Métis Futurist Research Creation

Transformation and Peoplehood in Chelsea Vowel’s Buffalo is the New Buffalo

Abstract

This paper provides a reading of two short stories in Chelsea Vowel’s Buffalo is the New Buffalo, “Buffalo Bird” and “Unsettled,” to better understand how peoplehood and transformative potential figure into Vowel’s conception of Métis futurisms. Peoplehood, in this paper, is used as an approach that privileges the connections between Métis people rather than understanding Métis identity on purely racial terms. Similarly, the power of transformation in Vowel’s collection is rendered ordinary, and exceptional acts of transformation are recognized as transformative acts that create an impact. Transformation is also analyzed beyond the literature in Vowel’s innovative use of footnotes within her collection, and how footnotes can function as a form of methodology. Understood as research creation, Vowel’s creative-scholarly stories model Métis ways of knowing and producing knowledge, which creates space for Métis research practices within the academy.