American Indian Culture and Research Journal

A standard answer of the Metis people to those curious as to when the Metis originated has been: "Nine months after the first White man set foot in Canada." The inhabitants are chiefly of Canadian origin, all more or less imbued with Indian blood. Not being previously aware of the diversity in the character of the inhabitants, the sudden change from an American to a French population, has a surprising, and to say the least, an unpleasant effect; for the first twenty-four hours, the traveler fancies himself in a real Babel. ... The business of a town of this kind differs so materially from that carried on in our cities, that it is almost impossible to fancy ourselves still within the same territorial limits. William S. Keating, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1823 Introduction At what historic moment and for what cause do a "people" spring into being? This is an especially pertinent question for the western hemisphere. Following the invasion of the American Indian worlds by various European nation states, four centuries of colonization, subjugation and intermingling have produced ample opportunity for the genesis and recreation of bold new ethnicities and identities. There are nonetheless critical geographical and cultural variations across the hemisphere. In South and Middle America, composite "mestizo" populations, now a majority, have been heralded as the "New Peoples," a felicitous term coined by Darcy Ribeiro. In North America, by contrast, a number of factors, among them a color-coded caste system entrenched by mid-nineteenth century, combined to discourage the historical emergence and cohesiveness of such hybrid groups. Except for small bi- and tri-racial enclaves in the Southeast, many of which still survive, the only instance of large scale formation of a new people occurred in the Red River valley of the north.