Settler colonialism in Canada and the Metis

Although the literature on settler colonialism intends to identify what is specific about the settler colonial experience, it can also homogenize diverse settler colonial narratives and contexts. In particular, in Canada, discussion of the 'logic of elimination' must contend with the discrete experiences of multiple Indigenous groups, including the Me ' tis. This article examines relationships between Me'tis people and settler colonialism in Canada to distinguish how Me'tis histories contribute to a broader narrative of settler colonial genocide in Canada. Cast as 'halfbreeds' and considered rebels by the newly forming Canadian nation-state, Me'tis peoples were discouraged from 'illegitimate breeding'. Moreover, their unique experiences of the residential school system and forced sterilization have heretofore been underexplored in historiographies of genocide and settler colonial elimination in Canada. These social, political and racial divisions in Canada are magnified through genocidal structures and they reach a critical juncture between colonialism and mixed ethnicities. At that juncture, groups like the Me'tis in Canada are within a metaphorical gap or, more accurately, a jurisdictional gap. Colonial treatment of the Me'tis demonstrates, in part, the broad reach of colonial control and how uneven it is, often to the detriment of the Me'tis and Indigenous groups in Canada.