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Finding: Indian Agent Report (1901 )
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September 5, 2024

Finding: Indian Agent Report (1901 )

Lately, we see some First Nations people and organizations, and their supporters in the media, and loud divisive voices on Twitter, saying that Métis are a threat. They say they have 'different histories' from First Nations and that Métis are "less Indigenous" than First Nations and don't belong in BC.

In the historical record, the evidence was that identity was fluid, kinship networks were interconnected, and history was contingent (knowledge is always in relation to something else!). Both Métis and First Nations were impacted by Government policies of racialization and dispossession. Consider this example from a Department of Indian Affairs report from 1901 in which First Nations were employing genealogy to 'prove' they were Métis to get scrip dollars.