Karole Dumont Beckett Stuff like that makes me sick. Anderson's work is full of flaws and untruths in my eyes. I get that he knows and talks about the western Metis, but he should NEVER deny or try to crush the existence of the eastern Metis. The Metis Nation existed 150 years before the conflict at 7 Oaks (where my ancestors fought by the way) I wish that those who write such untruths would take the time to visit the eastern Metis, attend gatherings and feasts, listen to the... music and the language and the stories. What an eye-opening experience that would be!!
People who preach compassion, fairness, justice, and love are blatantly discriminating against their own people for what? Money, prestige? They will crush half of their nation's identity just to get their 15 minutes of fame? The Metis Nation was born IN THE EAST IN THE MID 1600S and went west when the fur trade started to die in the east, 150 years later (late 1760s) THAT is the true history, whether some Metis supremacist like it or not. The eastern Metis existed 150 years before the western Metis. They existed in Metis communities and fur trading way before a white man ever went west! Red River didn't even exist when our Metis ancestors in the east were paddling across the continent.
The eastern Metis' culture was different but they were still Metis. The western Metis culture evolved from what the Voyageurs and fur traders (many of whom were already Metis) brought from the east. Many songs, stories, beliefs, and traditions in the west are adaptations of the ones in the east, which they brought with them. To maintain that the Metis Nation was born in the west 200 years after first contact is ludicrous. Do those who preach that truly believe that the white men waited 175 years and a trip outwest to take Indigenous wives?
I repeat it: the Metis culture across the country has fundamental differences and variances, but it's still Metis, ad still very much alive in the east. Instead of expanding the divide, why not pull together to ensure the survival of our People, instead of playing in the hands of a few greedy and domineering people who use the issue to further their careers and dare I say, line their pockets? Anyone who knows history (the real history) knows the truth about the Metis people. Those who want proofs can contact me. I have plenty of them after a lifetime of research and actually living my culture: which is ruled by inclusion, justice, fairness, respect, and truth. Exclusion and identity genocide goes against everything a Metis person should live by.
I hear many Metis people proclaim the words: All my relations, then turn around and deny the existence of hundreds of thousands of Metis in eastern Canada. Where is the respect for cultural differences in that? Where is the respect for the truth?