Are there any Métis on this forum?

[AnnaG]

Yep, the Metis I know are more Cree than they are what you might call 'Metis' culture. The closest thing to a Metis cultural household that I can think of was my aunt's home, and my uncle is actually treaty, not Metis, but because of the blending between our French family and his native one, it created a pretty neat environment.

I can understand that. It's pretty interesting at our family gatherings sometimes, too with our Irish Catholic and Anishinaabe traditional backgrounds. lol

 

[CDNBear]

Some Metis I know follow Anish culture mostly, others follow Cree culture mostly.

Some follow a much more Francaise type culture, while others follow a combined culture on the cusp of French/(Insert Eastern Native Nation here). The point is, though the Metis Society has a unified culture. Metis en mass, encompass a huge cross section of Canada.

Metis: "a person of mixed North American Indian and European ancestry, who identifies as Metis. (We also accept people who may use other words to indicate their identity, such as, "bois brulez", "Michif", "half-breed", "mixed-blood", etc."

That has been expanded by more progressive Councils.

The list of requirements has but 1 actual criteria, the rest of the list is definitions of the terminology. Then there's the fact that the MNO has the right to accept or dismiss anyone it sees fit. Which is explained on their website.

The MNO | Registry | Home

So in order to be officially Metis in Canuckville, one has to have one or some of the original aboriginal "blood" flowing in them as well as an originating male French ancestor.

Keyword "officially". Which excludes a vast group of people, if applied strictly.

Which is extremely distasteful, considering the roots of the "Metis".

The last I heard, no aboriginal organisation issues status cards at all. The group that DOES issue status cards is the Min. of Indian and Northern Affairs. At least that's what it says on the application I filled out a bunch of months ago.

Not so at the MNO.

Yep, the Metis I know are more Cree than they are what you might call 'Metis' culture. The closest thing to a Metis cultural household that I can think of was my aunt's home, and my uncle is actually treaty, not Metis, but because of the blending between our French family and his native one, it created a pretty neat environment.

How true Karrie. The Metis in my family line are more heavily associated with the Haudenosaunee. While others are more associated with the old French Trapper culture. While still others are barely distinguishable from their neighbours in Montreal.

I hate to use this word, but, it's elitist to think that because someone doesn't fit your ideologically prescribed vision of what a Metis is, that they aren't Metis.

That's the kind of elitism that has been used against me when I was more active in my community. It was used to to dismiss me as an Apple, because I'm not 100% pure blood, but I met the threshold, and received my Status as a child. Or the elitism of SCB's own family, because she just wasn't dark enough and an embarrassment to her parents. Thus her estrangement from them. Even among my people, that elitism is being used to purify the Rez and remove non Natives from Native homes.

It's ignorant and counterproductive.

This same sort of elitism is being used to keep the Lumbee from being recognized Nationally as a distinct Native culture in the US. If they had been in Canada, they would have enjoyed the Metis status many others do. But because the US doesn't recognize the Metis as a Nation. They are in a battle to be recognized Nationally, having already been accepted at the State level, as a distinct Nation.

It is in my disdain for that sort elitism, that I aligned myself with like open minded people, in a struggle against the status quo. Which included the President of the Toronto Metis Council. A Council I might add, that has twice approached me since, to assist them in political endeavors. A Council that has been embroiled in a battle with the MNO almost from day one, for other reasons.

Like the myth of the Noble Savage, the image far to many have of the Metis, is as mythical. That's not meant to be derogatory, just an honest observation.

I can understand that. It's pretty interesting at our family gatherings sometimes, too with our Irish Catholic and Anishinaabe traditional backgrounds. lol

That must be a hoot.

 

[AnnaG]

Some follow a much more Francaise type culture, while others follow a combined culture on the cusp of French/(Insert Eastern Native Nation here). The point is, though the Metis Society has a unified culture. Metis en mass, encompass a huge cross section of Canada.

Egg zachary.

That has been expanded by more progressive Councils.

My point was that everyone seems to have different definitions of Metis - ism nowadays. Historical definitions seem to be the same.

The list of requirements has but 1 actual criteria, the rest of the list is definitions of the terminology. Then there's the fact that the MNO has the right to accept or dismiss anyone it sees fit. Which is explained on their website.

The MNO | Registry | Home

Yup. Basically, "it's our club, so you follow club rules or you aren't in the club". lol

Keyword "officially". Which excludes a vast group of people, if applied strictly.

Which is extremely distasteful, considering the roots of the "Metis".

Not so at the MNO.

Perhaps, but it seems to be new info to Medic.

That must be a hoot.

It is. Dad's pretty easy going, though. He accepts the nonsensical crap the Catholics pulled on him and others as just a part of life and he moved on. lol But he still points out traditional things to counter Mum's dogma sometimes.
And I won't poke too many holes in Mum's Catholicism anymore. Telling her I was agnostic and bisexual was enough. lmao

 

[bobnoorduyn]

And due to the fact that when the various Churches petitioned for the rights to a Reserves soul, the Gov't sought to keep the people divided by faith as well. You don't want a bunch of Injins getting all unified, lol.

The British were afraid of any large group getting unified, at least one that could threaten them. My ancestors lost their land to them long before yours did ;-). A time's gotta come when we have to look forward instead of backward. Governments still take. Even things we have bought fair and square are not safe from government siezure.

 

[The Old Medic]

CDNBear, you could not possibly be more wrong. There is absolutely NO requirement that any Métis have any French ancestry at all. None, nada non, nothing in the way of a French ancestor anywhere in their family tree.

There are as many Métis in Canada that do not have French ancestry, as there are that do. I realize that the Metis Nation of Canada promotes the idea that they are the one and only decision maker about who is, and who is not Metis (their spelling), but they in fact are not. All they can determine is who is allowed to belong to their organization.

metis refers to anyone that has some degree of aboriginal ancestry along with any other ancestry. that is a generic term, with a lower case m. Métis refers to people that meet the definition brought out by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Powley decision.

That IS the ONLY legal definition of the Métis people in all of Canada.

One need not belong to any organization affiliated with the MNC in order to be Métis. CAP also recognizes Métis, as do a number of other organizations. And not all Métis originate in the Red River Vally, or in what was formerly called "Rupertsland". There are Métis who originate in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, Quebec and all other provinces.

So please, take your MNO ideation, and fold itt into a tiny square and shove it where the sun does not shine. You can not impose YOUR idea of what makes a person a Métis on Canada. The Supreme Court has already done that.

 

[gerryh]

CDNBear,

So please, take your MNO ideation, and fold itt into a tiny square and shove it where the sun does not shine. You can not impose YOUR idea of what makes a person a Métis on Canada. The Supreme Court has already done that.

ROFLMFAO:lol::lol::lol:

for Bear:

http://www.metisnation.ca/who/index.html

 

[Cliffy]

CDNBear, you could not possibly be more wrong. There is absolutely NO requirement that any Métis have any French ancestry at all. None, nada non, nothing in the way of a French ancestor anywhere in their family tree.

There are as many Métis in Canada that do not have French ancestry, as there are that do. I realize that the Metis Nation of Canada promotes the idea that they are the one and only decision maker about who is, and who is not Metis (their spelling), but they in fact are not. All they can determine is who is allowed to belong to their organization.

metis refers to anyone that has some degree of aboriginal ancestry along with any other ancestry. that is a generic term, with a lower case m. Métis refers to people that meet the definition brought out by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Powley decision.

That IS the ONLY legal definition of the Métis people in all of Canada.

One need not belong to any organization affiliated with the MNC in order to be Métis. CAP also recognizes Métis, as do a number of other organizations. And not all Métis originate in the Red River Vally, or in what was formerly called "Rupertsland". There are Métis who originate in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, Quebec and all other provinces.

So please, take your MNO ideation, and fold itt into a tiny square and shove it where the sun does not shine. You can not impose YOUR idea of what makes a person a Métis on Canada. The Supreme Court has already done that.

Boy! You are an angry old fart. Did you learn that living in the United States of Aggression?

 

[petros]

There is one binding aspect of Metis that goes beyond blood. The RCC.

 

[gerryh]

Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - R. v. Powley

The term “Métis” in s. 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 does not encompass all individuals with mixed Indian and European heritage; rather, it refers to distinctive peoples who, in addition to their mixed ancestry, developed their own customs, and recognizable group identity separate from their Indian or Inuit and European forebears. A Métis community is a group of Métis with a distinctive collective identity, living together in the same geographical area and sharing a common way of life. The purpose of s. 35 is to protect practices that were historically important features of these distinctive communities and that persist in the present day as integral elements of their Métis culture. In applying the Van der Peet test to determine the Métis’ s. 35 entitlements, the pre‑contact aspect of the test must be adjusted to take into account the post‑contact ethnogenesis and evolution of the Métis. A pre‑control test establishing when Europeans achieved political and legal control in an area and focusing on the period after a particular Métis community arose and before it came under the control of European laws and customs is necessary to accommodate this history.

Aboriginal rights are communal, grounded in the existence of a historic and present community, and exercisable by virtue of an individual’s ancestrally based membership in the present community. The aboriginal right claimed in this case is the right to hunt for food in the environs of Sault Ste. Marie. To support a site‑specific aboriginal rights claim, an identifiable Métis community with some degree of continuity and stability must be established through evidence of shared customs, traditions, and collective identity, as well as demographic evidence. The trial judge’s findings of a historic Métis community and of a contemporary Métis community in and around Sault Ste. Marie are supported by the record and must be upheld.


[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] The verification of a claimant’s membership in the relevant contemporary community is crucial, since individuals are only entitled to exercise Métis aboriginal rights by virtue of their ancestral connection to and current membership in a Métis community. Self‑identification, ancestral connection, and community acceptance are factors which define Métis identity for the purpose of claiming Métis rights under s. 35. Absent formal identification, courts will have to ascertain Métis identity on a case‑by‑case basis taking into account the value of community self‑definition, the need for the process of identification to be objectively verifiable and the purpose of the constitutional guarantee. Here, the trial judge correctly found that the respondents are members of the Métis community that arose and still exists in and around Sault Ste. Marie. Residency on a reserve for a period of time by the respondents’ ancestors did not, in the circumstances of this case, negate their Métis identity. An individual decision by a Métis person’s ancestors to take treaty benefits does not necessarily extinguish that person’s claim to Métis rights, absent collective adhesion by the Métis community to the treaty.

The view that Métis rights must find their origin in the pre‑contact practices of their aboriginal ancestors must be rejected. This view in effect would deny to Métis their full status as distinctive rights‑bearing peoples whose own integral practices are entitled to constitutional protection under s. 35(1). The historical record fully supports the trial judge’s finding that the period just prior to 1850 is the appropriate date for finding effective European control in the Sault Ste. Marie area. The evidence also supports his finding that hunting for food was integral to the Métis way of life at Sault Ste. Marie in the period just prior to 1850. This practice has been continuous to the present.

 

[AnnaG]

CDNBear, you could not possibly be more wrong. There is absolutely NO requirement that any Métis have any French ancestry at all. None, nada non, nothing in the way of a French ancestor anywhere in their family tree.

There are as many Métis in Canada that do not have French ancestry, as there are that do. I realize that the Metis Nation of Canada promotes the idea that they are the one and only decision maker about who is, and who is not Metis (their spelling), but they in fact are not. All they can determine is who is allowed to belong to their organization.

metis refers to anyone that has some degree of aboriginal ancestry along with any other ancestry. that is a generic term, with a lower case m. Métis refers to people that meet the definition brought out by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Powley decision.

That IS the ONLY legal definition of the Métis people in all of Canada.

Apparently you can't read links; particularly the one I supplied from the fed gov't. Well, I won't post them again, but they show you to be wrong. IOW, your opinion of what the definitions of Metis are, is simply your opinion.

One need not belong to any organization affiliated with the MNC in order to be Métis. CAP also recognizes Métis, as do a number of other organizations. And not all Métis originate in the Red River Vally, or in what was formerly called "Rupertsland". There are Métis who originate in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, Quebec and all other provinces.

So please, take your MNO ideation, and fold itt into a tiny square and shove it where the sun does not shine. You can not impose YOUR idea of what makes a person a Métis on Canada. The Supreme Court has already done that.

lmao
On second thought, I will post the link from the feds again: Bilateral Relationships It says

a person who self-identifies as Métis, is of historic Métis Nation Ancestry, is distinct from other Aboriginal Peoples and is accepted by the Métis Nation.

Now, straight from the MNC where the feds took this definition from, we get:

“Historic Métis Nation” means the Aboriginal people then known as Métis or Half-Breeds who resided in Historic Métis Nation Homeland;
“Historic Métis Nation Homeland” means the area of land in west central North America used and occupied as the traditional territory of the Métis or Half-Breeds as they were then known;
"Métis Nation” means the Aboriginal people descended from the Historic Métis Nation, which is now comprised of all Métis Nation citizens and is one of the “aboriginal peoples of Canada” within s.35 of the Constitution Act of 1982;
“Distinct from other Aboriginal Peoples” means distinct for cultural and nationhood purposes.

 

[lone wolf]

I smell agenda....

 

[gerryh]

Historic Métis Nation” means the Aboriginal people then known as Métis or Half-Breeds who resided in Historic Métis Nation Homeland;
“Historic Métis Nation Homeland” means the area of land in west central North America used and occupied as the traditional territory of the Métis or Half-Breeds as they were then known;

Does that area include the Sault?

 

[AnnaG]

Does that area include the Sault?

Perhaps. I was always under the impression that the traditional Metis homeland was basically a chunk of western ON and a chunk of MN.
According to MNC, it now encompasses all the prairie provinces, On, QC, etc. lol

 

[gerryh]

Perhaps. I was always under the impression that the traditional Metis homeland was basically a chunk of western ON and a chunk of MN.
According to MNC, it now encompasses all the prairie provinces, On, QC, etc. lol

so, in other words, there seems not to be any concensus as to who, what, or where.

 

[petros]

Perhaps. I was always under the impression that the traditional Metis homeland was basically a chunk of western ON and a chunk of MN.
According to MNC, it now encompasses all the prairie provinces, On, QC, etc. lol

Wherever the church went the Metis went along with.

 

[gerryh]

Wherever the church went the Metis went along with.

So, since I am French/Ojibway and RCC then I am a Metis?

 

[AnnaG]

so, in other words, there seems not to be any concensus as to who, what, or where.

There may be, I haven't found a map yet, though.

Wherever the church went the Metis went along with.

You are saying the church defines the traditional Metis homeland?

So, since I am French/Ojibway and RCC then I am a Metis?

According to MNC you have to want to be, first. Then they have to accept you. lol

 

[gerryh]

According to MNC you have to want to be, first. Then they have to accept you. lol

roflmao....so....ultimatley it is up to a political organisation/group to decide if my family and I are Metis. I wonder what the "cost" is to recieve Metis "membership"?

 

[AnnaG]

roflmao....so....ultimatley it is up to a political organisation/group to decide if my family and I are Metis.

Seems that way. lol

I wonder what the "cost" is to recieve Metis "membership"?

A toque, a jug of maple syrup, and a string of beads?

 

[petros]

So, since I am French/Ojibway and RCC then I am a Metis?

Feel free to call yourself whatever you want but it's fact that the Jesuit order used the Metis to extend missionary work as far west as possible.