Métis Governments Respond to AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak's Remarks

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said First Nations should decide their own membership, then spoke about people claiming Indigenous identity, at two news conferences in Ottawa on Oct. 26, the day of the First Nations–First Ministers’ Meeting.

“First Nations should be able to develop and design their own laws and their own ways of being. And that includes with the membership,” she said at her own news conference, recorded by CPAC. She said the subject came up because of Bill S-2, federal legislation on new registration entitlements under the Indian Act.

“There’s a lot of confused people out there who are claiming to be Indigenous, a lot of pretendians, and then a whole group of everybody else, you know, ‘I’m Métis,’ you know, a lot of them, like, you know, well, can you trace yourself back to a First Nation?” she said.

She also said “they’re creating these issues like the depletion of fish because all these people are just using cards to fish and hunt.”

At Prime Minister Mark Carney’s news conference the same day, also recorded by CPAC, she said the federal government “has been telling us who we are and who we aren’t for a long time.” She spoke of “pretendians that don’t know who they are” because the government tells people they don’t belong to a band “when in fact many of them do.”

“You’re creating this big group of Métis people across this country that probably have First Nations roots and are not some new group that are being created in this country,” she said. “First Nations were the only group along with the Inuit in this country to begin with.”

The Manitoba Métis Federation, the National Government of the Red River Métis, quoted that passage in its statement on Oct. 26. MMF President David Chartrand said Red River Métis identity, existence and history “are not up for debate, nor are they up for dismissal by any other Indigenous group in this country, especially a non-rights holding organization.”

Four more Métis governments responded on Oct. 27.

Otipemisiwak Métis Government President Andrea Sandmaier said, “Canada did not create the Métis Nation, and our existence is not up for debate.” She added, “We are not ‘some new group’ and we most certainly are not confused about who we are.”

Métis Nation–Saskatchewan President Glen McCallum said, “There is no hierarchy of Indigenous peoples under Section 35,” and called for a meeting with the Prime Minister.

In an unsigned statement, the Métis Nation of Ontario said, “No Indigenous leader should seek to advance the rights of their own people by denying the identity, history or constitutionally protected rights of another.” The MNO’s own claims are disputed: the Chiefs of Ontario say Ontario First Nations “do not recognize the MNO as a legitimate Indigenous Government,” and opposed Bill C-53, federal legislation that included recognition of MNO self-government, which Ottawa dropped in December 2024.

Métis Nation British Columbia President Anthony Wingham, writing “on behalf of Métis leadership,” said, “We are not, as the National Chief describes us as ‘pretendians’ but are a rights bearing people who will not be defined by other Indigenous groups.” He called on her “to retract her harmful comments and to engage in dialogue with Métis leadership.”

Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes and affirms the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada, which it defines as including the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples.

In April, Woodhouse Nepinak called for the withdrawal of Bill C-21, the Red River Métis self-government bill, saying it was developed without consulting First Nations; Chartrand rejected those concerns, The Canadian Press reported.

IND asked the AFN for clarification or further comment on Oct. 27 and had not received a reply by the time of publication.