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Dissertation Information for Martha Harroun Foster

NAME:
- Martha Harroun Foster

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2000)

ADVISORS:
- Norris Hundley Jr.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Melissa L. Meyer
- Duane Champagne

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: "We know who we are": Multiethnic identity in a Montana Metis community

Abstract: "We Know Who We Are": Multiethnic Identity in a Montana Métis Community explores Métis ethnic identity in the United States by closely examining the families who established the longest continuously occupied Métis community in Montana. This study investigates the role of self-ascription, ascription, kinship, economic factors, institutional pressures, government policy, gender, and discrimination in the development and maintenance of ethnic identification among persons of mixed-descent. The examination of identity in a small group of Métis who, despite a lack of legal and historical recognition, and in spite of poverty and prejudice, have maintained a sense of community and common history since the early nineteenth century raises basic questions about the nature of ethnicity. This work speaks to the difficulties of ethnic identification encountered by all people of mixed-ethnic descent who, bound by rigid ethnic definitions, have been unable to fully express the varied aspects of their heritage or have been forced to accept an ascribed identity that does not fit their experience and self-perception.

The Métis, who are of predominately Chippewa, Cree, French, and Scottish descent, flourished in Canada and the northwestern U.S. from the early nineteenth century to the present. While the Métis experience is characterized by diversity, a close study of one community, that of Lewistown, Montana, lends insights into the nature of Métis identity. The history of the Lewistown Métis--or more precisely, the Spring Creek Métis--begins long before 1879, but in that year they followed the few remaining bison herds to the Judith Basin of central Montana. Here they settled on the tributaries to Spring Creek, founded the town of Lewistown, and faced a series of challenges both to their economic survival and to their identity as Métis. As they watched the bison disappear, they experienced the arrival of great numbers of EuroAmerican settlers, suffered discrimination, sought recognition as native people, and struggled to maintain their unique sense of self and their Métis identity. Using kinship bonds to extend social networks and cement old ones, they adapted to changing economic and social conditions, while retaining a distinct sense of community that persists to this day.

MPACT Scores for Martha Harroun Foster

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-09-15 10:56:35

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Students under Martha Harroun Foster

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None