9 Metis out of 10 are English-Speaking

I'm one of the 1 in 10.  My community is Cree speaking, though there are elders who still speak Michif.  They'll insist it's Cree though :)  That strict deliniation of languages isn't all that strict in practice...many of us also pepper our Cree with Stoney words because we share our lake with two Stoney reserves.

Language retention among all aboriginal peoples is a pressing concern, but it is particularly difficult for Metis, especially outside of the Alberta Settlements.  We tend not to be grouped as closely as First Nations and a higher proportion of us are urbanised.  If we do speak an aboriginal language, it is likely because we grew up rural, and in close contact with First Nations.

It is for this reason that I believe urban initiatives are vital for Metis.  I've pointed out on other threads that Edmonton, Alberta, has a number of Cree immersion schools in 'native neighbourhoods' in the city.  I would like to see an expansion of those programs to include Nakota Sioux (Stoney), and Blackfoot...possibly Dene as well, but the numbers unfortunately do not support that.  There are no formal Michif learning opportunities in Alberta that I know of, and Alberta has the highest large M Metis population in Canada.  Our default is Cree, and while it pains me that I don't speak MY language, at least Michif was created from Cree and French, and speaking those languages is going to have to be good enough.

Caissa, the link you've provided gives decent historical background but somewhat muddies the issue.

For example, it HAS been generally accepted that big M Metis refers to those who share a similar language, culture and history.  Little m metis is a term still used for those who are mixed blood, part First Nations and part something else.  Many people get the two confused, or do not understand the distinction, including a great number of people who call themselves metis.  Being half Ojibwe and half Irish doesn't make you Metis, it makes you half Ojibwe and Irish.

Here is the link to the Metis National Council

http://www.metisnation.ca/

My thoughts:

I know little about the subject, other than what I remember from Manitoba history:

• the Manitoba Act (1870?), negotiated with Louis Riel's provisional government, as part of Manitoba's entry into Confederation, providing status for both French and English;
• the betrayal of that compromise with the Manitoba Schools Act (1890) - which, besides de-recognizing Catholic schools, eliminated French as an official language;
• the eviction of the Métis from their land - the ongoing colonial economic and cultural devastation.

It was the 1970s before the French language issue began to be rectified in Manitoba, with Georges Forest's challenge of his unilingual parking ticket (I think), and ultimately a Supreme Court decision requiring all Manitoba laws to be rendered into French, etc. But obviously generations worth of damage had been done.

That's all anecdotal and distant memory, so I'd appreciate someone more knowledgeable filling in. And I have no knowledge at all when it comes to the loss of the indigenous languages.

I was talking to a fellow a few months ago about the decision to let the Canadians into Red River, and I ran across a breakdown of census numbers from around 1870.

Along with Metis, they list "mixed blood" as its own category. I know this includes a number of mixed-races like the ones you mention Yiwah, and that it was not a single developed culture like the Metis. I suspect they only did it because it was an undeniable reality. Unfortunately I don't have the information at my fingertips, but I do remember that Metis and mixed blood each constituted a larger group than any single race - Native, French, English, Scottish or Irish. I also can't remember it if was actually over 50% of the population,  but it was certainly close.

(edit)

These aren't the numbers I was refering to, but here they are for the whole province of Manitoba at the time of confederation. It's surprising that even outside the dominant Metis culture (which was itself mixed) mixed race people of other backrounds far outnumbered any one culture/race.

http://www.abheritage.ca/pasttopresent/en/settlement/first_peoples_metis...

Sven wrote:

Taking your last example, for individuals who are "half Ojibwe and half Irish", what are the conditions which would classify some of those people as being (merely) "half Ojibwe and half Irish" and others as being Metis?

More specifically, how would any one of those individuals know which category they fall in and who decides that?  If it's up to the individual, then anyone who is "half Ojibwe and half Irish" could simply declare that they are Metis, no?

I hope I'm not being presumptuous in answering this, and I am certainly open to correction, but I think to be metis one has to be a product of a hybrid European/Aboriginal culture, not merely the child of one indigenous parent and another non-indigenous.

Sven wrote:

Thanks for those additional comments.

Taking your last example, for individuals who are "half Ojibwe and half Irish", what are the conditions which would classify some of those people as being (merely) "half Ojibwe and half Irish" and others as being Metis?

More specifically, how would any one of those individuals know which category they fall in and who decides that?  If it's up to the individual, then anyone who is "half Ojibwe and half Irish" could simply declare that they are Metis, no?

I think what is being missed here is that the Metis have a distinct culture.  It is not simply a matter of mixing in a little indigenous here, a little European there.  We have our own legal orders, our own socio-political contexts, and we have developed a history which grounds and defines us.  Yes, we started out as mixed bloods but that is nowhere near who we are as a people now. 

Being a mixed blood NOW simply does not mean what it did in the days when the Metis nation was just emerging.  Being mixed blood doesn't make you a part of the Metis nation. 

How does anyone figure out their identity?  If one is half First Nations and half something else, they have to figure out if they can be one, or the other, or both, and how that's going to work.  "Metis" is simply not a category open to them, unless they have a Metis parent. Just like "Ojibwe" is not a category open to them unless one of their parents is Ojibwe.

Who decides this?  Our people decide this.  We don't have a lot of confusion about who we are, anymore than the Cree are confused about their identity, or the Dene about theirs.

Yiwah wrote:

6079_Smith_W wrote:

In fact, I remember in John Ralston Saul's lecture on CBC Ideas about Canada being a Metis nation,

Personally I can't stomach Saul's assertions of "unconscious Aboriginalness".  It's one step away from the 'noble savage'.  Also while he pays lips service to understanding who the Metis are, he doesn't actually seem to get it, and says really all Canadians should be able to access their Metis heritage (by which he actually means First Nations heritage) if they just try hard enough...

Sorry, no.

Actually I was refering specifically to those two authors saying that Native and Metis people were honestly committed to cooperation, whereas many Canadians were in it for themselves. I was not saying that I agreed with all his arguments.

@ Yiwah

Understood. 'scuse me.

@ Yiwah

I know it is only in the last couple of year or so I have seen bulletin board ads for courses in Michif, though I know there have been courses in Cree offered for awhile here in Saskatoon. Unless you are in a place where you are actually immersed in it, or at the very least have radio or tv, it's hard for it to be ingrained. I know the only times I have ever really gotten a handle on another language is when I had no choice but to speak it.

Yiwah wrote:

I think what is being missed here is that the Metis have a distinct culture.  It is not simply a matter of mixing in a little indigenous here, a little European there.  We have our own legal orders, our own socio-political contexts, and we have developed a history which grounds and defines us.  Yes, we started out as mixed bloods but that is nowhere near who we are as a people now. 

Being a mixed blood NOW simply does not mean what it did in the days when the Metis nation was just emerging.  Being mixed blood doesn't make you a part of the Metis nation. 

How does anyone figure out their identity?  If one is half First Nations and half something else, they have to figure out if they can be one, or the other, or both, and how that's going to work.  "Metis" is simply not a category open to them, unless they have a Metis parent. Just like "Ojibwe" is not a category open to them unless one of their parents is Ojibwe.

Who decides this?  Our people decide this.  We don't have a lot of confusion about who we are, anymore than the Cree are confused about their identity, or the Dene about theirs.

Thanks for this clear explanation, it frustrates me when people call my son Metis because I am "European" and his father is Cree.  It has happened twice because he is only a few weeks old, once by a non-FN who just assumed and one by a FN person who was saying it in a derogatory way.  The non-FN didn't seem to care when I explained and I just ignored the FN person because I didn't like that they were being derogatory about my son and that they were using the word Metis to do it.

Hey ya....CONGRATULATIONS refuge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lard Tunderin Jeezus wrote:

Ironically, using the 'blood' definition of métis would mean that very, very few people who consider themselves true FN could escape the fact that they too are likely of mixed blood, just as my children are likely 1/64th aboriginal (thanks to their great-great-great grandmother from the courier-du-bois line of family history).

I've been trying to figure out what bothered me about this post, and it finally came to me. 

In general, the people I have come across who erroneously use the term "Metis" in any sort of blood quantum fashion, are not First Nations.  In fact, I very rarely have any difficulty with First Nations people when I tell them I'm Metis.  They usually know what that means.  I'm saying 'in general, rarely, usually' here despite the fact that I have NEVER actually met a First Nations person who didn't understand who the Metis are.  I am allowing for the fact that there must be, somewhere, First Nations people who don't know this.

There is debate among Aboriginal people about certain groups calling themselves Metis, and whether or not they qualify as Metis, or simply a mixture of indigenous and European...but that debate recognises that there are 'legitimate' Metis.

So the people pushing this whole 'Metis means part indigenous, part aboriginal' line aren't actually Aboriginal people, in my experience.  Nor is there some sort of hidden shame among Aboriginal people about 'possible mixed blood.'

Lard Tunderin Jeezus wrote:

Sorry to have gotten under your skin; it certainly wasn't my intention. But clearly 'blood quantum' isn't an exclusively settler concept, as Refuge pointed out.

And if was my claim of distant relation that bothered you, allow me to point out that the relation isn't mine at all, but through my wife's family. I have other connections, though - first cousins who have status, and a cousin who was adopted and has re-entered her birth mother's community. She is currently fighting to regain her children from CAS. I started this link to try to learn more about the issues she's facing, but unfortunately there's been little response.

No worries, it wasn't that it got under my skin, something about the focus of the post just kept me rolling it around and around in my head for a bit.