Distorted Descent examines a social phenomenon that has taken off in the twenty-first century: otherwise white, French descendant settlers in Canada shifting into a self-defined “Indigenous” identity. This study is not about individuals who have been dispossessed by colonial policies, or the multi-generational efforts to reconnect that occur in response. Rather, it is about white, French-descendant people discovering an Indigenous ancestor born 300 to 375 years ago through genealogy and using that ancestor as the sole basis for an eventual shift into an “Indigenous” identity today.
After setting out the most common genealogical practices that facilitate race shifting, Leroux examines two of the most prominent
self-identified “Indigenous” organizations currently operating in Quebec. Both organizations have their origins in committed
opposition to Indigenous land and territorial negotiations, and both encourage the use of suspect genealogical practices. Distorted Descent brings to light to how these claims to an “Indigenous” identity are then used politically to oppose actual, living Indigenous peoples, exposing along the way the shifting politics of whiteness, white settler colonialism, and white supremacy.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-271) and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Date published
- 2019.
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 305.809/0714
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn-qu
- ISBN
- 0887555942 0887555969 9780887555961 9780887558467
- LCCN
- F1035.A1
- LCCN Item number
- L47 2019eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- NLC
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (287 pages)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)kck00240430 (OCoLC)1102671248 (CaOOCEL)457097
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- NLC
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Contents 6
- Introduction: Self-Indigenization in the Twenty-First Century 8
- Part One: The Mechanics of Descent 46
- Chapter One: Lineal Descent and the Political Use of Indigenous Women Ancestors 48
- Chapter Two: Aspirational Descent: Creating Indigenous Women Ancestors 80
- Chapter Three: Lateral Descent: Remaking Family in the Past 110
- Part Two: Race Shifting as Anti-Indigenous Politics 140
- Chapter Four: After Powley: Anti-Indigenous Activism and Becoming "Métis" in Two Regions of Quebec 142
- Chapter Five: The Largest Self-Identified "Métis" Organization in Quebec: The Métis Nation of the Rising Sun 184
- Conclusion: White Claims to Indigenous Identity 221
- Acknowledgements 228
- Appendix 230
- Notes 246
- Bibliography 264
- Index 280
