{"id":59341,"date":"2019-12-29T02:30:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-29T02:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=59341"},"modified":"2019-12-29T02:30:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-29T02:30:36","slug":"distorted-descent-white-claims-to-indigenous-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=59341","title":{"rendered":"Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

University of Manitoba Press<\/a>
\nSeptember 2019
\n296 pages
\n6 \u00d7 9
\nPaper ISBN: 978-0-88755-846-7<\/p>\n

Darryl Leroux<\/strong><\/a>, Associate Professor
\nDepartment of Social Justice and Community Studies
\nSaint Mary\u2019s University, Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia)<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Distorted Descent<\/em> examines a social phenomenon that has taken off in the twenty-first century: otherwise white, French descendant settlers in Canada<\/a> shifting into a self-defined \u201cIndigenous\u201d 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 \u201cIndigenous\u201d identity today.<\/p>\n

After setting out the most common genealogical practices that facilitate race shifting<\/a>, Leroux examines two of the most prominent self-identified \u201cIndigenous\u201d organizations currently operating in Quebec<\/a>. 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<\/em> brings to light to how these claims to an \u201cIndigenous\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

For more information on the rise of the so-called \u2018Eastern Metis<\/a>\u2019 in the eastern provinces and in New England<\/a>, including a storymap, court documents, and research materials, visit the Raceshifting website<\/a>, created by Unwritten Histories Digital Consulting.<\/em><\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n