New Directions and Revisionist Histories in Métis Studies

IN THEIR INTRODUCTION TO A Métis Studies Bibliography (2016), authors Lawrence Barkwell and Darren R. Préfontaine point to the significant growth of Métis/Metis studies1 since they (along with Leah M. Dorion) published their first bibliography in the late 1990s.2 Not only has the number of articles, books, blogs, and multimedia sources expanded exponentially, so too has the diversity of the field of study. Particularly important is the work of Métis scholars such as Jennifer Adese, Chris Andersen, Adam Gaudry, Brenda Macdougall, Zoe Todd, and Chelsea Vowel, among others, who are contributing their voices to an area of study that, for too long, was shaped primarily by scholars who were not part of Métis communities. These Métis scholars, along with Métis community members and non-Métis academics, have added greater depth and breadth to Métis studies in recent years, publishing in fields as diverse as political science, literature, law, language, history, art, and music. The six books reviewed here provide a sampling of this diversity and growth: Chris Andersen’s “Métis”: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood; Robert Foxcurran, Michel Bouchard, and Sébastien Malette’s Songs upon the Rivers: The Buried History of the French-Speaking Canadiens and Métis from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Across to the Pacific; Nicole St-Onge, Carolyn Podruchny, and Brenda Macdougall’s edited collection entitled Contours of a People: Metis Family, Mobility and History; Michel Hogue’s Metis and the Medicine Line: Creating a Border and Dividing a People; Dale Gibson’s Law, Life, and Government at Red River, Volume 1: Settlement and Governance, 1812-1872; and Gerald J. Ens and Joe Sawchuk’s From New Peoples to New Nations: Aspects of Métis History and Identity from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-first Centuries.3