U of A honours Native studies professor with University Cup
”I’d used my knowledge, my education, my skills, to some benefit for people who have had a hard time,” professor Frank Tough says.
Christy DeanEvery year, the University Cup — the highest honour the University of Alberta bestows upon academic staff — is awarded to a professor who demonstrates a sustained commitment to excellence.
The Cup acknowledges the enduring accomplishments of academic staff in teaching, research, and service across various disciplines throughout their careers. On November 9, Frank Tough, professor in the faculty of Native studies, received the award at the Office of the Provost and Vice-president’s annual “Celebrate! Teaching. Learning. Research” event.
MAP lab provides evidence for Métis peoples’ rights
In 1999, Tough founded the Métis Archival Project (MAP) research lab at the U of A. Through his applied archival research, Tough has worked to “get land back for the Métis.” By digitizing historical crown records, like censuses and scrips, onto an online database, his lab provides Métis litigants with resources to support claims to their land and ancestry.
The database also helps Métis individuals explore their ancestral genealogy and geography, Tough said.
Tough described himself as someone who has “always been interested in arguments that are made based on facts, not opinions.” Through MAP, he has amassed evidence to help Métis defend their land claims in court.
“In court, the judges want to work with evidence,” he said. “If you’re going to assert that you have an unextinguished Aboriginal right to fish, you have to provide some evidence.”
Essentially, MAP provides Métis people with “external evidence that verifies their argument about rights and being a people,” Tough said.
”I felt I’d used my knowledge, my education, my skills, to some benefit for people who have had a hard time,” Tough says
Tough has also provided testimony in court cases using documents from the MAP lab. In many cases, the court recognized the judicial rights of Métis plaintiffs, using the records as evidence.
“We didn’t have as many legal theories open to us. There had [not] been a lot of Métis case law, so we sort of threw everything at it,” Tough said, referencing a case. “And I got a call from the lawyer defending these people. He told me that they’d won the case. I felt I’d used my knowledge, my education, my skills, to some benefit for people who have had a hard time.”
As well, Tough said that records from the lab have helped “define the Métis homeland.”
“We’ve been able to take thousands of pieces of data and map out the Métis homeland,” he said. “They didn’t have treaty boundaries. They don’t have any particular boundaries. So we’ve been able to do that.”
Despite his impactful career, receiving the prestigious award was surprising, Tough said.
“I’m sort of old school,” he explained. “I started 40 years ago, by not doing what is currently of interest. I’m doing old fashioned stuff, in terms of empirical research. There isn’t in the academy — I don’t think — a great deal of interest in that.”
Tough mentions interdisciplinary origins and implications of MAP lab work
By nature, Tough said his intellectual pursuits are interdisciplinary. They combine his empirically-oriented research as a trained historical geographer with his interest in political economy. Tough said having “this political economy in the background helps [him] interpret data.”
”The proof of my unfocused mind is that I’m interested in historical geography, legal history, and economic history,” he added. “So, there is an intellectual thing to this. If there were no Métis rights cases going on, I would [still] be very interested in the sort of work I’m doing now.”
Moreover, Tough alluded to the novel ways that people use MAP research. For example, he mentioned Métis artist and architect Tiffany Shaw’s artwork. In 2020, she etched scrip documents derived from Tough’s database onto glass at the Markham bus station in Winnipeg.
“Imagine people in Winnipeg, which is where I come from, in minus 40 degrees. They’re sitting there waiting for the bus to come. And they’re reading scrip documents,” Tough said. “I never thought that the work I do would be part of a large public art project.”
Tough mentioned growing public interest in digitizing archival records, and in the MAP lab, itself.
”My wish, as I move towards the very last phase in my academic career, is to complete some writing projects and ensure that the MAP lab continues as a research institute.”
