Proximity, Family Lore, and False Claims to an Algonquin Identity
This article examines the type of family lore that leads white Canadians and Americans to claim Indigenous identities. Using a case-study approach, I demonstrate how 2000 descendants of a French-Canadian couple, born in the early 1800s near Montréal, joined one of the largest land claims in Canadian...
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MDPI AG
2024-10-01
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| Series: | Genealogy |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/8/4/125 |
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| author | Darryl Leroux |
| author_facet | Darryl Leroux |
| author_sort | Darryl Leroux |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article examines the type of family lore that leads white Canadians and Americans to claim Indigenous identities. Using a case-study approach, I demonstrate how 2000 descendants of a French-Canadian couple, born in the early 1800s near Montréal, joined one of the largest land claims in Canadian history as “Algonquins”. The tools of critical settler family history provide the necessary theoretical scaffolding to unpack how genealogical and geographical proximity to Indigenous people in the past are the bases for the family lore that propelled these individuals to become card-carrying, voting members of the land claim. Despite continued opposition to their inclusion by the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, the only federally recognized Algonquin community involved in the land claim, these fake Algonquins remained potential land claim beneficiaries for over two decades, until an independent tribunal finally removed them in 2023. Family lore resolves the crisis in the family: no longer the colonizers responsible for Indigenous displacement and dispossession, white pretendians become the victims of settler colonial violence. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1dc35bb423cb42efb15d2cfb5d1258fb |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2313-5778 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Genealogy |
| spelling | doaj-art-1dc35bb423cb42efb15d2cfb5d1258fb2024-12-27T14:28:04ZengMDPI AGGenealogy2313-57782024-10-018412510.3390/genealogy8040125Proximity, Family Lore, and False Claims to an Algonquin IdentityDarryl Leroux0School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, CanadaThis article examines the type of family lore that leads white Canadians and Americans to claim Indigenous identities. Using a case-study approach, I demonstrate how 2000 descendants of a French-Canadian couple, born in the early 1800s near Montréal, joined one of the largest land claims in Canadian history as “Algonquins”. The tools of critical settler family history provide the necessary theoretical scaffolding to unpack how genealogical and geographical proximity to Indigenous people in the past are the bases for the family lore that propelled these individuals to become card-carrying, voting members of the land claim. Despite continued opposition to their inclusion by the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, the only federally recognized Algonquin community involved in the land claim, these fake Algonquins remained potential land claim beneficiaries for over two decades, until an independent tribunal finally removed them in 2023. Family lore resolves the crisis in the family: no longer the colonizers responsible for Indigenous displacement and dispossession, white pretendians become the victims of settler colonial violence.https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/8/4/125critical settler family historyfamily loresettler colonialismgenealogical reconstructionfalse claims to Indigenous identitypretendianism |
| spellingShingle | Darryl Leroux Proximity, Family Lore, and False Claims to an Algonquin Identity Genealogy critical settler family history family lore settler colonialism genealogical reconstruction false claims to Indigenous identity pretendianism |
| title | Proximity, Family Lore, and False Claims to an Algonquin Identity |
| title_full | Proximity, Family Lore, and False Claims to an Algonquin Identity |
| title_fullStr | Proximity, Family Lore, and False Claims to an Algonquin Identity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Proximity, Family Lore, and False Claims to an Algonquin Identity |
| title_short | Proximity, Family Lore, and False Claims to an Algonquin Identity |
| title_sort | proximity family lore and false claims to an algonquin identity |
| topic | critical settler family history family lore settler colonialism genealogical reconstruction false claims to Indigenous identity pretendianism |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/8/4/125 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT darrylleroux proximityfamilyloreandfalseclaimstoanalgonquinidentity |