"Real" Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood

by Bonita Lawrence

Mixed-blood urban Native peoples in Canada are profoundly affected by federal legislation that divides Aboriginal peoples into different legal categories. In this pathfinding book, Bonita Lawrence reveals the ways in which mixed-blood urban Natives understand their identities and struggle to survive in a world that, more often than not, fails to recognize them. In “Real” Indians and Others Lawrence draws on the first-person accounts of thirty Toronto residents of Native heritage, as well as archival materials, sociological research, and her own urban Native heritage and experiences. She sheds light on the Canadian government’s efforts to define Native identity through the years by means of the Indian Act and shows how residential schooling, the loss of official Indian status, and adoption have affected Native identity. Lawrence looks at how Natives with “Indian status” react and respond to “nonstatus” Natives and how federally recognized Native peoples attempt to impose an identity on urban Natives. Drawing on her interviews with urban Natives, she describes the devastating loss of community that has resulted from identity legislation and how urban Native peoples have wrestled with their past and current identities. Lawrence also addresses the future and explores the forms of nation building that can reconcile the differences in experiences and distinct agendas of urban and reserve-based Native communities.

Genres: Nonfiction, Indigenous, History, Canada

303 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Bonita Lawrence teaches in the Indigenous Studies Program at York University. She is Mi'kmaw, with Acadian and English background as well. Her research and publications have focused primarily on urban and non-status identities, and federally unrecognized Aboriginal communities. She is the author of "Fractured Homeland: Federal Recognition and Algonquin Identity in Ontario" (UBC Press, 2012) and "Real" Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native People and Indigenous Nationhood (University of Nebraska Press and UBC Press, 2004). She is also the author of N'In D'la Owey Innklan: Mi'kmaq Sojourns in England, a historical novel spanning 500 years of Mi''kmaq history both in Atlantic Canada and in London.

Reviews

[Kate♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5stars

Research for Native American studies in grad school

[Teghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lawrence is an excellent writer and as this was her PhD thesis, she makes it accessible and easy to read. It is not burdened with overly academic language but it in no ways is dumbed down. This is not a good book to serve as an introduction to First Nations issues. This book is for people who already have a basis of colonialism, oppression and systemic racism as it exists in Canada (or at least North America).

It is an insightful, incredibly thought out account of the experiences of First Nations people in Canada. Truly an exceptional read.

I had to read this for my master's seminar on Decolonizing Canada.

[Max]

As a thorough review of issues of indigeneity, state status, and concomitant gender discrimination in modern Native communities in Canada, Lawrence's clear and readable study would be worth the effort—but her detailed interviews, quoted at length, with members of Indigenous communities in modern Toronto give this legal and anthropological work marrow, flesh, and blood. While the book focuses on this particular aspect of state identity creation, anyone interested in the mechanics, strategies, and tactics of state power (and community formation in conversation with and against state power) will find good material here.

Also, it's just really well-written! Even when the going gets technical, Lawrence's prose remains fluid and considered. And, unlike many texts about tangled social issues, this one really seems to feel the moral weight of the problems it outlines, and reach toward solutions.

[Fischwife · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is non-fiction--not my favourite genre--but I loved this book because a) it is written in an accessible fashion, even though it's a sociological study, and b) as an urban Cree person who was not raised with my culture or language and who does not have the stereotypical looks, I could really relate to the people and issues in the study. Their stories are my story.

[Scott Neigh]

Reviewed here.

[Dougdaslug Archi · Rating 1 out of 5]

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