Aboriginal Law & Indigenous Laws

Bead by Bead lays bare the failure of judicial doctrine and government policy to address Métis rights, and offers constructive insights on ways to advance reconciliation.

Andersen argues that Canada got it wrong. From its roots deep in the colonial past, the idea of Métis as mixed has slowly pervaded the Canadian consciousness until it settled in the realm of common sense. In the process, “Métis” has become a racial category rather than the identity of an Indigenous people with a shared sense of history and culture.

This book examines the evolving relationship between the Crown and Canada's Métis people. It is comprised of papers presented to a national symposium jointly sponsored by the former Law Commission of Canada and the Métis National Council in Winnipeg in February 2006. The book analyzes the impact of s.35 of the Constitution Act which defines the Métis as an aboriginal people and the aboriginal rights which are guaranteed by the Constitution.

These twelve essays constitute a groundbreaking volume of new work prepared by leading scholars in the fields of history, anthropology, constitutional law, political science, and sociology, who identify the many facets of what it means to be Métis in Canada today. After the Powley decision in 2003, Métis peoples were no longer conceptually limited to the historical boundaries of the fur trade in Canada. Key ideas explored in this collection include identity, rights, and issues of governance, politics, and economics.

At a time when the Métis are becoming increasingly visible in Canadian politics, this unique book offers a practical guide for understanding who they are, how they govern themselves, and the challenges they face on the path to self-government.

There is a missing chapter in the narrative of Canada's Indigenous peoples--the story of the Métis Nation, a new Indigenous people descended from both First Nations and Europeans Their story begins in the last decade of the eighteenth century in the Canadian North-West. Within twenty years the Métis proclaimed themselves a nation and won their first battle. Within forty years they were famous throughout North America for their military skills, their nomadic life and their buffalo hunts. The Métis Nation didn't just drift slowly into the Canadian consciousness in the early 1800s; it burst onto the scene fully formed. The Métis were flamboyant, defiant, loud and definitely not noble savages. They were nomads with a very different way of being in the world--always on the move, very much in the moment, passionate and fierce. They were romantics and visionaries with big dreams. They battled continuously--for recognition, for their lands and for their rights and freedoms. In 1870 and 1885, led by the iconic Louis Riel, they fought back when Canada took their lands. These acts of resistance became defining moments in Canadian history, with implications that reverberate to this day: Western alienation, Indigenous rights and the French/English divide. After being defeated at the Battle of Batoche in 1885, the Métis lived in hiding for twenty years. But early in the twentieth century, they determined to hide no more and began a long, successful fight back into the Canadian consciousness. The Métis people are now recognized in Canada as a distinct Indigenous nation. Written by the great-grandniece of Louis Riel, this popular and engaging history of "forgotten people" tells the story up to the present era of national reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

Métis Rising presents a remarkable cross-section of perspectives to demonstrate that there is no single Métis experience - only a common sense of belonging and a commitment to justice. The contributors to this unique collection, most of whom are Métis themselves, offer accounts ranging from personal reflections on identity to tales of advocacy against poverty and poor housing, and for the recognition of Métis rights. This extraordinary work exemplifies how contemporary Métis identity has been forged into a force to be reckoned with.