Métis Lives, Past and Present

MÉTIS LIVES, PAST AND PRESENT A Review Essay HEATHER DEVINE What It Is to Be a Métis: The Stories and Recollections of the Elders of the Prince George Métis Society Mike Evans, Marcelle Gareau, Lisa Krebs, Leona Neilson, and Heidi Standeven, editors Prince George: UNBC Press, 1999. 265 pp. Illus. $29.95 paper. / Kneuo Tw 0 Métis Wo m en : The Lives of Dorothy Scofield and Georgina Houle Young Gregory Scofield Victoria: Polestar, 1999. 139 pp. $16.95 paper. Thunder through My Veins: Memories of a Métis Childhood Gregory Scofield Toronto: Harper Flamingo, 1999. 202 pp. $24 cloth. HE LAST TWENTY YEARS have The New Peoples: Being and Becoming seen a marked resurgence of Métis in North America. Not only does Tinterest in the Métis. This re this book contain several ground vival is due in part to the recognition breaking theoretical essays on Métis of the Métis as a distinct Aboriginal ethnogenesis, but it also features com people within the Canadian Con prehensive studies detailing the stitution as well as to the 1985 cen origins and development of a number tenary of the Northwest Rebellion and of biracial communities in Canada and the execution of the Métis leader the United States. However, the book Louis Riel. It has been estimated that falls short in one key area. The articles, as many as two million Canadians by and large, are third-person, scholarly could legitimately claim Métis status. interpretations of Métis history, Not surprisingly, the social, economic, culture, and identity The perspectives and political ramifications of these of Métis people themselves regarding numbers have engendered lively their experiences are largely absent. debate over that most elusive of con Life histories of Métis people can cepts, the Métis identity. be found in biographical dictionaries, Certainly one of the most successful in old-timers' reminiscences that have attempts to address the topic of Métis been gathered and published, and in identity has been the 1985 anthology scholarly and popular biographies. BC STUDIES, no. 128 Winter 2000/2001 8S 86 BC STUDIES Métis-authored works have appeared Autobiography has its shortcomings, only in the last three decades. Because however. For example, autobiography, scholars of Native ancestry are few and by its very nature, is intrinsically far between in universities and colleges, biased. One can never assume that the much of the new writing by Métis is entire life story is being provided, that being produced outside of the aca the facts are entirely accurate, or that demy. It is being published by insti the chronicler is neutral in his or her tutions and media outlets administered assessment of past personalities or by and for Aboriginal people or by events. Autobiographies are also very small publishing houses devoted to particularistic. Making broad gener politics and culture outside of the alizations about ethnic identity based mainstream. Another characteristic of on one or two autobiographical assess these publications is that they are ments is a risky undertaking at best. overwhelmingly autobiographical in At their worst, when produced by nature. individuals with social, political, or Biographical works in general, and economic agendas, autobiographies autobiographical works in particular, can devolve into thinly disguised have a somewhat chequered repu propaganda pieces. tation among scholars, despite the fact Which brings us to a consideration that virtually all historians utilize of three recent publications docu biography to some degree in their menting the life experiences of BC research and teaching and the fact that Métis people. Without going into the methodology used to generate life detail here, it should be noted that the histories has become increasingly unique history of Native policy in more sophisticated. British. Columbia has resulted in an In its favour, autobiography has an indigenous population that, until important role to play in under recently, was largely bereft of treaty standing the lived experiences of relationships with the Crown. Until ethnocultural groups, both historical the recent Nisga'a accord, the only and contemporary. For those racial, treaties were those that James Douglas religious, and cultural minorities negotiated with Native bands living in estranged from the mainstream insti the vicinity of Victoria, Nanaimo, and tutions responsible for shaping - and Fort Rupert between 1850 and 1854, suppressing - cultural identity, auto and Treaty 8, which several remote biography offers freedom of expression Native communities in northeastern without the editorial contamination of British Columbia chose to enter in 1899. mainstream "experts." At its best, The policy of the BC government, until autobiographical writing provides an recently, has been to ignore or deny insider's perspective on identity that the existence of Aboriginal title in the is intrinsically superior to the analyses remainder of the province, hence the of even the most sensitive observer. lack of further treaties. The result has The best autobiographies offer a been that "Indians" and Métis have window into an area of ethnicity that shared the same "non-status" desig is imperfectly understood - this being nation for most of the twentieth the existential, psychological di century. It is the migration to British mensions of living as a person of a Columbia of Métis people from particular ethnic identity. Alberta, Saskatchewan, and elsewhere Métis Lives, Past and Present that has introduced Aboriginal status a volume of oral reminiscences. The distinctions into BC Native popu anthology documents a variety of lations. The first volume to be con experiences that paint a vivid portrait sidered here, What It Is to Be a Métis: of Métis life in the first half of the The Stories and Recollections of the twentieth century. Elders of the Prince George Métis To complete this undertaking, the Society, is both a function and a result Prince George Métis Elders Society of these developments. collaborated with the Native Studies The Prince George Métis com Department of the University of munity, as characterized in this Northern British Columbia, which is volume, is not an indigenous Métis based in Prince George. Under the community (i.e., a community that has supervision of staff members from the evolved locally from generations of Department of Anthropology, students intermarriage between Europeans and enrolled in the Native Studies Program the BC Native groups local to the compiled questions, interviewed area); rather, it is a reformulated com elders, and transcribed and edited the munity whose members migrated to completed interviews. In order to en British Columbia from Métis com sure that the project remained under munities elsewhere in western Canada. the control of the Métis elders, ethical It has been in the process of "be guidelines governing researchers' coming" since 1945 and is part and conduct, the construction of research parcel of a larger out-migration of instruments, and the editing and people from the Prairie provinces that disseminating of the completed work took place after the Second World were developed by anthropology staff War. During this period, the mech members in collaboration with the anization of agriculture dispensed elders. The research methodology has with the need for large numbers of been detailed in Appendix 1 of this seasonal agricultural workers, many of book and provides a useful reference whom were First Nations and Métis. for those considering similar col The forestry, fishing, and mining laborative projects. industries of British Columbia were Unfortunately, projects of this attractive to people displaced in a nature can become unnecessarily western agricultural economy battered political, and the work of the scholars by the Depression. involved in this compilation is no Twenty of the Métis elders inter exception. Project coordinator Mike viewed for this volume come from Evans states in boldface type: "We three areas: northwestern Saskatchewan, have purposefully avoided inter north-central Alberta, and north pretations and analysis of the stories eastern Alberta. The remaining three included, but rather have left the interviews are with former residents Elders' stories to speak for themselves" of The Pas, Manitoba. These elders (259). He then offers a further ex and their descendants have been in the planation: Prince George area for approximately three generations. Now that its most re The reasons for this are several, cent generation has reached adulthood, but the fundamental method the community has chosen to com ological point is that sometimes memorate its longevity by compiling the best way to ensure that 88 BC STUDIES Aboriginal community members history" when they interview subjects are represented fairly is for and transcribe the narratives. In fact, researchers to stay silent, and this recorded material does not become let people speak for themselves. "history" until it is placed within a Euro-Canadian scholars have broader historical context through an had a great deal to say about notation or analysis. This could easily Métis history and culture, so have been accomplished in What It Is we thought that we would let to Be a Métis through the preparation Métis themselves have a turn ... of a separate essay discussing Métis This is not to suggest that the migration in general and the move scholarship of anthropologists ment of Prairie Métis to British is somehow bad, but simply Columbia in particular. The intent of that there needs to be a place in such an article would not be to "slight" Métis Studies for Métis voices or overshadow the value of the oral as well. (259) accounts but, rather, to provide con text in order to enhance the interest It is a legitimate concern that the and value of the oral accounts. presence of scholarly content in a volume of this nature might somehow The inclusion of maps identifying overshadow, or even undermine the the communities in the Prince George importance of, oral testimony. But area and some of the Métis com these issues can be competently re munities in northern Alberta and solved through sensitive editing and Saskatchewan would have been another design.

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