Metis song reinforces false stereotype, FSIN vice chief says
Pratt calls for more Treaty education, says First Nations people pay taxes
A First Nations leader says some of the lyrics in an upbeat song of Metis pride show a need for more Treaty education.
The country song by Beauval musicians Derek Maurice and Dean Gauthier declares, “We’re Metis. We don’t get five dollars ’cause we’re Metis.”
“We pay our taxes on our very own, we pay cigarettes, gasoline and all of the clothes that we’ve worn, but the one thing killing me is how nothing comes up cheap like our status brothers, guys where’s the treaty days for me?”
The song reflects wistfulness about not receiving benefits from Treaties. It next expresses pride in paying taxes on cigarettes, gasoline and clothing but then switches back to disappointment. It returns to pride in Metis heroes Gabriel Dumont, Louis Riel, “the rebellion,” the Metis sash and the Red River jig.
Vice Chief David Pratt of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) said he likes the upbeat ditty but is disappointed that Maurice made his point by reinforcing a false stereotype that First Nations people are not taxpayers.
“That misconception needs to stop,” Pratt said.
“It underscores the need for more education. We respect our Metis brothers and sisters, their fights, their rights and equality and for their issues that impact their people ( but) it doesn’t do a service to First Nations people trying to counter misconceptions and negative stereotypes,” he said.
“We have a $5 annuity payment that comes with treaty. That is the result of us agreeing to share the land.
“Even though when we signed treaty we agreed with the treaty commissioner that we wouldn’t be subject to taxation … we’re still paying those taxes,” he said.
First Nations people pay all the same taxes off reserve as everybody else. On reserves, First Nations don’t pay government sales tax but often pay smaller, First Nations-imposed taxes.
More than half of all First Nations people now live off reserve; only the workers employed on reserves are exempt from income tax.
Pratt said negativity fuels racist statements like those that flourished online after Gerald Stanley shot and killed a Cree man, Colten Boushie, who was on his property, and after Stanley was found not guilty of murder earlier this year by a jury that appeared to be all white.
On Monday, Maurice said he was surprised by the controversy over the song on social media.
“The song was never intended to insult my status brothers,” he said in a phone interview.
The song was intended to “revitalize and rejuvenate Metis pride ... Metis people in the past did not feel we were accepted into either the First Nations or the non-first Nations world,” he said.
He acknowledged that First Nations people pay taxes and that the exemptions mentioned in the song apply only on reserves.
He said the annuity is a symbol of the First Nations’ relationship with the Crown, which the Metis were denied.
“Metis people were not given the same acknowledgment and became Road Allowance people. We always made do and became a proud nation. As a songwriter, we are limited to the lyrics we choose to utilize in our songs.”
He said supportive Facebook comments, including many from First Nations friends, surpassed the pessimistic views.