The haunting poem The Devils Language, by Marilyn Dumont,  explores the way something as mundane as language has been used to categorize a group of people, “one wrong sound and you’re shelved in the Native Literature section”.  This poem is located in Marilyn Dumont’s book The Really Good Brown Girl which explores the multiple boundaries imposed by society on the self to fit within the “white” ideal. Marilyn Dumont interested me in particular because she is a Metis from Alberta with Cree ancestry that openly addresses issues that Indigenous people are faced with through her poetry. The way that this poem relates to my Big Idea is through it’s method of defining people. Dumont presents an idea of people not being defined just on their culture or ancestry, but on the language that has been forced upon them.

The correlation between my Big Idea and this poem are minuscule but have a great impact the way in which one  can view the definition of Metis.  “The Great White Way”-refers to the English language that Dumont continually hints at to throughout this poem- is defined as being pristine, it has “lily white words/ its picket fence sentences/ and manicured paragraphs”. English being a pristine language also relates to the superiority that many “whites” feel that they have over Indigenous people. If an indigenous person did not follow the English language then they were seen to be rebelling  and were receding back to our stereotypical “savage” ways. Cree- the language that Dumont’s Father speaks- is refers to as the devil’s language, it is what confines us to our canvas tents. When Indigenous people were to speak English but not properly , then they were deemed to be dum and illiterate. Dumont presents the idea of the power of language and how it relates to peoples definitions of certain Aboriginal groups. It presents a societal way to interpret a culture,  a single way that clumps many different way of living  together and deeming their way of living to be uncivilized compared to the King’s culture. This definition is solely focused on the way one speaks English, similar to the definition of who is Metis, many people presume that being Metis is straight forward, forgetting the background that each person has. There is no single way to constrain Metis into one single  interpretation. The way that this poem relates to my Big Idea is through it’s way on containing a culture to fit within a single unanimous definition, each Metis family is different bringing their own stories into their way of believing what being Metis means.

Many continually presume that the word Metis has a single definition, when in actually it has numerous different ways to interpret the word. The idea that Dumont presents is the stereotypical way that many define indigenous people, it is way of clumping everyone together, assuming that these drastically different cultures can be constrained within social norms.  Metis has numerous different definitions but has been confined to a single definite that fits within many individuals preconceived notion of what they presume Metis to be. This evidence contributes a minuscule argument into what it means to Metis and the way to define these people in this ever changing dispute over who actually is Metis.