Michel Hogue speaks so energetically about the personalities in his new book M茅tis and the Medicine Line: Creating a Border and Dividing a People (University of North Carolina Press, 2015), you鈥檇 almost think he had met them in person. But as you might expect from an assistant professor in the History department, it turns out that these fascinating figures emerged from the archive.
Take Antoine Ouellette, a favourite example. Born into a Manitoba hunting and trading family, Ouellette was one of three brothers who married three sisters. He appears near the end of Hogue鈥檚 study, which explores the agency of the M茅tis people between the 1800s and the early twentieth century (primarily centred in the 1880s) as they moved back and forth across the Canadian-American border….
In contrast to some popular portrayals of the native person at the mercy of their governments, Hogue鈥檚 narrative reveals how Ouellette and his contemporaries claimed a lot of agency in their situation. 鈥淲hat this gentleman and a bunch of others in the 1880s did when the Canadian government started issuing scrip was travel across the border in Canada to claim it, all the while pursuing other avenues in the United States,鈥 says Hogue.
Hogue adds that they were far from passive either. 鈥淥ne argument the book makes is that the M茅tis people were obviously profoundly affected by the hardening of the border, but they also participated as key players,鈥 says Hogue.
Read the rest of Suzanne Bowers’ interview with Professor Hogue To know more about Professor Hogue, who teaches Canadian, American and Indigenous Histories at 杏吧原创 click or go to .
