• HOME
  • Dibaajimowin Blog
  • Metis People
  • Ojibwe People
  • Author
  DIBAAJIMOWIN

Metis Stories

Our Thoughts on 'Pop-Up' Metis

10/8/2018

5 Comments

 

​Dibaajimowin would like to thank the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq Chiefs and the Métis National Council for their recent Memorandum of Understanding respecting each other's nationhood and agreeing to work collaboratively on the problem of pop-up groups and individuals claiming to represent Metis in Nova Scotia. This was a necessary action that serves to tackle a growing problem that affects indigenous people across Canada.
 
The assumption and inflation of distant indigenous ancestry (real or assumed) by otherwise non-indigenous people is a phenomenon that can be read to reveal an often sinister meaning with possibly serious consequences for actual indigenous communities and people. This is because such people often selectively (mis)use and inflate their assumed indigenous identity for very specific political ends, be it a desire for hunting rights, educational assistance, government funding, or just to satisfy some narcissistic need to make themselves special.
Picture
The signing of the MOU
​Commandeering the role and the voice of indigenous people is an act of colonial power whereby those who have always enjoyed the benefits of white privilege can (on a whim) construct a particular identity that allows them the ability to trespass on the spaces of actual indigenous people without the need to suffer any of the real consequence of being an indigenous person beyond self-identifying when it is beneficial. Indeed, the number of white people (or people with the most tenuous claims to indigenous identity) are now fabricating indigeneity to obscure, if not dispel, actual indigenous voices in the public sphere.
 
Voluntarily highlighting, if not inflating one’s claim to a particular ethnicity (e.g. self-identifying without a real connection) – is a common feature of the contemporary white experience. This is especially so when the ethnicity being claimed is one that is seen as ‘neat’ or ‘special’.  Such people who do this rarely harm indigenous people. However, given recent statistics from census returns and the number of “pop-up” indigenous organizations in the US and Canada, the problem is growing – and can be seriously problematic when such claims are used to gain a tactical advantage in the assertion of their voices as the loudest in the room. In such cases those claiming indigeneity are staging an extreme form of anti-indigenous activism because their ability to leverage their white privilege can actually amplify their positions in a weaponized use of their claimed indigeneity.
Picture
"grand chief" of the Eastern Woodland Metis
Therefore, it is important to stand up against the myriad of fake and fraudulent groups seeking to press their newfound claims of indigeneity above those of actual indigenous people.  Claims that seek to silence indigenous people or to diminish their hard fought gains should always be opposed.  It is the duty of every single indigenous group to stand up and make it clear that such actions will not be allowed to pass unopposed.

Photo 1 taken from http://www.metisnation.ca/index.php/news/mi%E2%80%99kmaq-metis-nation-leaders-come-together-to-discuss-nationhood
Photo 2 taken from https://globalnews.ca/news/4234783/eastern-metis-canada/
5 Comments
Jeri Malone
10/8/2018 06:30:49 am

Someone really needs to check their history books !! I mean what year do you consider to be pop up? The word was first used in Nova Scotia.
https://twitter.com/i/moments/989595067420639238

Reply
Jeri Malone
10/8/2018 06:45:37 am

If one of the researchers for this "project" to denigrate Eastern Metis people was Darryl Leroux, he has admitted to his research director that he has not researched Eastern Metis because of his own personal beliefs.. Not surprising, you can't find what you are NOT looking for ... What is even truly more disturbing about this, is that the Non-Status and Off-Reserve Mi'kmaw People is who started the Metis and NonStatus Indian Association of Nova Scotia in 1975 in Yarmouth ( Micmac News is full of their meetings, as well as New Breed News, Gigmanag and also Windspeaker News, thankfully there are archives to be checked! and now the other chiefs who do not want to recognize anyone who is not status is crying foul ... Colonization at it's finest. All My relations .. Most of those Metis people are Mi'kmaw treaty descendent's and being discriminated against and treated to daily racism by their own cousins.

https://twitter.com/jmal71/status/1004066257014931456

Reply
Jim Roberts
10/8/2018 07:03:12 am

Well written and well said. The eastern pop-ups pose a very real danger to the advancement of the Métis Nation. The recent MOU between our Nation and the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia should go a long way towards educating people about actual Métis people. This should counter the disinformation pushed by those like Jeri Malone. Again, excellent article!

Reply
Sharon Nygaard
11/16/2018 05:18:18 pm

Thank you for articulating the potential impact possibly made by pop ups. However one might consider myself as one. Indeed, there are enrolled Turtle Mountain members that get quite riled by my asserting Indian heritage. However, my motives for claiming a stake of my Metis heritage is such that I refuse to deny, or hide my Indian heritage unlike my blood generations before me, who were brainwashed into the notion that if you could "pass as white" you were to happily do so and leave any claim to Indian heritage behind...And so my affiliation was lost in that experience, yet my grandmother spoke full Metis; her direct relative made the Metis statue and Ox Cart that stands in front of the Winter Shows building in Crookston Mn. She was raised in the Gentily Minnesota area; the area of the Old Treaty Crossing along the Red Lake River. Her name was Vallie, from the Band of the Iron Fist. I think i have a right to "pop-up" and feel special indeed.

Reply
Sharon Nygaard
11/16/2018 05:25:41 pm

Iron Alliance*

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    A collaborative effort of members of the Ojibwe and Metis communities

    Archives

    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

About Dibaajimowin

Dibaajimowin was created as a way to share interesting and unique stories and other information about the Metis and Ojibwe people (and others) so that these can be used by our guests to educate themselves and others about the history, culture, and language of the people.

We hope you enjoy everything you find here and are glad to have you return in the future. If you are interested in using our content for educational or personal purposes, please give proper attribution and credit to our page. It is important that we acknowledge the tellers of stories and the creators of intellectual property in all forms.

​Please enjoy! See you soon.

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
  • HOME
  • Dibaajimowin Blog
  • Metis People
  • Ojibwe People
  • Author