Metis people are not aboriginal
I have wondered about writing an Editorial like this for a while and refrained – but decided this viewpoint needs to be heard. I have a very real and deep contempt for people who are claiming to be Metis, believing they should have any rights that non-aboriginal people do not have.
It’s not about the blood quantum – it is entirely about a made-up culture from a bunch of people who have a very serious identity crisis in wanting to be Aboriginal. As far as I am concerned, and a LOT of Aboriginal people in Canada, they never will be regardless of what the government says.
Most people know the history of where Metis people came from, and that might have been true 100-200 years ago – but the Metis people back then were genuine half-breeds (50% native blood). The Metis people that exist today are plainly white people trying to swindle the government out of money, and take away from government funding for First Nation people.
One of the sources of resentment First Nation people I have spoken to have that various sources of funding from the government for things like dental care, prescription costs, etc are getting progressively smaller because the misguided government is including ‘Metis’ people in that funding.
An example of Metis people screwing things up for First Nation people: there’s a medical centre called Kenora Area Health Access Centre which is based on Washagamis Bay First Nation just outside of Kenora. It was set up to cater specifically for the medical needs of First Nation people. One of the services it provides is sending Nurse Practitioners out to the reserves it services to provide a clinic for people with ailments. This service is sorely needed because many of the people on the reserves cannot just make trips to Washagamis Bay for appointments. However, the Executive Director Anita Cameron decided to open up a drop-in clinic right in the centre of town, and scale back the service to the reserves. I have it on good advice that it all down to her desire of ‘pan-aboriginal care’ in which she is including Metis people in Kenora. So Metis people in Kenora can drop into the KAHAC office by the Shell gas station and get medical care, instead of taking themselves to the hospital like every other non-aboriginal person.
So the less mobile people on the reserves, and people without ways to get to a service centre have to deal with a far less frequent visit from KAHAC.
Incidently… Anita Cameron is also the person who wanted to pay a newly hired Caucasian Nurse Practitioner about 30% more than the Aboriginal Nurse Practitioners, just so her paycheque after tax deductions equaled what the Aboriginal Nurse Practitioners received without tax deductions.
The point is Metis people and the vast majority of non-aboriginal people in Canada have very little or no understanding at all of the issues facing Aboriginal people in this country, and for a group of white people masquerading as Aboriginal is a slight to every First Nation person in Canada.
All over Canada, Metis people overall have a far higher living standard than First Nation people, and yet still want to take from Natives.
According to the ‘Self Sufficiency’ paragraph on this website, Metis people do not seek a ‘handout’ from any level of government. Yet according to this news story, Ontario Metis want cut of province’s gaming revenue. They don’t seek a handout, or they want gaming revenue? Metis people do not need gaming revenue. First Nation people do!
If it were up to me, regardless of what anyone said, I would let Metis people make their Metis cards, and identify as Metis, and have their little groups of white people jigging to non-native music… but I would not give them a single cent of government funding for anything, I would completely remove all rights to any natural resource and remove them from the definition of Aboriginal in Canada.
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you’re just as bad as a white man. Greedy fucking native = you
If you were intelligent enough to do some research you’d find out I’m not native.
I’d love it if you’d point out any factual inaccuracies or anything that is unfair.
Who are you? You seem to be heading off in the right direction, but, you also seem to be one of those CBC Type political flacks, hired to cause trouble. There is no depth to your arguments which are basicaly shallow and self serving. So, what if somebody wants to sell jigging and knit belts to the Government. If you could, you would. The aboriginal people of North America don’t mind being called Indians. Just like I don’t mind being called “halfbreed”. It suited my grandmother. You can continue to bitch about whether the French Canadiam Mixed Bloods have more rights to Government handouts than you do. Has your blood been tainted by the English? Scottish? Begged, for, handouts are not the Indian way. Who would put up with a part time nurse? Get a Doctor for gawdsake! Pay the nurses a better than average wage and get 6 nurses. Look after your people!!!!! My mother spent 12 years in the Residential School System in the early 1900s. She became a bilingual nurse. Why not You.
Apparently you’d rather sit on a stump and cry about someone who is more successful at begging than you. Knit a belt.
Having read your other editorials I have come to the concusion that you are a cloest racist. You are living on the Dalles reseve just out side of Kenora, Ontario. A mixed blood of Black and anglo. come over from Britan (because they have a very dim view of the mixed bloods over there) and trying to pass yourself off as a knowledgeable person on Aboriginal affairs.Your so called editorials are a joke.Just one more misinformed impostor trying to make a name for themselve by climbing on the aboriginal band wagon and otherwise known, as a member of the Wannabe tribe.
.http://www.ryanpaul.ca/ryan-kermit-paul/
I don’t try to pass myself off as anything – anything in this article is based upon everything that I’ve seen and heard with my own eyes, with nothing made up whatsoever.
I know who you are, know that you consider yourself Metis and know that you are using KAHAC’s company time to indulge in personal web surfing. I’d be careful if I were you.
Wannabe tribe? Tribe’s are from down south across the border. I haven’t climbed on any bandwagon – these are MY opinions. If you have a conflicting editorial – submit it and I’d be happy to post it up.
As for being a closet racist… not at all. I don’t think TRUE metis (half native – half other) are lesser people at all. I think the other sort of Metis people are a bunch of greedy folk trying to gain more material and social rights they don’t deserve or have a moral or inherent right to.
Dude;
I’m from “down south. I’m a mixed blood too. Of what Nation or Tribe or Band or whatever you want to call it is not relevant here. Nor is it any of your business. While I tend not to bother myself too much with what happens in Canada past trying to keep my own country from becoming more like it I have to take some interest here as it is a subject near to my heart. I don’t know anything about you. But I do know what it is like being mixed blood. I know what it was like for my “Half Breed” ancestors both within and outside of white society. I also know that nearly everywhere in this country mixed bloods are just as active as full bloods and so called full bloods in the various struggles in the native world and also in insuring that our languages, culture, traditions, history, religions, and so on are passed down to future generations and not lost to history. While I am of the personal belief that if you have one drop of “Indian” blood it should call out to you I also believe that “Indian” is more then just blood. I tend to believe that the guy who called you a closet racist may be right. You know there will come a day that almost if not all of the Native blood will be washed out. What will be left when that day comes? Who will the reservations belong to then? Who will be Indian and who will not? I’m betting that unless native people everywhere get it together the big plan will be complete. Without the culture and traditions who are you? And without that what claim will anyone have to being “Indian’? I’m sure that all the government handouts are real important to a lot of native people. I’ve certainly seen that among many of my people. And I have no doubt some really do need the help. But I’ll bet if you were to concern yourself more with using that little bit of sovereignty that most native people enjoy to bring the people as a whole up rather then running down people who might just be your best allies you would do a whole lot more good then whining over whether or not someone else may get one of those same handouts which are really never truly free anyway. If more native people as whole could get out of that dependant entitlement mentality and pull together we could all (all of various different blood quantum) do really great things. It’s so simple that so many refuse to see it. You know what you are really doing is no different from what all the various colonizers have done at one time or another. You are allowing then to play one group of Indian against another. Congratulations, you are just one more tool in the whole divide and conquer game.
Mvto
As a member of the Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement and a descendent of the Red River Settlement I must comment on your editorial; based on what you have heard.
We are a people made up of Aboriginal and European cultures who did not find acceptance among the Fathers of our Native Mothers or the bigot European men who fathered the Métis and the Half-breeds.
Just so I do not confuse you; a Métis is a person of both French and Aboriginal descent and a Half-breed is a person of Scottish or Dutch and Aboriginal descent.
The Métis and the Half-breeds banded together and created their own culture, for they were not recognized under Aboriginal Law or Canadian Law to receive the rights that any Human should be allocated.
One of “The two attempted democratic revolutions in our history “”the Métis Insurrection of 1885 in the Red River basin had the objective of ending an Imperial oligarchy and the creation of a democratic Republic in which aboriginals and Europeans could co-exist equally”
This equality that you speak of is an old concept! One that the Canadian Government does not wish to recognize.
However; there are many people in Canada who can be recognized as a Métis or Half-breed. People of”(50% native blood)”. All members of the eight Métis Settlements in Alberta have and always will be Métis. We do not receive the same benefits as the Treaties and the Inuit. We do not qualify for Dental and Medical Services. I suggest that you broaden your research to actual documentation, and not rely on the word of mouth.
As for our Music and Dance. Why would we dance and play Aboriginal Music?
We are Métis!
A proud nation that recognizes the cultures of both our European Fathers and Aboriginal Mothers and celebrated them both.
This is stupid… metis are aborignals. My grandmother is a full fudge indian and just because she had childern with a white man does not make me not aboriginal. There are many “treaties” that are whiter than I am and have 100% aboriginal status.. maybe you should right a article about that.
Metis are simply not Aboriginal… and in tens of thousands of cases are less than one-eighth Native.
Metis would not exist if it were not for white folk… so what right do they have taking funds and getting the same rights as more deserving Aboriginal people?
Crazy talk. Métis is a term a label given to recognize a group of people in Canada. Born of the first settlers and members of the various Indigenous nations – these courageous, strong, resilient people founded and made the passage for the next wave of new comers easier. They developed sophisticated languages, opened trade to Europe, built on cultural experiences and provided a legacy of which Canada still takes advantage of.
In my humble opinion the Métis people truly make up the first nations of Canada. Me – me and my people existed long before the borders were in place. This Canada of today developed around and over us.
I am not Métis I am of mixed Sioux and Saulteaux and….maybe some Cree – I believe the world is big enough for all of us.
Why can I not post?
Here is a link to the video on youtube from which you borrowed (stole) the image for your “dubious” article.
youtube.com/user/FlatlandVideo#p/u/7/bt0obin0RZ4
I would ask that in the future you cite and credit your sources. It’s only polite.
You are on to something here, in a way. What is a Métis? In my opinion, the Métis of today- especially the youth- have a hard time defining what it means to them. Then again, so does any member of a culture that has been subject to a more dominant culture and discriminated upon for generations. What does it mean to be First Nations? How about African American?… What we do have is the right to our heritage and its knowledge. History is the only thing anyone has to use as a roadmap for the future.
A new culture was born in the Red River settlement and it’s growing stronger every day, a weave of two amazing peoples. It is sad that much of the knowledge of our First Nations grandmothers has been lost along the way, a result of shame and the need to fit in or hide in a dominant society for the sake of survival- The old “Indian grandmother in the attic” story. The good news is that the First Nations culture exists today in many strong circles, and can still be learned with a bit of dedication; often from our distant cousins and community members. If you’re curious, I encourage you to seek it out.
As the artist who created the video at the other end of that link- I find it ironic you chose to use an image from my artwork as an example of what a Métis person looks like (however flattered I may be). The video intends to explore prejudice toward the First Nations and Métis with regards to the “stoic Indian image” cast on us by a dominant societal perspective. The Cannibalistic lens if you will. It’s not a new lens, nor is it blurring in any hurry.
Metis people do not have to pretend to be anything to be Métis. Our culture came from our grandmothers and grandfathers- taught like a language, unavoidable like learning to tie your shoes. The preservation and celebration of our culture is a wonderful thing that has only recently begun to return. In general it is no longer bad or dangerous to be a half-breed in Canada. That is progress!
Stereotypes are just that. They are funny under certain circumstances and to certain people, they can be used for hate or the progress of understanding, seen as racist, ridiculous or hilarious depending on the audience. As the artist, I intend to delight and incite thought. What happens when fictional stereotypes meet? Check out the 4 episodes of “How’d you do that? I’m Metis” on youtube!
The Métis do not masquerade as Aboriginal, they are Aboriginal. They have First Nations and European ancestors.
Good luck in all your endeavors,
Christian.
@Metis Man –
Hi Métis Man,
I too believe that Métis do not need to masquerade. None of us should ever feel we need to done a mask to fit in. We do though – all of us – But I hate….detest with a passion calling anyone “Aboriginal” it dilutes and gives into the majority wish to see us all as one harmonious group and as you know – that’s not true. The Métis of the Red River Settlement are very different from the Métis of James Bay. And the James Bay Métis are very different from the Labrador Métis settlement.
I enjoy your question about the Métis or First Nation identity – I applied that question to the recent Gitxsan people in North Western BC and the Nisga’a land rights decision. I like what is happening. Of course there is a risk attached to both cases but I want to see the positive side. If you are secure in your identity then the more likely you are to allow yourself to try on other ideologies. If you are insecure or unsure of who you are then I would suggest that you will hold your identity (as defined by …who?) tight and restrict your membership to those fit a prescribed identity.
The Gitxsan traditional leaders say they don’t need the Indian Act to be Gitxsan – they need access to an economic base to provide services and programs to their members. I like that. I am Saulteaux/Sioux and maybe Cree mixture who was adopted and raised by British parents in an urban city. I’ve paid my municipal, provincial, and federal taxes like every other lucky employed jane and joe out there. None of that changes my identity, my want to know and understand my rich heritage, or share and explore the tastes, music, and ideologies of other nations – I would include dance but I was told I dance like one of those big orange long-haired monkeys…so I choose not to share there anymore.
Is that your art work? Beautiful – I didn’t post it but thought it was a still from that comedy show…this hour has 22 minutes with Injun Joe? I don’t watch TV so if I got that wrong too – sorry. Anyway by all means you should be credited with the art work.
Take care!
@Jamie Bourque –
Ok……half-breeds are of Scottish and Dutch and Aboriginal………………
I’ve nver heard of a tribe or band called the Aboriginals – please enlighten me. But you mention Aboriginal music. Is there a rock or country band called “the Aboriginals”? Do they sing in “Aboriginal”? Honestly I feel like that chick Carmen…what in the world is an Aboriginal…..?
@Metis Man –
The basic premise of things like residential school settlements, land dispute resolutions, certain tax-free benefits are to compensate for the thousands of years of freedom and culture that First Nation people have lost.
Metis people haven’t lost anything – they never had anything to lose in the first place. They’re newly created. They don’t have the thousand year old history that First Nations do… so what makes them deserving of the same things First Nation people are entitled to?
I’ve no problem with Metis people having their cards, and self indentifying themselves as Metis. But I have a big problem with my tax dollars going towards Metis people, when it should go to First Nation people who are more deserving.
Metis people are fucking up funding in so many areas for First Nation people it’s not even funny.
Actually Ryan……a promise was made and a promise should be kept. Metis people are not f_ing up the funding. Politicians have spun a story to make you believe that is the case but….if you believe that then you also buy that the Indigenous people of Canada are actually interlopers from somewhere else and the white man (such a silly term too) is just reclaiming the land as the original inhabitant…..
Crazy talk.
One of the best the BEST historical facts of why the Métis people are still fighting for the recognition they so deserve is because the women (of a variety of Indigenous nations) told their European men NOT to sign scrip or to sign treaties that would forever identify the future generations as Indian…under the Indian Act. These bold, clever, and proud women told their men that a promise was made a promise should be kept. These men honoured the wishes of the women. The same women that fed, guided, nursed, cared for, and loved those first European men through situations and conditions that killed many men in the early settlement years of what would become Canada.
Today’s Metis men and women are the decendants – the promises made were never kept. I commend those early women, the men that stood beside them, and the decents who stand proud today.
Yes they are – one particular example is what Anita Cameron did with KAHAC. She moved services into Kenora so she could embrace ‘pan-aboriginalism’ and cater to Metis people (who don’t have the same health issues).
My children are having issues with things like dental care and checkups because funding is getting split with Metis people.
I’ve an issue with Metis people masquerading as a seperate and distinct culture which they are not. How can someone be seperate from something that’s ‘half’ of what they are? Besides… most Metis people these days are nowhere remotely close to half native.
Look Ryan I understand how you feel about us, and I’m sure that there are those who care little for their heritage and only want the benefits, however this is no reason to insult our whole race. We take much pride in our native AND european heritage. So you can have your opinions, for you are intitled to them, however try to understand us before you condem us, and please stop insulting our customs. Thank You.
Ryan – If I understand you correctly you believe that the existence of Métis people have robbed your daughter of dental and medical services therefore your response is to deny they have an identity – despite historical records and constitutional recognition? Or are you saying your daughter can’t access medical services, I’m angry but rather than get angry at the Federal Government (because they live far away, I can’t see them, and they never do anything anyway….) I’ll just turn around and get angry at another Indigenous person? Cause you know that’s what a lot of people do – honest. It’s so much easier to hate and get angry than it is to build bridges and work towards solutions.
You’re not alone in attempting to wipe contemporary memories clean and paint the Indigenous people of this land as interlopers or a people without a culture or governance systems or that we had no organised religion so we were nothing more than savages – in fact that’s how this land was taken. Things don’t seem to change much.
I want my Nation to control its citizenship. Outsiders have no right to decide who belongs and who doesn’t. Somehow we have managed to acquire a value that exclude people (golly-gee I wonder where and why that would have come from?). And what do you think will happen to our land that is only “held for the use of Indians” when we’ve reduced our numbers to just a few?
I don’t much care if a person from my nation were to marry a person of another and give a new identity to their child. The child can still trace their blood to the first tribal people that occupied this land and that should always be honoured. Some of us choose to identify by our tribal status, others choose to honour mixed heritages, and others choose to ignore any indigenous heritage and live their life assimilated into the majority. None are wrong choices.
And don’t even try to give me the blond, blue-eyed, story…..there is no such thing as a litmus test on ‘shades’ of skin tone to decide ancestry. I know a heck of a lot of brown-eyed red skins that are “Non-practicing Indians” (if you will)………….do you want to blame them too for taking program dollars away from “real” Indians? I say – let those of us who identify with our ancestry decide our citizenship criteria. Outsiders have done enough harm in their attempts to tear us down.
Our attention should instead be turned to the common enemy: racism, ignorance, and poverty – work together – unless you think a few extra program dollars (cut all programs for Métis people and give to Status only First Nation programs) will fix everything. I’m sure you don’t think that way. I’m certain that you recognise that citizenship issues, capacity development, resource development etc…requires more than a few extra program dollars.
It’s possible you may be misunderstanding my viewpoint. I don’t believe in depriving or removing people’s right to identify as Metis so long as certain criteria are met, but I DO believe that Metis have not lost what First Nation people have lost and therefore should not have the same rights, benefits/entitlements.
One thing that is absolutely clear is my understanding of First Nation history and the founding of Canada. I don’t for one second think Natives had no culture or governance systems. Through talking to the elders and previous rez governments, I’m quite clear on how it was before my kind got here.
I absolutely do NOT see First Nation people as interlopers and am not trying to wipe any contemporary memories clean. I don’t deny that Metis played SOME part in founding this country but in my mind it doesn’t warrant them gaining the same social benefits that First Nation people are entitled to.
I resent Metis people trying to gain the same rights as First Nation people – every bit of funding given to the Metis takes away from First Nation people. Each deer hunted without a license by a Metis person is one less for a First Nation person who in about 85% of cases needs it more.
I am glad my tax dollars go to paying for things like First Nation social and health issues. Metis people simply do not generally have the same social and economic problems that First Nation people have.
I see it every day… I hear it from my children’s mother (who’s currently at the AFN meeting at the Westin Hotel). Metis ARE changing things for First Nation people.
i want to know anout the metis culture about the dance and music ,
needing information please and thanks
I read this post with great sadness. Absolutely no one on this planet should ever have to defend their heritage, their blood lines or their race and if you are of mixed ancestry, no matter what it is, you have every right to claim that heritage. I am a descendent of the Hudson’s Bay men and their aboriginal wives through 3 generations and I am very proud of my aboriginal heritage because I know how incredibly difficult the lives of these men and women were. I make no claim to free anything or land claims or anything else, other than my genetic makeup which can never be erased because thats who I am.
If you ever tried to pull this kind of dialogue off with any other racial or ethnic group in this country, you would be in serious trouble. Your remarks are racist. You cannot criticize people who are born of mixed racial backgrounds ever. None of us are at fault for this, nor are we to be held victim to such thinking.
I am what I am and you really need to do a serious study of the complexities of aboriginal history in Canada. Its far more than what you have trivialized and negated.
Proud descendant of James Bay Cree
By the way, the Hudson’s Bay company would never allow their employees from England, Wales and Scotland to bring wives from Britain. These men integrated with the native community and if you look at provinces from Manitoba for instance, many people their are Rupertslanders, descended from these men and women. It is suggested that far more Canadians are of aboriginal descent than they even know. We also have Afro Americans who were accepted and integrated into Aboriginal communities during the time of the Underground Railroad. Are you going to criticize them too?
Very often the HBC men returned to Britain to take British wives and left their “country wives” and children to fend for themselves. In most cases they were integrated back into the native communities they came from and the divisiveness that has occured between Metis being torn and shifted between 2 cultures is more prominent today than before. If you think Metis people don’t struggle, you really need to stop and consider how you live compared to them.
Really, native or non native people cannot discriminate against someone whose heritage is mixed. That is not a fault of theirs ever, nor should they ever be made to feel that it is a fault. That is simply how people’s lives intertwined and developed over history and no one in this world is of one blood only. We are a world of 6 degrees of separation, always.
ummm wtf is this?
haha deserving aboriginal? Are you seriously thinking that native people are owed anything from any hard working tax payer in Canada? The people in Canada today are paying for something that happened a hundred years ago. You dont see African American people in the USA trying to get more rights and freeload of taxpayes in the States. So please before you say something like “Metis dont deserve” what aboriginals do..please think again.
Cincerly
“Half breed”
Hey, I don’t understand how being Metis makes you not Aboriginal. My mom’s grandparents were french and scottish and so therefore that makes her french and scottish too, but according to you it doesn’t? It is retarded that it wouldn’t work that way with Aboriginals either, or are you trying to say they aren’t a cultural themselves? When someone asks who what your cultural background is what do you say? I am french, scottish, and Cree. But according to you I’m not right?
And you are right we did not lose what Native Americans lost but we were stuck in the middle. We weren’t accepting by either culture. We were too white to be indian and to indian to be white. Native Americans had their rights, and canadians had theirs, and we had none. And you don’t think we lost anything? give your head a shake and get the real facts buddy
METIS PEOPLE, ONE OF THE THREE ABORIGINAL GROUPS OF CANANDA. ABORIGINAL GROUPS…. ABORIGINAL IS NOTHING MORE THAN A NAME FOR THE FOLLOWING – FIRST NATIONS, METIS, AND INUIT..these are the people, and I am Metis and very proud of it, I pay my taxes, work, and pay for my own health care and dental benfits. I do not believe that a number on some list tells me I am Metis, my parents my grandparents lived the life as Metis People for generations, It is something that is in you. If you were Metis you would know what I am talking about. We are A People… not First Nation, not White but METIS…
and there is plenty of deer in Alberta for every white, first nation or metis or any other nationality out there, in fact there is too many if you ask me.. they run out at you from the ditches and hit your cars…
Normally I would never waste my time responding to what was said in this Opinionated Editorial article, but I just can’t help myself.
Alternatively to looking at the big picture, you have taken a few small terms from a much larger equation, re-arranged them for a conclusion that justifies a feeling on something that has offended you or is affecting you.
Quote:
***Most people know the history of where Métis people came from, and that might have been true 100-200 years ago – but the Métis people back then were genuine half-breeds (50% native blood)**
Response #1:
So let me try and understand this, what you are trying to do is convince not only yourself, but others who may also have the misfortune of reading your article……
That early settlers (“Men”), went out, and had children with every single Métis woman in the country, and ONLY Métis, from the east coast to the west coast of Canada… wow!
Now IF this was the case, yes, all Métis would have been 50% native blood (“LOL, Genuinely”)
Quote:
I’d love it if you’d point out any factual inaccuracies or anything that is unfair.
Response #2:
I am Métis, and would only like to point out the Original agreement the Government of Canada signed with all of the Aboriginal Bands.. Remember.. oh yeah.. That one..
This was a simple mistake on your part, a little more patience, less misguided frustration and more open mindedness would have led you to actually researching this.. It’s ok though, as the old ignorant influences die out with this generation, new, less informed ones always take their place.
P.S. Your Stereotyping is unfair, your assumptions are inaccurate, but not your fault.
Quote:
Métis would not exist if it were not for white folk… so what right do they have taking funds and getting the same rights as more deserving Aboriginal people?
Response #3:
Ryan, come on now..You’re just being silly..In your Opinionated Editorial article you said there were Métis people 100-200 years ago.. (That were 50%), but you forgot to mention that before that, I guess before that there was only metes Indian people.. weird
Also refer to response #1.
P.S. More Deserving Aboriginal People??
Quote:
Métis people haven’t lost anything – they never had anything to lose in the first place. They’re newly created. They don’t have the thousand year old history that First Nations do.
Response #4
Métis people were here before Canada was formed; in fact they were a key factor in creating Canada and helping win the war with the US.
What are now known was the Métis people were here before the settlers came (“Quote: White Folk”). So I would imagine they lost a great deal, not only though out history trying to reclaim their Historical footprint, but during the war, and then also when the original agreement with the government wasn’t honored… just a guess though.. Food for thought…
P.S. You do sound like a racist in the response I quoted above, just thought I would let you know.. Might want to tone it down!
Quote:
Métis people are fucking up funding in so many areas for First Nation people it’s not even funny.
Response #5
The Canadian Government fucked up on their Original agreement…
It is always easier to point the finger instead of taking responsibility, your Opinionated Editorial article is a perfect example of this.
If the Government took responsibility.. There would be fewer issues.. And confusion.
I found this article both offensive, and ignorant.
After reading your responses to previous replies, it made me feel better,
I felt less offended, and more satisfied by your ignorance.
I feel, like many others, that this situation will eventually be resolved (“with allot of educating”)
The original or at least a partial of the original agreement will be honored.
I did however enjoy some of the responses; it makes me happy to see Métis People standing up for themselves as a group.
I grew up with a resist, and Abusive Foster Parent.
Adopting the Idea “Being Native is good” at an early age, it gave me strength; it’s something inside of me that feels wild like a free spirit.
Not understanding something is not wrong, but passing judgment without all the facts is.
Good luck on your future Opinionated Editorial articles, I hope they increase in both fact and depth as this is the last one I will experience.
Cheers
Jesse
I am not implying that the Metis haven’t lost anything – I’m just at a loss as to what ‘Metis’ people have lost from this land and country that they always had. First Nation people lost the land… their culture, language, people, traditions. All of that was here before Europeans got here which makes them entitled to have it back in some measure. The difference is Metis culture was NOT here before the European invasion.
Yes I am thinking that Native people are owed something from EVERY hard working tax payer in Canada – SUCH AS MYSELF. By living here – we are still colonising them. If you do something wrong – the right thing to do is make amends. It’s that damn simple.
@Jesse – I’m not implying that the early settlers went out and reproduced with every Metis woman. I’m stating early settlers mated with First Nation women and created real Metis people. GENUINE ‘halves’ of two cultures and races. Not this hybrid mutated form of Metis identity around today.
Metis means half and it should have been kept that way.
I’d be willing to bet my car that if you did genetic fingerprinting of all Metis Nation of Ontario members – probably around 95% of them would have more than 95% of their blood being non-aboriginal descent. If 95% of your genetics are in common with Caucasian people – that’s hardly distinct and seperate is it?
There is no way to genetically test for race. Just as many “full blood Natives” would have genetics in common with “Caucasian people” as other “Caucasian people” would. You are full blooded ignorant.
Are there not “full blood Natives” conceiving children with “European whites,” creating new Metis people, right at this very moment?
Whine, whine, whine.
Everyone should get free or low cost accessible health care. You should spend your energy on attaining that goal. Instead of dividing people by their worth, defined by their percentage of blah blah blah…
the call of the wolf spirit will haunt you(native pride!)
@Ryan Paul – yo man, you ded >:)
sorry that was my friend you are infact very alive. i agree with this site.:)
soory that was my friend
hi native4 ife we go to the same school hahahahahahaha
love native guy that is native 4 sure hahahahahahaha
i know : )