Defining Métis

Synopsis

Defining Metis Examines Categories Used By Catholic Missionaries To Describe Indigenous People In Present-day Northwestern Saskatchewan In The Latter Half Of The Nineteenth Century. It Argues That The Construction And Evolution Of These Categories Reflected Missionaries' Changing Interests And Agendas. Timothy P. Foran Challenges The Orthodox Notion That Oblate Commentators Simply Discovered And Described A Singular, Empirically Existing, And Readily Identifiable Metis Population. Rather, He Contends That Oblates Played An Important Role In The Conceptual Production Of Les Metis.