"Real" Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood

by Bonita Lawrence

Overview

In this pioneering book, Bonita Lawrence draws on the first-person accounts of thirty Toronto residents of Aboriginal descent, as well as archival materials, sociological research, and her own urban Native heritage and experiences to shed light on the Canadian government’s efforts to define Native identity through the years. She describes the devastating loss of community that has resulted and how urban Native people have wrestled with their past and current identities. Lawrence also explores the forms of nation-building that can reconcile the differences in experiences and distinct agendas of urban and reserve-based Native communities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803280373
Publisher:	Nebraska Paperback
Publication date:	07/01/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	303
Product dimensions:	0.73(w) x 5.50(h) x 8.50(d)

About the Author

Bonita Lawrence is an assistant professor of women’s studies and Native studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She recently coedited (with Kim Anderson) Strong Women Stories: Native Vision and Community Survival.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction: Mixed-Blood Native Identity in the Americas

Part 1. The Regulation of Native Identity

1. From Sovereign Nations to “A Vanishing Race”

2. Regulating Native Identity by Gender

3. Reconfiguring Colonial Gender Relations under Bill C-31

4. Métis Identity, the Indian Act, and the Numbered Treaties

Part 2. Mixed-Blood Identity in the Toronto Native Community

5. Killing the Indian to Save the Child

6. Urban Responses to a Heritage of Violence

7. Negotiating an Urban Mixed-Blood Native Identity

8. Maintaining an Urban Native Community

Part 3. Colonial Regulation and Entitlement to Nativeness in the Urban Community

9. Racial Identity in White Society

10. Band Membership and Urban Identity

11. Indian Status and Entitlement

12. Mixed-Blood Urban Native People and the Rebuilding of Indigenous Nations

Appendix 1: Eligibility for Status and Band Membership under Bill C-31

Appendix 2: Issues in Conducting Indigenous Research

Appendix 3: Narratives of Encounters with Genocide

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

“What is an Indian? What does it mean to be Indian? These are the questions Lawrence seeks to answer in this path-breaking study.”—Todd Leahy, Journal of the West

Journal of the West - Todd Leahy

"A participant-scholar who engaged in this dynamic study through her own personal involvement as an urban Indian, Lawrence, who currently teaches at Queens University, combined a rigorous interview process that included thirty mixed-blood Natives living in Toronto with solid secondary research to create a book that proves far more ambitious than the title might indicate."—Margaret Connell Szasz, American Review of Canadian Studies

— Margaret Connell Szasz

American Review of Canadian Studies

"This valuable. . . . Book makes relentlessly clear that Canadians of mixed heritage have fared little better than mixed-race Americans in creating political or personal identities."—Beth LaDow, Western Historical Quarterly

— Beth LaDow

Western Historical Quarterly

“What is an Indian? What does it mean to be Indian? These are the questions Lawrence seeks to answer in this path-breaking study.”—Todd Leahy, Journal of the West

— Todd Leahy

Journal of the West

"This valuable . . . Book makes relentlessly clear that Canadians of mixed heritage have fared little better than mixed-race Americans in creating political or personal identities."--Beth LaDow, Western Historical Quaterly

Western Historical Quarterly - Beth LaDow

"A participant-scholar who engaged in this dynamic study through her own personal involvement as an urban Indian, Lawrence, who currently teaches at Queens University, combined a rigorous interview process that included thirty mixed-blood Natives living in Toronto with solid secondary research to create a book that proves far more ambitious than the title might indicate." -- Margaret Connell Szasz, American Review of Canadian Studies

American Review of Canadian Studies - Margaret Connell Szasz

"Her chapter detailing how sexism influenced Indian identities is already becoming a classic, used as it is in several introductory area studies courses. Also noteworthy is Lawrence's handling of issues of appearance. . . . This book should interest scholars of Aboriginal studies and women's studies." --Jean-Paul Restoule, University of Toronto Quarterly

University of Toronto Quarterly - Jean-Paul Resoule