Awards

• Winner of Harold Adams Innis Prize for the best English-language book in the social sciences 2005

Overview

Now available in paperback this book discusses the search for a Metis identity and what constitutes that identity as a key issue facing many Aboriginals of mixed ancestry today. The People Who Own Themselves reconstructs 250 years of Desjarlais family history across a substantial area of North America, from colonial Louisiana, the St. Louis, Missouri, region, and the American Southwest to Red River and Central Alberta. In the course of tracing the Desjarlais family, social, economic, and political factors influencing the development of various Aboriginal ethnic identities are discussed. With intriguing details about Desjarlais family members, this book offers new, original insights into the 1885 Northwest Rebellion, focusing on kinship as a motivating factor in the outcome of events. With a unique how-to appendix for Metis genealogical reconstruction, this book will be of interest to Metis wanting to research their own genealogy and to scholars engaged in the reconstruction of Metis ethnic identity.

Full Product Details

9781552386606

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Reviews

Devine has placed herself a leader in the new discipline of prospography . . . [she] is the first academic to come close to describing why the Metis Nation arose on the Northern Great Plains. --Frits Pannekoek, Great Plains Quarterly A strong piece of academic scholarship that proposes an innovative and highly multidisciplinary approach. From a useful glossary of terms to detailed appendices and notes, this book provides insights for students and teachers alike and will undoubtedly prompt a reassessment of our historical understanding of the fur trade, Aboriginals, and the West. --Robert Engelbert, Histoire sociale / Social History

A strong piece of academic scholarship that proposes an innovative and highly multidisciplinary approach. From a useful glossary of terms to detailed appendices and notes, this book provides insights for students and teachers alike and will undoubtedly prompt a reassessment of our historical understanding of the fur trade, Aboriginals, and the West. --Robert Engelbert, Histoire sociale / Social History Devine has placed herself a leader in the new discipline of prospography . . . [she] is the first academic to come close to describing why the Metis Nation arose on the Northern Great Plains. --Frits Pannekoek, Great Plains Quarterly

Author Information

Heather Devine is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Calgary and is a researcher in various fields, including Canadian Native history, Western Canadian ethnic history, museum and archival studies, and public history.

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