Description: What does it mean to be Metis? How do the Metis understand their world, and how do family, community, and location shape their consciousness? Such questions inform this collection of essays on the northwestern North American people of mixed European and Native ancestry who emerged in the seventeenth century as a distinct culture. Volume editors Nicole St-Onge, Carolyn Podruchny, and Brenda Macdougall go beyond the concern with race and ethnicity that takes center stage in most discussions of Metis culture to offer new ways of thinking about Metis identity.
Brief description: Carolyn Podruchny is author of Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade.
Review Quotes: "This book both enriches and amplifies the range of Metis studies and historiography. The contributors provide new and diverse perspectives on Metis communities and identities, exploring the complex dynamics of those communities in light of fresh research and insights. Metis history is thriving, and--as Contours of a People demonstrates--it is history in motion, still being made." Jennifer S. H. Brown, author of Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country