时间:2019-01-03 作者:英语课 分类:2018年VOA慢速英语(七)月


英语课

The Complex Issue of Metis Identity


A debate over identity is playing out over a people most Americans have never even heard about.


The group are called Métis, a French word for “mixed.” They are the descendants of French animal trappers and native women during the 1600s in today’s Western Canada.


In time, the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of these couples married each other. Métis developed their own language, their own music, their own style of clothes, and their own kind of food. In other words, they developed their own culture.


By the early 1800s, the Métis had created a new political identity, too. It was centered in a colony in the present-day Canadian province of Manitoba. But some established settlements in the United States, too.


After the U.S. and Canada settled their borders, many American Métis were grouped with other native people and ended up on Indian reservations. Over time, some families have kept their Métis identity and culture. Others have lost it completely.


In Canada, the government officially recognized Métis in 1982 as one of three aboriginal 1 groups. They received the same hunting, fishing and land use rights as the First Nation and the Inuit.


But these days, a record number of people are claiming Métis identity, both in Canada and the U.S. Many of these claims, said anthropologist 2 Kade Ferris, are not true. He said some use the word “Métis” to mean they are mixed race Native and non-Native. But, he said, the term really describes being part of a particular culture or nation.


Others are only looking to use the tax breaks and land use rights given to the “real” Métis, say members of the Métis National Council.


In 2017, the Canadian government signed a nation-to-nation agreement with the Métis Nation and has promised $516 million over 10 years to support housing, health and educational needs.


In the U.S., Métis are working to relearn their language, Michif, and continue to celebrate their history and culture in festivals and other events. But they are not trying to gain independent recognition.


Rosalyn LaPier is a Métis writer and member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. She said separating Métis from Chippewa or Cree would be impossible because their cultures are so combined.


“But we know who we are,” she added.


I’m Susan Shand.


Words in This Story


descendant – n. someone who is related to a person or group of people who lived in the past


jig 3 – v. a dance, hopping 4 to music


aboriginal – adj. of or relating to the people and things that have been in a region from the earliest time



adj.(指动植物)土生的,原产地的,土著的
  • They managed to wipe out the entire aboriginal population.他们终于把那些土著人全部消灭了。
  • The lndians are the aboriginal Americans.印第安人是美国的土著人。
n.人类学家,人类学者
  • The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
  • The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。
n.快步舞(曲);v.上下晃动;用夹具辅助加工;蹦蹦跳跳
  • I went mad with joy and danced a little jig.我欣喜若狂,跳了几步吉格舞。
  • He piped a jig so that we could dance.他用笛子吹奏格舞曲好让我们跳舞。
学英语单词
3-chloropropionic acid
ab hodierno
acceleration cardiovascular effects (ace)
adminstrations
assembly precision
assizement
audio bandwidth
auricularis
barmy sponge
bepurple
biological energy source
boiler blowdown water
breakback mechanism
caseln plastics
Cayratia fugongensis
cement admixture
chamaecytisuss
component tide
compound iodine solution
corduliids
coutinhoite
d/t of most recent refill or dose dispensed
delaney
delay time of a time-delay switch
direct vision panel
do housework
drum hank winder
duddered
enamellers
fair wear and tear
feel sure about
floating head plenum
fractional neutrelization
free-convection cooling
fried-out
Garden of England
geometrically stable system
geotector
goes ahead
grade of delivery
graphic voltmeter
how dare you do something
hydrogen sulfide detecting alarm system
hyperonym
ideal voltage source
immense
installment rates
instrument-makings
jeffress
Kejia
lineolet
Lobus temporalis
market rate of discount
mattedness
metering spill valve
Monozoa
multilayer perception
Mīsh, Kūh-e
national means of verification
not see the fun
omegashaped
overcontrol
paraton
Passiflora caerulea
play wag
posterior expected loss
printing control
probabiliorists
pulled something
quick freezer
recto-urethral muscle
reversed Caesar cipher
ribbon cabling link
salmon-eye locus
salpingian
San Roque, Pta.de
schmieding
scrap yard
self-shield coil
shore-face terrace(wave-built terrace)
shriveled up
silk flower
silphiums
smoked herring
sogh
solenopsis spp.
standing corn
tailing down
tan-ooze
Taylor Point
tecometer
terminable bond
theft of consigned goods
tibialis posticuss
trihydroxybenzophenone
Ureterocalicostomy
vellum glaze
virtual scheduling
volume limiter
Waldburg Ra.
Wuvulu I.
xciiiest