Real indians and others, mixed-race urban native people, the Indian Act, and the rebuilding of indigenous nations

grantor: University of TorontoNative identity, for urban mixed-race Native people, is shaped on the one hand by colonial regulation under the 'Indian Act', and on the other by Native heritage and connections to the land. This research engages with how the identities of the participants of this study (as well as the author herself) have been defined and molded by their families' lived experiences of cultural genocide, how the participants have, in resistance, actively explored their Native heritage, and how hegemonic images and definitions of Indianness have influenced these processes. The research is based on interviews with thirty individuals of mixed Native and non-Native heritage living in the Toronto region, on the subject of urban Native identity. The first part of the thesis engages with the methodological concerns which must be taken into consideration when Native peoples' identities are the subjects of academic investigation, the highly distinct circumstances which are raised by the regulation of Native identity in Canada under the ' Indian Act', and the images of Indianness which exist within the dominant culture, which every urban mixed-race Native person must contend with in forming their own identity as a Native person. The second part of the thesis engages directly with the participants' family histories, their opinions about Native identity, and the roles which they are playing in creating and maintaining an urban Native community. The common thread running through the narratives is the devastating affect which loss of community as a result of genocidal government policies has had on the participants' families. The research clearly demonstrates the extent to which government regulation of Native identity, through racist and sexist restrictions within the 'Indian Act', has contributed to the alienation of individuals from their communities and has fragmented Native peoples' identities, dividing them into categories such as "status Indians", "Metis", "Bill C-31 Indians", "reserve Indians" and "urban Indians". In a preliminary manner, it explores the forms of nation-building which might enable Native people to overcome the divisive effects of a history of government regulation of identity.Ph.D