 The development of “Eastern Métis studies” 
Over the course of the past fifteen years, tens of thousands of descendants of the earliest French colonizers in New France have been claiming an “Indigenous” identity as “Métis” in Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. This social movement has led to the development of a primarily French-language academic sub-field that advocates for the existence of a distinct constitutional rights-bearing “Eastern Métis” people in this region. To explain the intellectual arguments in favour of the so-called Eastern M étis, I review several journal articles, book chapters, books, and doctoral dissertations on the topic. I then place this material in conversation with Métis and/or Indigenous Studies scholars to illustrate several of the main weaknesses of this emerging sub-field. The article is divided into the two broad themes that emerged from my analysis: Métis ethnogenesis reinvented and normative nationalist/colonial concerns.