The head of the Manitoba Métis Federation is rebuking a chief’s controversial remarks on Métis identity, but the province’s grand chief says she “stands firmly” beside them.
Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, made the comments while in Ottawa on Monday, after a historic meeting where First Nations leaders and Canada’s first ministers discussed Indigenous rights for the first time in two decades.
When asked about the idea of abolishing the Indian Act during a news conference alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney, Woodhouse Nepinak said it’s important that First Nations be able to decide for themselves, as Canada has had too much say for too long.
“The federal government has been telling us who we are and who we aren’t for a long time, and it’s creating … a lot of pretendians that don’t know who they are because the government says, ‘You don’t belong to that band,’ when in fact many of them do,” she said.
That has led to the creation of “a big group” of Métis people across Canada who “probably have First Nations roots,” Woodhouse Nepinak said.
“I know that they’re uncomfortable conversations, but they’re the truth. I mean First Nations, we’re the only group — along with the Inuit — to begin with.”
The chief doubled down in another news conference later Monday, saying First Nations need control over who can claim membership.
“There’s a lot of confused people out there who are claiming to be Indigenous, a lot of pretendians, and then a whole group of everybody else who says, ‘I’m Métis,'” she said.
“Can you trace yourself back to a First Nation?”
Woodhouse Nepinak also said some people are claiming Métis identity just to obtain harvesting cards.
“All these people are just using cards to fish and hunt, and it’s really sad,” said the chief, who hails from Pinaymootang First Nation, in Manitoba’s Interlake region.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak says the growing number of Métis people in Canada is due in part to Canada’s control over who can legally identify as a status Indian.
“I come from a place where we don’t even have much moose anymore because of it.”
CBC News could not reach Woodhouse Nepinak for comment Thursday.
Manitoba’s grand chief says Woodhouse Nepinak was right to challenge definitions of identity imposed onto Indigenous people by the government.
“She is speaking about something fundamental: First Nations were here first, and Canada has no authority to decide who we are or who belongs to our Nations,” Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said in a written statement issued Wednesday.
She said Bill C-21, a federal government bill that would recognize the right to self-government of the Red River Métis, is an attempt to “overlap or bypass” the treaty promises made to First Nations and risks obscuring “the true order of history on this land.”
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson says Woodhouse Nepinak was right to challenge definitions of identity imposed onto Indigenous people by the government. (CBC)
“This legislation must not be advanced while the serious concerns of First Nations over overlapping rights, jurisdiction and lands remain unresolved,” Wilson wrote.
She also addressed Métis people directly, saying “your recognition cannot come at the cost of our outstanding Treaty Land Entitlement, our hunting and fishing territories, or the additions to reserve our nations need to build their economies.”
‘Absurd’
Manitoba Métis Federation President David Chartrand called Woodhouse Nepinak’s comments “racist” and “discriminatory,” as the Métis are included in Section 35 of Canada’s Constitution, which recognizes and affirms Aboriginal rights.
“I think she should go home and learn about her history, learn a little more about Manitoba, learn the name Louis Riel,” he told CBC News on Thursday.
Manitoba Métis Federation President David Chartrand is pushing back against a recent claim by Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, that the growing number of Métis people in Canada is partly due to the federal government’s control over who can legally identify as a status Indian.
“Maybe she’ll know more about history, and she’ll know that we do exist, and we’re in the Constitution of this country.”
The Red River Métis negotiated a treaty with Canada in 1870, the Manitoba Act, which led to Manitoba joining Confederation. It was supposed to provide Métis with land and economic opportunities, but the federal government didn’t follow through on those commitments.
Chartrand called Woodhouse Nepinak’s and Wilson’s stance “absurd.”
“For them to come along and say we don’t exist, that’s one of the biggest insults you can tell to our elders, to our youth, to our people,” he said.
“They are lying to the public.”
Chartrand says citizens and chiefs have called him to disagree with Woodhouse Nepinak’s comments and stand with the Métis.
He’s called a meeting with Prairie Métis leaders on Nov. 16 to discuss next steps.
“Now, we’ve got a hell of a fight.”
Métis Nation-Saskatchewan president Glen McCallum also rejected Woodhouse Nepinak’s comments as harmful, saying in a written statement Tuesday that there is no “hierarchy of Indigenous peoples” under Section 35.
He said the comments show “a lack of understanding” about the Métis.
“Nobody has more rights than the other group. We all have the same rights,” McCallum told CBC News on Thursday.
Andrea Sandmaier, president of the Otipemisiwak Métis government in Alberta, said that while she stands with First Nations in their efforts to reclaim rights and determine their own citizenship, the recognition of First Nations’ rights “must never come at the expense of Métis rights.”
First Nations and the Métis have intertwined histories, but their identities are distinct, she said in a written statement Tuesday.
“We are not ‘some new group,’ and we most certainly are not confused about who we are.”
Manitoba Métis Federation President David Chartrand says Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak needs to learn her history, after the Assembly of First Nations national chief made comments that appeared to equate Métis identity with what she described as ‘pretendians.’
