In a previous post, I described what it is like as an Alberta Métis to come to Quebec and realise that ‘Métis’ does not mean the same thing here. I’m not a shut-in…I realised that there were different definitions out there, I simply hadn’t lived where I was defined by them before.
In another post, I talked about Pan-Indianism, and also Pan-Métisism. What this post and those previous two have in common, is that they are about identity.
The topic of Status was a much easier discussion, because I avoided delving into identity issues in order to give you the bare bones legislative context. Trust me, there are much larger identity discussions yet to be had on ‘who is an Indian’. More important, I’d argue, than just knowing the state of the categories right now…but you have to start from somewhere!
However, there is no real legislative context…
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So Far From Heaven 
I thoroughly enjoyed this read! My wife, who is half Pelenakut, worked with BC’s Aboriginal Youth Internship Program last year and got to meet a whole bunch of people from all over Canada who identified themselves as Metis. We befriended quite a few people from that program, and it was very interesting to hear their stories, especially the ones of how they constantly had to prove their status based on where they were at the time. Seems every province has its own idea of what Metis means, and it was a constantly source of frustration for them!
Storiesbywilliams: I appreciate you coming for a read and relating your experiences. Gracias, Jules
This is a special piece!
Heather: I found it so also. Gracias, Jules
Another term worth knowing. Among the little known identity tags, I wonder who would recognize “Romachill”?
Hi Ed: I websearched the term, but the only reference I found was your comment here: http://thenakedlistener.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/whats-for-din-dins/
Ed Hurst said
Wednesday 5 October 2011 5.58 am HKT at 5.58 am
I believe given my strange Romachill (an oral only term nobody knows how to spell) background I would live in a vehicle before I was ready to cut back much on food. But then, we don’t consider stew with roots and some kind of meat to be poor food.
I’d never encountered the term previously. Thanks for the visit. Jules
Heh; closed loop. Okay, it’s what a bunch of non-ethnic gypsies call themselves in Oklahoma. They began as oil field trash in the early gusher days of the Heartland, and never got used to living in one place very long. It’s a very substantial group with their own cultural mores, etc.They very much know who each other are, and quite a number of my relatives belong to it.
Ed: Learned me something new, I did. Thanks. Jules
Food for thought as always.
My great Grandmother is Blackfoot interesting story she married my grandfather who was best friends with Walt Disney- love took over — hopeful fame– Disney and Dumphy, he turned back and had a large family. Chickasaw maybe part her geneolgy and further through marriage. When my mother was in Mobile, Al People with the Heritage of Chickasaw recognized her check bones. The Native American on my father’s side (Conn-upstate N.Y) is more unknown. The are picture of Pawlicki’s in the Oswego area to Watertown. Balckfeet-foot poeple I feel a connecton with. The Rossito side-Sicilian-I an not sure. There is a lot of clairvoyance in our family.
Hi Heather: Thanks for sharing it. Gracias, Jules