This paper examines state power and cultural marginalisation among Aboriginal women in a relatively remote area of north-western British Columbia, Canada. In this paper, I argue that intersecting state powers explain intra-generational 'ethnic mobility', that is, shifts in individual ethnic identity among Aboriginal women in this area. In order to understand these shifting identities I have used the idea of 'structural violence' (Farmer 2003, 8) to describe how power inequalities between people and the state affect impoverished and marginalised people in different ways, and how decisions made by others constrain their survival strategies.