Who is Indigenous?
An anonymous document purporting to expose fake Indigenous people at Queen's University raises more questions than it answers. And it may only be the beginning. Above: the Four Directions Indigenous Student Centre at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, as seen on Google Street View. Earlier this month, someone sent us the link to a document that was making the rounds on Twitter. At first glance, the report titled Investigation into false claims to Indigenous identity at Queens University looked like it might be an academic paper. But it wasnt from anyone at all. It was authored anonymously. The document took aim at six people associated with the school, claiming theyve been misrepresenting themselves and are not genuinely Indigenous, and that its findings confirm that Queens University is currently overrun with white Canadians making false claims to Indigenous  especially Algonquin  identity.  Im not as certain about its conclusions as the anonymous author(s), and havent independently verified its claims. The discussion about who is and who isnt Indigenous is a difficult and nuanced one. As a Mtis person, I think its one that needs to happen. But Queens didnt ignore it, quickly coming out with a statement: We reject the anonymous document in question, which is misleading and contains factual inaccuracies including some genealogical information of individuals named in the document. They said theyd be investigating the origins and nature of the document and taking appropriate action to support those whose professional reputations are being maligned.  Queens didnt have to recognize the existence of a random document linked to on Twitter, much less pass judgment on the quality of its research. In response to Queens statement, dozens of Indigenous scholars put their names to their own Statement on Identity and Institutional Accountability, which called on the school to take the concerns seriously. It is unacceptable for universities to simply use an honour system when it comes to verifying the legitimacy of claims made by any faculty, staff, or student claiming to be Indigenous, it said. Citizenship in Indigenous nations is a matter of sovereignty and self-determination. Scrutiny of spurious and suspicious claims to citizenship is a legitimate exercise  this is particularly true for decolonizing First Nations, Inuit, and Mtis communities that are striving to throw off colonial oppression imposed by external and foreign actors.  When mainstream media picked up the story, it seemed like Queens had a full-blown crisis on its hands, and soon put out a followup statement attributed to two senior administrators. As Indigenous members of the Queens community, wrote Rahswahrha Mark F. Green and Kanonhsyonne Janice C. Hill, we understand this is a very complex issue and this recent discourse has been both difficult and upsetting. However, we are concerned with recent allegations raised against some of our Indigenous academics and community members through an anonymous report.   Without elaborating on specifics, they noted that they looked into the reports claims and found them to be baseless. We did not simply reject the document, but rather, being privy to authentic personal records, were able to assess and determine that the report had cited erroneous records and ignored important facts.  Perhaps if I could find out who wrote the thing in the first place, I could get closer to figuring out what was going on. There was a possible clue in the first published version of the document, dated June 7th, whose metadata included the name Darryl Leroux. (In a revised version, dated June 10th, the words Anonymous Collective appear where his name had been.) That doesnt mean that he wrote it, necessarily  just that it probably passed through his hands at some point before it was made public. An associate professor in the Department of Social Justice and Community Studies at Saint Marys University in Halifax, Leroux is the author of the 2019 book Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity. He declined an interview and didnt answer a question about his involvement in the report, but referred me to a couple of other people, saying, I think its important that Algonquin people have their voices heard on all of this.  One of them was Kyle Brennan, a member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation and a non-academic signatory to the statement responding to Queens. Asked why he believes the authors of the report chose to remain anonymous, he says, I dont think anybody ever wants to call anyone out on their identity or question it in any sort of sense. Its never great.  But he also thinks it has to do with filmmaker Michelle Latimers recent decision to take several CBC journalists to court over their reporting on questions aound her own Indigenous identity, which he says has created an environment where people are afraid of such things happening. Another signatory suggests an additional context in which the anonymous document could be read. Veldon Coburn is an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa in the Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies. He is also Algonquin. You dont have to look at the author to understand how seriously it should be taken, he says. I think Indigenous scholars and the Algonquin Nation take it very seriously, irrespective of whose name may be on it  its the contents that matter.  In his view, the report should be seen in light of ongoing negotiations between the Province of Ontario and an umbrella group called the Algonquins of Ontario, which would produce the provinces first modern-day constitutionally protected treaty, covering a territory of 36,000 square kilometres. Among the communities represented by the Algonquins of Ontario is a non-status nation called Snimikobi, which splintered from another non-status group, the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFN), in the mid-2000s. Three of the individuals cited by the anonymous report are connected to the AAFN. Among them is Robert Lovelace, who teaches at Queens and has played a significant role in shaping its Indigenous curriculum. He helped found the AAFN (originally called Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and Allies) and is a former chief. Reached at his home, he declined a full interview but says of the report that its extremely inaccurate, poorly researched. It was an attack. It wasnt a study of any sort and that the authors could become subject to a libel suit. I dont have to defend myself. I know who I am, he says. The university has vetted my credentials over the years. Ive been there over 25 years.  (In the past, hes explained that he was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a white father and a mother who was Cherokee via her own father, and came to Canada in the late 60s to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War. A longtime activist, his 2007 protests against a uranium mine landed him in jail, where he first read the Quran, and later converted to Islam.) According to the Indian Act, its simply a person who pursuant to this Act is registered as an Indian or is entitled to be registered as an Indian. Since the late 1880s, the Canadian government has regulated and conferred status to Indigenous peoples under that law, enforcing a Eurocentric view and categorizing people as Indians for the purpose of control. The Act created racial segregation in Canada, along with the reserve system, residential schools, and Indian hospitals. The regime it created was studied by officials from Apartheid South Africa. So thats not who I want determining whether or not Im Indigenous. I first wrote about this after the identity of author Joseph Boyden came under scrutiny. I have sympathy for Indigenous people who feel like they dont belong or know their history. For an Indigenous person raised or living in an urban environment, or for an Indigenous person who was scooped from their family, it can be a challenge to claim your identity. In Canada, you need to decolonize your own story in the context of a diaspora. By way of example, Im Mtis and my family comes from Red River. Far from clinging to Indigenous identity, my family has walked through the world with the privilege afforded to those who could pass as white. At the same time, my grandmother passed on the tradition of jigging to my sister. She lived in St. Boniface, Manitoba, and grew up around Mtis culture in a way that her children and grandchildren havent since moving to Alberta. Still, to be Mtis, to prove that beyond family lore you belong to a group of people, you have to be able to answer the question of who you are. It is the first question that youre going to be asked when you meet another person from Red River. It is like a game to find out if youre related. When I spoke to University of Alberta professor Kim Tallbear about Boyden in 2016, she told me, I dont feel like most people who play Indian are being deliberately disingenuous. She explained that many families claim a First Nations ancestor and that in the U.S. it was very common for people to come up to tell her about the blood ties they had. This isnt about upholding ideas of racial purity  also called blood quantum  its about letting communities define themselves. In order for that to happen, there has to be an open conversation. But whats taking place at Queens so far hasnt been that. Theres an anonymous report, a professor who wont discuss any of this and raises the possibility of legal action, and a university administration flatly rejecting the claims being made, because they are satisfied that the people in question are legitimately Indigenous, end of story. But its not the end of the story. Probably not at Queens, and certainly not everywhere else. Were going to see this again and again. In institution after institution across Canada, there are faculty members who have been taken as Indigenous based solely on self-identification, and administrators unqualified to assess such claims who have simply accepted people at their word. And for a long time, recognized Indigenous communities either didnt know about it or stayed silent. Thats over. With additional reporting by Cherise Seucharan.