Land back, preserving culture more important than infighting, say Mtis citizens

Some Mtis citizenssay they're more concerned aboutpreserving culture and getting land back than politicalinfighting over identity.

Last month, the Mtis National Council (MNC) voted in itsfirst new president in 18 years, and its first female president. The Manitoba Mtis Federation withdrew from the MNC the night before the election,citingconcernsover the citizenship policies of the Mtis Nation of Ontario.

CBC News spoke with three Mtis citizens from Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario about the Mtis Nation, and their views on what it should work on moving forward.

'The land knows who we are'

Breanne Lavallee-Heckert is a Manitoba Mtis Federation citizen with roots in St. Ambroise, Man.

She recently graduated from McGill University in Montrealwith a law degree, and is co-founder of the Mtis organization Red River Echoes.

Lavallee-Heckertsaidshe thinksthe most important thing the Mtis should focus on is getting their land back.

"If we return to the land, and we live off the land the way our ancestors did, and in the way our future generations will, hopefully, we don't need to worry about who is saying what about who we are," she said.

"We know who we are, and the land knows who we are, so for us, that's a priority."

Heckert saidthe MMF parting ways with the MNC was not surprising. She saidthe citizenship and identity issues show division at the national level, and if anything, showgaps in current leadership.

Lavallee-Heckert said Red River Echoes as a collective is concerned about people who may try to fraudulently claim Mtis as their culture, but addedthe definition of Mtis should not be mandated by theCanadian government, or based on the Powley decision.

Transparency is key

Keeping Mtis culture alive and transparency inMtisgovernanceis important for Joshua Morin.

Morin, a member of the St. Albert Mtis Local, a part of the Mtis Nation of Alberta, is the office manager for Michif Cultural Connections. He takes on many roleswithin the organization, including organizing events, and teaching language classes.

"My fear is always, you get so sucked into the politics, and then you come out forgetting . . . You forget Michif, you forget Mtis jigging . . . You forget all of these things because you're so stuck in the bureaucracy of it," he said.

He saidtransparency is key in Mtis governance.He notes during the MNC special sitting in September, a vote was taken to live stream the event, with some members not in favour. However, it was eventually voted to be streamed live.

"We elect them into those positions; we absolutely should know what they're talking about," he said.

"Theirduty is to us as citizens, and if we don't know what they're doing, how do we know they're serving their duty in the fullest form to us?"

He said he would always be Mtis,even if there wasn't a political body.

"[If]all these governments decided to disappear magically, I would still be a Mtis person, because it's not as if our culture and our way of life and our traditional ways would go away," Morin said.

'Mtisare voyageurs'

One of the communities the MMFhas said has questionable ties to the MtisNationisthe MNO's Barrie South-Simcoe Mtis Local.

The local's president, Roxanne Shank, isa lawyer with traceable rootstothe Red River Valley. She said she does not understand why the MMF ispersistent with those allegations.

"The interesting thing . . . is that the Mtis are voyageurs," she said.

"So you have a lot of people in Ontario that are related and have connections to the Mtis in Manitoba and farther west."

Shank saidthe MtisNationhas other battles to worry about,more important than infighting.

"I think we're greater together," she said.

"The challenges are there, let alone dealing with re-writing the history books, and getting Indigenous culture recognized more than one day a year, on Sept. 30."