The metis were a distinct people, they had developed their own language, culture and music long before Riel ... they were a separate nation as much as any pure indian tribe, imho
And they were screwed out of their lands, as much as any other tribe ... that's a long sordid story that is not well known, how in exchange for extinguishment of aboriginal title they were handed scrip for a few acres of fee simple land far from their homes, how speculators bought the scrip for next to nothing ... very few metis exercised their scrip, and many who did left after a few years, these places weren't home to them, and they were not farmers .... this was an inevitable change from an hunter-gatherer society to one of agriculturists, but it sure could have been handled more fairly
As to whether anybody in this country should get in perpetuity special considerations based on the race of their ancestors, that is another question, your answer and mine is no ... how to arrive at a situation where we are all born equal, that's the thing ... the metis had the solution to this hundreds of years ago - they had originally been french, cree, and dene - radically different cultures, languages, and history - and they married each other's sisters |
