We think of Métis as having Prairie roots. Quebec doesn’t recognize a historical Métis community, and the Métis National Council contests the existence of any Métis east of Ontario. Quebec residents who seek recognition as Métis under the Canadian Constitution therefore face an uphill legal and political battle. Who is right? Bois-Brûlés examines archival and ethnographic evidence to challenge two powerful nationalisms – Métis and Québécois – that interpret Métis identity in the province as “race-shifting.” This controversial work, previously available only in French, conclusively demonstrates that a Métis community emerged in early-nineteenth-century Quebec and can be traced all the way to today.

Michel Bouchard's profile page

Sébastien Malette's profile page

Guillaume Marcotte's profile page

Michel Bouchard is a professor of anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia and secretary of the World Council of Anthropological Associations. He co-authored Songs upon the Rivers: The Buried History of the French-Speaking Canadiens and Métis from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi across to the Pacific (with Robert Foxcurran and Sébastien Malette) and Les Bois-Brûlés de l’Outaouais: Une étude ethnoculturelle des Métis de la Gatineau (with Malette and Guillaume Marcotte).

Sébastien Malette is an associate professor of law and legal studies at Carleton University and a member of the university’s Indigenous Education Council. He co-authored Songs upon the Rivers: The Buried History of the French-Speaking Canadiens and Métis from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi across to the Pacific (with Michel Bouchard and Robert Foxcurran) and Les Bois-Brûlés de l’Outaouais: Une étude ethnoculturelle des Métis de la Gatineau (with Bouchard and Guillaume Marcotte).

Guillaume Marcotte is an independent scholar and historian. He is the author of Les francophones et la traite des fourrures du Grand Témiscamingue: Un dictionnaire biographique, 1760–1870 and co-author of Les Bois-Brûlés de l’Outaouais: Une étude ethnoculturelle des Métis de la Gatineau (with Michel Bouchard and Sébastien Malette). He has also published in a variety of scholarly journals and has been studying the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives for over a decade.

Methodologically, this is a fascinating exploration.

CHOICE