Metis: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood

Ask any Canadian what Metis means, and they will likely say mixed race. Canadians consider Metis mixed in ways that other Indigenous people are not, and the census and courts have premised their recognition of Metis status on this race-based understanding. Andersen argues that Canada got it wrong. From its roots deep in the colonial past, the idea of Metis as mixed has slowly pervaded the Canadian consciousness until it settled in the realm of common sense. In the process, Metis has become a racial category rather than the identity of an Indigenous people with a shared sense of history and culture.