Saturday, 15 October 2022
Disputed ancestry
Geoff Leo of CBC News has one of those strange stories of claimed but disputed indigenous ancestry.
Indigenous groups rally around Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond amid calls for proof of her Cree ancestry
Indigenous organizations in Saskatchewan and British Columbia are expressing support for Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond in the wake of a CBC News investigation into her claims to Indigenous ancestry.
But some Indigenous scholars are calling on the prominent academic and former judge — she is a professor at UBC and was on the bench in Saskatchewan — to answer the questions it raised.
For decades, Turpel-Lafond has claimed to be a treaty Indian of Cree descent. However, when challenged, she has refused to provide evidence of her claims.
Worth reading because of the curious divide it highlights, how even an individual can become in a sense, too big to fail.
On Wednesday evening, hours after CBC's story was published, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) said in a statement Turpel-Lafond "has been a fierce, ethical, and groundbreaking advocate for Indigenous peoples for decades."
Her integrity "is beyond reproach," the organization said.
The UBCIC also said CBC has no business investigating Turpel-Lafond's — or anyone else's — claims to Indigenous identity.
And yet -
None of the organizations addressed the fact that Turpel-Lafond has failed to offer evidence of her ancestry. Experts note that membership in a First Nations community does not make one Indigenous.
Turpel-Lafond says her father was Cree and was raised by her grandparents, Dr. William Nicholson Turpel and his wife Eleanor. However, genealogical records show that William was of Irish, German and U.S. ancestry, while Eleanor was born in England to British parents.
Turpel-Lafond declined to explain this when asked by CBC News.
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7 comments:
The "indigenous" people pictured in the article look very ordinary. Despite one of them having the rather wonderful surname "Tallbear", they all have solidly middle class jobs in a post-industrial society of plenty and tolerance. I doubt if any of them have been menaced by white settlers over who has rights to hunt caribou or trap arctic foxes.
In such a context, it is surprising that someone would make so much of "indigenous" heritage. It's of no more import than one's star-sign or blood group.
And in the UK, of course, if you made too much of one's indigenous ancestry and claimed it to be a good thing, the police would probably pay you a little visit.
Pocahontas Mk II?
Sam - it would be no surprise if the claim was originally an early fantasy based on stories heard as a child. To a limited but useful degree it may have set her apart as differently cool in later life then became impossible to put right.
Ed - looks like it. I wonder who had the idea first?
My father used to declare "We are Vikings, really." As a wee boy I was much amused. Much later I learnt that the village his father's family had come from has a Norse name meaning "place of the assembly".
So my version is now "We are Vikings really, or maybe Vikings' slaves."
If a Man can claim to be a Woman (and visa-versa) and his/her claim be accepted then why cannot I claim to be a Hotten-tot or an Esquimo?
It's Wracism, I tell you.
Indeed you may so claim, though it will do you scant good when the Bomb gets your friends and neighbours too.
dearieme - or maybe Viking recruits instead of Vikings' slaves.
DAD - or any other claim, there appear to be no real boundaries.
Chromatistes - and all claims settled.
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