A People and a Nation
252 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:01 Nov 2021
ISBN:9780774865074
Hardcover
Release Date:01 Mar 2021
ISBN:9780774865067
EPUB
Release Date:01 Mar 2021
ISBN:9780774865098
PDF
Release Date:01 Mar 2021
ISBN:9780774865081
GO TO CART SAMPLE CHAPTER

A People and a Nation

New Directions in Contemporary Métis Studies

UBC Press

In A People and a Nation, the authors, most of whom are themselves Métis, offer readers a set of lenses through which to consider the complexity of historical and contemporary Métis nationhood and peoplehood. Multidisciplinary chapters on identity, politics, literature, history, spirituality, religion, and kinship networks orient the conversation toward Métis experiences today.

The chapters within are themselves also a reorientation given that the field of Métis Studies has been afflicted by a longstanding tendency to situate Métis within deeply racialized contexts, and/or by an overwhelming focus on the nineteenth century. A People and a Nation confronts such problematic characterizations head on, training a critical gaze on conventional historiographical positionings of the Métis people as a primitive intermediate force that opened up the Canadian West.

A People and a Nation dismantles the impoverished notions that continue to shape political, legal, and social understandings of Métis existence. It is a timely collection that convincingly demonstrates how racialized interpretative frameworks diminish the Métis people and are incompatible with the task of understanding Métis peoplehood and nationhood.

This important work will appeal not only to scholars in Métis studies but also to scholars and students of Indigenous studies, political science, sociology, history, and cultural studies, and to policy workers and others seeking a better understanding of the Métis people and the current state of Métis studies.

This is an important text, which has been carefully edited to bring disparate voices together in a way that creates a resonance. Lyle Ford, University of Manitoba Libraries, Prairie History
This is a timely, potentially paradigm-shifting book. B. F. R. Edwards, CHOICE Connect
A People and a Nation is fascinating and provocative, dealing with complex material in an intriguing and ambitious way. Stephen Cornell, professor emeritus, School of Sociology and Native Nations Institute, University of Arizona
This book makes an important intervention in Métis Studies. No book like it currently exists. It will shift the field and move it forward, and it belongs in classrooms across the country. Carolyn Podruchny, professor, Department of History, York University

Jennifer Adese (otipemisiwak/Métis) is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She is co-editor, with Robert Alexander Innes, of Indigenous Celebrity: Indigenous Entanglements with Fame. Her work has appeared in Studies in American Indian Literature (SAIL), American Indian Quarterly (AIQ), Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society (DIES), MediaTropes, TOPIA, PUBLIC - ART, CULTURE, IDEAS, along with a number of edited collections. Chris Andersen (Métis) is the dean of the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. He is the author of the award-winning “Métis”: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood, and, with Maggie Walter, co-author of Indigenous Statistics: A Quantitative Indigenous Methodology. He co-edited, with Jean O’Brien, Sources and Methods in Indigenous Studies

Contributors: Paul L. Gareau, Adam Gaudry, Robert L.A. Hancock, Robert Alexander Innes, June Scudeler, Jesse Thistle, and Daniel Voth

Introduction: A New Era of Métis Studies Scholarship / Chris Andersen and Jennifer Adese

1 Peoplehood and the Nation Form: Core Concepts for a Critical Métis Studies / Chris Andersen

2 The Power of Peoplehood: Reimagining Metis Relationships, Research, and Responsibilities / Robert L.A. Hancock

3 The Race Question in Canada and the Politics of Racial Mixing / Daniel Voth

4 Challenging a Racist Fiction: A Closer Look at Métis-First Nations Relations / Robert Alexander Innes

5 Restoring the Balance: Métis Women and Contemporary Nationalist Political Organizing / Jennifer Adese

6 Alcide Morrissette: Oral Histories of a Métis Man on the Prairies in the Mid-Twentieth Century / Jesse Thistle

7 “We’re Still Here and Métis:” Rewriting the 1885 Resistance in Marilyn Dumont’s The Pemmican Eaters / June Scudeler

8 Mary and the Métis: Religion as a Site for New Insight in Métis Studies / Paul L. Gareau

9 Building the Field of Métis Studies: Toward Transformative and Empowering Métis Scholarship / Adam Gaudry

List of Contributors; Index

Find what you’re looking for...

Free shipping on online orders over $40

Stay Informed

Receive the latest UBC Press news, including events, catalogues, and announcements.


Read past newsletters

Publishers Represented
UBC Press is the Canadian agent for several international publishers. Visit our Publishers Represented page to learn more.