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
acid-frac
anchor clutch
auriculo-ventricular node
backsizing
Becke's sign
bombardier
business-cards
CAM (computer aided manufacturing)
carburated
coherence of laser beam
coliform group
combed
constituent act
constrainers
crinkle roots
crops which are resistant to water rot
crude arsenic
deadly weapon
depth of ballast
diglycolic acid
display help
dragonists
dried ice
enediolate
Entrance Island
ex distribution
extra-striate
fames bovina
fawnskin
find algorithm
fireland
fixed radio beacon
flavor strength
formatted screen image
free as the wind
gaffe-prone
gastronom
geosynchronous-orbit satellite launch vehicle
Gigantorhynchus
guard mail
guide pass
hydrolytic acidity
HYDROT
ice-marginal terrace
implicit consent
index of business
International Brigade
isolation barrier
left pedal
left-hand side
Likounda
lithium-iodine battery
low pressure steam generator feed pump
LRSC
M. L. S.
mad point
Maragoji(Maragogi)
MCA
miracidial
moisture retardant
mountainite
murtons
Nasser City
Nei Mongol
never for one minute
Newtonian-Cassegrain telescope
nicoracetam
nomogramm
nonexclusive binding
per unit area yield
platform length
point designation grid
power freguency
process interface system
productivisms
progenesis
reflexes to know how
retainage
round robins
Sakan'ya
satsuma insignis
scientific pay off
scrimpiness
Shebalino
silicon sheet varnish
smoke-up
social mediation
solution effect
Sommariva del Bosco
spector-
supply flume
technical plant
tenderloin steak
tracheal recess
tradomation
tribal marketing
unhomelike
us national security
Usogorsk
weckamine
zone broadening