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Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity

Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity

by LeRoux, Darryl
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780887558467 University of Manitoba Press

Distorted Descent examines a social phenomenon that has taken off in the twenty-first century: otherwise white, French descendant settlers in Canada shifting into a self-defined "Indigenous" identity. This study is not about individuals who have been dispossessed by colonial policies, or the multi-generational efforts to reconnect that occur in response. Rather, it is about white, French-descendant people discovering an Indigenous ancestor born 300 to 375 years ago through genealogy and using that ancestor as the sole basis for an eventual shift into an "Indigenous" identity today.

After setting out the most common genealogical practices that facilitate race shifting, Leroux examines two of the most prominent self-identified "Indigenous" organizations currently operating in Quebec. Both organizations have their origins in committed opposition to Indigenous land and territorial negotiations, and both encourage the use of suspect genealogical practices. Distorted Descent brings to light to how these claims to an "Indigenous" identity are then used politically to oppose actual, living Indigenous peoples, exposing along the way the shifting politics of whiteness, white settler colonialism, and white supremacy.

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Product details

BrandUniversity of Manitoba Press
Pub dateSep 20, 2019
ISBN-100887558461
ISBN-139780887558467
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions9 × 0.74 × 6 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-04-21 11:59
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