{"id":22581,"date":"2012-04-20T20:33:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T20:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=22581"},"modified":"2012-04-20T20:34:08","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T20:34:08","slug":"real-indians-and-others-mixed-blood-urban-native-peoples-and-indigenous-nationhood-review-by-steve-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=22581","title":{"rendered":"Real Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood [Review by Steve George]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood [Review by Steve George]<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ethnicities<\/a>
\nVolume 27, Number 2<\/a> (2005)
\nPages 272\u2013274<\/p>\n

Steve George<\/strong>
\nMemorial University, St. John\u2019s, Newfoundland<\/em><\/p>\n

Real Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood<\/a><\/em>. By Bonita Lawrence<\/a>. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004. Pp. 303, bibliography, index, ISBN 0-7748-1103 -X)<\/p>\n

The title of Lawrence\u2019s book is as direct as it is provocative. The book\u2019s title states the book\u2019s purpose to examine the central and perhaps most volatile question in Aboriginal communities today: \u201cWho is an Indian?\u201d In 2003, Lawrence edited Strong Women Stories: Native Vision and Community Survival<\/em> (Sumach Press) with Kim Anderson and in many respects this new work is a continuation of the voices heard in that book. Lawrence is a Mi\u2019kmaq<\/a> scholar whose research at Queen\u2019s University, and more recently at York University, has concerned how \u201cIndian\/nativeness\u201d is defined in Euro-Canadian and Native contexts, from within historical and legal paradigms as well as within native communities across Canada.<\/p>\n

Bonita Lawrence\u2019s work is a continuation of powerful works like Howard Adams\u2019 Prison of Grass<\/em> (1975) and Maria Campbell\u2019s Half-Breed<\/a><\/em> (1973) and more recent works by Joseph Bruchac, Bowman\u2019s Store<\/em> (Lee & Low Books, 2001) and Warren Carriou\u2019s, Lake of the Prairies <\/em>(Anchor, 2003). It has the depth of these works because we read mixed-blood peoples\u2019 voices directly from the page. The importance of these voices lies in how each of these persons tells their stories, relates their experiences, and shares their family and community histories. Lawrence\u2019s style of writing is easy to read while her research approach is organic in its having informants speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

As a mixed-blood Mi\u2019kmaw, I read this book from both a very personal level of experience as well as from an academic one, as a Masters graduate student in Folklore. In Canada the subject of mixed-blood Native people remains a controversial one from within native communities and from without, in the large urban centres across the country. Lawrence has interviewed several mixed-blood informants to tell stories that show the different kinds of experiences mixed-bloods have had in the city of Toronto and across North America. Some of these narratives involve pain, abuse, neglect, and lack of self worth, while others involve stories of empowerment, community involvement, and survival. Each one of the informants speaks from life experiences that involve a mix of acceptance and non-acceptance of their \u201cIndian\/nativeness,\u201d both from within themselves, from their families as well as from different native communities. The responses interviewees give Lawrence are direct and bear fruit to the underreported and underwritten subject of mixed-blood Native peoples…<\/p>\n

Read the entire review here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood [Review by Steve George] Ethnicities Volume 27, Number 2 (2005) Pages 272\u2013274 Steve George Memorial University, St. John\u2019s, Newfoundland Real Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood. By Bonita Lawrence. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004. Pp. 303, bibliography, index, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1649,12,5,19,8,3015],"tags":[1200,994,10477],"class_list":["post-22581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-articles","category-book-reviews","category-canada","category-media-archive","category-native-americans","tag-bonita-lawrence","tag-ethnicities","tag-steve-george"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}