The debate over the validity of Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s claim that she is a treaty Indian of Cree ancestry has shone a light on a question that does not have a clear answer: how does one verify Indigenous ancestry?
As a country, Canada faces considerable challenges in addressing decades of wide-ranging discrimination against Indigenous people. This includes the devastation caused to Indigenous families and communities by the Sixties Scoop and residential schools, which encouraged the assimilation of Indigenous culture into Euro-Canadian culture.
One outcome of these programs was separating a multitude of people from their culture and language, leaving many Canadians removed or even unaware of their Indigenous heritage. Further, the legal complexities of the Indian Act has made it challenging for generations of Indigenous people to return to their communities.
Curious about how Canadians feel about verifying Indigeneity, our team at Leger surveyed 1,522 Canadians. In the Canadian population, five per cent identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Metis or Inuit). Our survey uncovered that an additional one-in-10 Canadians are uncertain whether they have Indigenous ancestry.
Of that uncertain population, 40 per cent say they plan to investigate their identities. This finding suggests the challenge of determining one’s Indigenous ancestry may be a larger question for Canadians than one may initially think.
While...
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