Quiet Revolution West: The Rebirth of Metis Nationalism

Weinstein has given us a beautiful history of the Metis nation…. Quiet Revolution West is a vivid tale of constant struggle and sacrifice. It is a gripping account of political intrigue and brinksmanship that will raise eyebrows in many quarters.

– From the Foreword by the Right Honourable Paul Martin

When the Manitoba Act of 1870 created the new Province of Manitoba within the Dominion of Canada, it was predominantly a Metis province, yet within a matter of years, the Metis were a dispossessed, displaced, and dispersed people. Weinstein traces Metis aspirations for political autonomy as a unique nation with its own land base in the Canadian federation from the time of Louis Riel until the Kelowna Accord of 2005. He concentrates - in great detail and with deft accounts - on the political maneuvering and constitutional wrangling of the last three decades, cataloguing the contributions and disappointments of colorful Metis leaders. And he provides detailed reviews of legal cases relevant to long-standing Metis claims to land and other rights.

Such rights he places within the context of the world-wide movement among indigenous peoples for greater political autonomy, such as in Central America, and he ends his account with the prospects for self-government among the Metis and the forms that such a government might take, given the dispersal of the Metis across Canada. Although the Metis have been recognized in the Constitution as one of the three groups of Aboriginal peoples in Canada, they remain the landless subjects of the Canadian government, and for this reason Quiet Revolution West is a timely account of resistance.