivan PhD Social Anthropology Being Métis in Canada: An Unsettled Identity March 2017 Abstract In 1982, the Canadian constitution included Métis as one of the aboriginal peoples of Canada, who may be entitled to certain aboriginal rights. Making aboriginal rights claims has required Métis, as a category, to be understood in a bounded, rigid manner, to fit with the wider legal system of categories of aboriginal peoples (First Nations, Inuit). Métis, as an identity, has been seen as a category based on aboriginality and mixed ancestry, but it is contested by many actors including the Canadian state, Métis organisations, academics and Métis themselves whether this means mixedness of ancestry in general (a residual category of aboriginal but not First Nations/Inuit), or a specific case of mixed ancestry in the Canadian interior in the 18th- and 19th-centuries (the Red River/Historic Métis Nation). The category of Métis is not only uncertain