Distorted Descent

White Claims to Indigenous Identity

By: Darryl Leroux

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Hardcover | 20 September 2019

At a Glance

Hardcover
296 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1

Hardcover

$190.75

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Distorted Descent examines a social phenomenon that has taken off in the twenty-first century: otherwise white, French descendant settlers in Canada shifting into a self-defined "Indigenous" identity. This study is not about individuals who have been dispossessed by colonial policies, or the multi-generational efforts to reconnect that occur in response. Rather, it is about white, French-descendant people discovering an Indigenous ancestor born 300 to 375 years ago through genealogy and using that ancestor as the sole basis for an eventual shift into an "Indigenous" identity today.

After setting out the most common genealogical practices that facilitate race shifting, Leroux examines two of the most prominent self-identified "Indigenous" organizations currently operating in Quebec. Both organizations have their origins in committed opposition to Indigenous land and territorial negotiations, and both encourage the use of suspect genealogical practices. Distorted Descent brings to light to how these claims to an "Indigenous" identity are then used politically to oppose actual, living Indigenous peoples, exposing along the way the shifting politics of whiteness, white settler colonialism, and white supremacy.

Industry Reviews

"[Distorted Descent] is a deeply necessary book that responds to the challenges of the contemporary moment and charts a path for a more livable future."

--Jeff Noh "Event Magazine"

"Darryl Leroux masterfully gives a full account of the political reasons for this phenomenon [of race-shifting]. Distorted Descent provides both an extremely important argument as well as a prose that draws in the reader."

--Joseph R. Wiebe "University of Toronto Quarterly, "Letters in Canada""

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