Rookie Winnipeg city councillor Sherri Rollins's claim of being "a proud Huron-Wendat woman" is under scrutiny because she's not a member of any modern Indigenous community, including North America's four surviving Huron and Wyandot groups.

On Oct. 24, Rollins beat out six other candidates to become the first new councillor in the Winnipeg ward of Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry in 20 years.

During the election, Rollins referred to herself as "a proud Huron-Wendat woman" on her campaign website. She also said she's Huron-Wendat at the top of her Twitter biography.

"I have thought about being a Huron-Wendat woman on city council," Rollins said on election night, moments after she delivered her acceptance speech. "I've thought about joining Brian Bowman and giving him some bench strength."

Rollins's election gave Winnipeg city council three members who identify as Indigenous. Both Mayor Brian Bowman and rookie Charleswood-Tuxedo Coun. Kevin Klein identify as Mé​​tis.

Rollins says her father's side of the family has centuries of history in traditional Huron-Wendat territory near Windsor, Ont., and she has always considered herself First Nations and French.

Rollins says she's Huron-Wendat at the top of her Twitter biography. (Twitter)

She said she knows she has an Ontario-born ancestor from the Miami nation, but is not a member of Canada's only extant Huron-Wendat community, the Wendake of Quebec City.

She also said she is not aware of any connection to the three remaining U.S. Wyandot communities, who are part of the larger Huron-Wendat nation.

Identity 'layered and impacted by colonization'

"My identity is layered and impacted by colonization," said the councillor, who identifies as British, French, First Nations and Jewish.

"In terms of attachment, I don't say I'm a Huron-Wendat member of Wendake in Quebec. That is [an] important clarification. I am not a member. I am not status.

"I think I have Huron-Wendat ancestors. I think that I have Miami ancestors. I think I have 300 years of tradition in the Windsor-Detroit area."

I'm proud of my First Nations family, I'm proud of my French family. I'm proud to be a Jew. - Coun. Sherri Rollins

Rollins said her Miami ancestor is a woman named Marguerite OubanKiKoué.

Gail Morin, a Washington state-based genealogist who has written dozens of books about Mé​​tis families, said OubanKiKoué was in all likelihood Miami and had at least six children, including Archange Chene dit Labutte, who was born in Sandwich, Ont., in 1779 and is also one of Rollins' ancestors.

Morin said all but two of OubanKiKoué's children married, but none of them married other Indigenous people.

"They were all French-Canadians," said Morin.

'A romanticized version of what they want to believe'

Morin said it's becoming more common for people to identify as Indigenous based on finding an Indigenous ancestor in their genealogy — and added she is critical of the practice.

"It's a romanticized version of what they want to believe," said Morin.

"They find a Native grandmother born 300 years ago. Usually it's their eighth, ninth, or 10th great-grandmother. That's a long time ago," Morin said.

People will never understand the pain or struggle of being Indigenous.… She's never had to go through history the way that we did, inherit all of those ills. - Elder Chickadee Richard

"Then they say, 'Oh. I'm Indian,' or 'I'm a mixed blood,' or 'I'm Métis,' or 'I'm Miami,' or 'I'm Huron,' which they're none of them, because for the next 12 generations, nobody ever married anybody in those communities."

Rollins said the focus on her bloodline is offensive and that all Canadians ought to learn more about their Indigenous ancestors, the way her family has.

"We have long acknowledged on my father's side we are First Nation and French," she said.

Rollins called herself 'a proud Huron-Wendat woman' on her election website. (sherrirollins.ca)

"Most Winnipeggers know that when your grandma says, 'I came from Poland,' you just go and eat. You don't say, 'Grandma, I'd like to see your passport, your birth certificate and I'd like to verify that.'"

'They want to own our pain'

Anishinaabe elder Chickadee Richard said having some Indigenous ancestry does not make one Indigenous.

She said she hopes no politician would ever use Indigeneity for political gain.

"People will never understand the pain or struggle of being Indigenous. They want to own our pain. She's never had to go through history the way that we did, inherit all of those ills," Richard said of Rollins.

'I have thought about being a Huron-Wendat woman on city council,' Rollins said on election night. (Travis Golby/CBC)

Rollins said she did not rely on her background to obtain past work with the federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, or to help get her elected to council or the Winnipeg School Board, where she served as a trustee.

"That supposes I didn't run on community safety, that I didn't run on economic development and social development, that I didn't run on social inclusion," she said, adding she did not base her run for council on her identity.

"That wasn't the case of my run."

Mayor Bowman said Rollins's background played no role in his decision to appoint her to executive policy committee, where she serves as chair of council's protection, community services and parks committee.

Bowman said he did not consider Indigeneity as a qualification when he made Rollins a committee chair or when he appointed Klein the chair of the Winnipeg Police Board.

"These are all community leaders. These are folks who've been elected by residents to represent them and they're Canadians," Bowman said.

Rollins said most Winnipeggers understand identity is complex and noted she does not just identify as Huron-Wendat.

"I'm proud of my First Nations family, I'm proud of my French family. I'm proud to be a Jew. I'm proud of my children who are Swampy Cree Mé​tis, like their dad. I'm proud of my Kembata, Ethiopian daughter; I am an adoptive mom," she said.

Demanding proof of ancestry, she added, is viewing identity through a colonial, European framework.