Book Selections

"Land Acknowledgements often begin academic conferences, cultural events, government press conferences, and even hockey games. They are supposed to be an act of Reconciliation between Indigenous people in Canada and non-Indigenous Canadians, but they have become so routine and formulaic that they have sometimes lost meaning. Seen more and more as empty words, some events have dropped Land Acknowledgements altogether. Me��tis artist and educator Suzanne Keeptwo wants to change that. She sees the Land Acknowledgement as an opportunity for Indigenous people in Canada to communicate their worldview to non-Indigenous Canadians--a worldview founded upon Age Old Wisdom about how to sustain the Land we all want to call home. For Keeptwo, the Land Acknowledgement is a way to teach and a way to learn: a living, evolving record of First Nation, Me��tis, and Inuit people in Canada and the Land that for millennia they held in pristine condition. As Keeptwo says: "Everything comes back to the Land--as our common denominator and most perfect unifier for Reconciliation." This is an indispensable guide to getting the contemporary Land Acknowledgement right."--

"Relationality is a core principle of Indigenous studies, yet there is relatively little work that assesses what building relations looks like in practice, especially in the messy context of Native nations' governance. Focusing on the unique history and context of Osage nation building efforts, this insightful ethnography provides a deeper vision of the struggles Native nation leaders are currently facing. Exploring the Osage philosophy of moving to a new country as a framework for relational governance, Jean Dennison shows that for the Osage, nation building is an ongoing process of reworking colonial constraints to serve the nation's own ends. As Dennison argues, Osage officials have undertaken deliberate changes to strengthen Osage relations to their language, self-governance, health, and land-core needs for a people to thrive now and into the future. Scholars and future Indigenous leaders can learn from the Osage Nation's past challenges, strategies, and ongoing commitments to better enact the difficult work of Indigenous nation building"--

"In 'They came but could not conquer,' Diane J. Purvis reveals the centuries-long histories of environmental destruction and settler violence against Alaska Natives and their villages by successive European empires and states: Russian, British, French, and American"--;"As the environmental justice movement slowly builds momentum, Diane J. Purvis highlights the work of Indigenous peoples in Alaska's small rural villages, who have faced incredible odds throughout history yet have built political clout fueled by vigorous common cause in defense of their homes and livelihood. Starting with the transition from Russian to American occupation of Alaska, Alaska Natives have battled with oil and gas corporations; fought against U.S. plans to explode thermonuclear bombs on the edge of Native villages; litigated against political plans to flood Native homes; sought recompense for the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster; and struggled against the federal government's fishing restrictions that altered Native paths for subsistence. In 'They came but could not conquer' Purvis presents twelve environmental crises that occurred when isolated villages were threatened by a governmental monolith or big business. In each, Native peoples rallied together to protect their land, waters, resources, and a way of life against the bulldozer of unwanted, often dangerous alterations labeled as progress. In this gripping narrative Purvis shares the inspiring stories of those who possessed little influence over big business and regulations yet were able to protect their traditional lands and waterways anyway."--

"Indigenous Peoples and Borders considers the problem of state borders, which are frequently legacies of colonialism, and their impact on Indigenous Peoples around the world. Indigenous lands are frequently divided by such borders creating difficulties for their Native inhabitants that were until recently largely disregarded by international law and international relations scholars. The contributors, including many Indigenous rights practitioners, take up issues of sovereignty, power, globalization, economic integration, and self-determination in areas from Bangladesh to the Russian Arctic to Mexico. The collection takes a comparative, multidisciplinary, and global approach showing the ways Indigenous Peoples are challenging and working around borders, even as they are constrained by them"--

"Indigenous Science and Technology: Nahuas and the World Around Them focuses on how Nahuas have explored, understood, and explained the world around them, in pre-invasion, colonial, and contemporary time periods"--

Carry : a memoir of survival on stolen land-book

"A powerful work of reportage and American history in the vein of Caste and How the Word Is Passed that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation's earliest days, and a small-town murder in the '90s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land over a century later"--;"A powerful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation's earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century later. Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests--in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples. In the 1830s Muscogee people were rounded up by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was created on top of Muscogee land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn't have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle's own Cherokee Nation. Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country." --

In the spirit of truth and reconciliation, judges, lawyers, and law enforcement officers write about working with First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Peoples through their trials and tribulations with the criminal justice system. The stories are a mix of previously published essays from the True Cases anthologies with an equal number of new chapters by legal and law enforcement professionals including Justice Thomas Berger (posthumous), Justice Nancy Morrison, Justice John Reilly, Senator Kim Pate, lawyers Eleanore Sunchild, Brian Beresh, and John L. Hill, and parole and police officers Doug Heckbert, Ernie Louttit, Val Hoglund, and Sharon Bourque.

"Treaties made in the 1800s between the United States and the Indigenous nations of what is now Wisconsin have had profound influence on the region's cultural and political landscape. Yet few people realize that in the early part of that century, the Menominee and Ho-Chunk Nations of Wisconsin signed land treaties with several Indigenous nations from New York State. At the onset of the removal era, these eastern nations, including the Oneida Nation and the Six Nations Confederacy, were under constant pressure from the federal government and land speculators to move to lands around Green Bay and Lake Winnebago. In this groundbreaking book, Carol A. Cornelius has compiled a careful account of these nation-to-nation treaties, in large part in the words of those Indigenous leaders who served as the voices and representatives of their nations. Drawing on a rich collection of primary sources, Cornelius walks readers through how, why, and for whom these treaties were made and how the federal government's failure and unwillingness to acknowledge their legitimacy led to the further loss of Indigenous lands. The living documents transcribed here testify to the complexity and sovereignty of Indigenous governance then and now, making this volume a vital resource for historians and an accessible introduction to Indigenous treatymaking in Wisconsin"--

The politics of domination with which the United States oppresses and exploits the Native Nations, is a violation of the intentions of the framers of the Constitution, and the meaning of the text itself. The arguments of the advocates of the genocide of the 1830s and their appeasers have come to determine the law, policy, and conduct of the United States, while the arguments of the opponents of what came to be known as the Trail of Tears have largely been forgotten, at least among non-Native people. By recovering these arguments, and allowing readers to explore large questions of law, justice, genocide, and politics in a context closely tethered to empirical evidence and careful argument, this book should facilitate more widespread understanding of the Native Nations' rights to their treaty-guaranteed dominion over their own lands and perhaps help open communication between the American people and the peoples of the Native Nations; communication on which the emergence of what Martin Luther King, Jr. called 'the beloved community' depends. Arguments over Genocide aims to reach a broad audience of college students, in courses on American History, Indigenous Studies, and the United States and the World, as well as in more specialized upper division courses on constitutional law, American/European imperialism, and resistance, independence, and decolonization movements. Individuals interested in the founding of the United States, in the Trail of Tears, and in 19th century American history should find the work compelling, as should legal practitioners in the field

Dinah Shelton and Federico Guzman Duque examine the human rights of indigenous peoples and communities under current international law. Setting out a historical overview of the legal treatment of native populations from the colonial period to the present, the authors deftly analyze frameworks of institutions monitoring indigenous human rights, theoretical issues relating to these, access to justice and reparations, and special considerations afforded to specific indigenous communities.

"Restoring Relations introduces, synthesizes, and analyzes traditional stories by Dine and Dene storytellers in orature and film. Restoring storied autonomy, identities, kinship, and languages is coming to a state of harmony, beauty, wellness, peace, and balance by recognizing hane' (story/narrative) in oral, literary, and visual formats (spoken, published, directed, and beaded). The book conceptualizes narrative autonomy as hane'tonomy and visual storytelling from a Dine perspective and offers a map for restorying that resists inauthentic and misappropriated stories. The base of the argument privilege Indigenous narratives and how these narratives are tied to land and relations. In the book's final movement, the author explores the power of story to forge ancestral and kinship ties between the Dine and Dene, across time and space through re-storying of relations"--

"Indigenous Legalities, Pipeline Viscosities examines the relationship between the Wet'suwet'en nation and pipeline development, showing how colonial governments and corporations seek to control Indigenous claims, and how the Wet'suwet'en resist. Tyler McCreary offers historical context for the unfolding relationship between Indigenous peoples and colonialism and explores pipeline regulatory review processes, attempts to reconcile Indigeneity with development, as well as fundamental questions about territory and jurisdiction. Throughout, McCreary demonstrates how the cyclical and ongoing movements between resistance and reconciliation are affected by the unequal relations between Indigenous peoples and colonial government and development operations. This book will be of interest to readers interested in Indigenous and Wet'suwet'en politics, as well as the politics of pipeline development. Scholars in geography, environmental studies, political science, law, and Indigenous Studies will benefit from this sophisticated analysis."--

"In New York Harbour, at the entrance to the United States of America, stands the Statue of Liberty: Liberty Enlightening the World. Liberty stands as a beacon welcoming all to the land of the free, holding a torch and a tablet inscribed with the date of American Declaration of Independence. At her feet lies a broken chain. The ideal of freedom is celebrated as the definitive ideal of modern western civilization, and is exported to the world, often by force. Wars and invasions are justified with the claim that we must free the foreign people, whom we will then turn away at our borders. Many are excluded from the ideal of freedom: the American Declaration of Independence was signed by slave owners, and the land that was declared independent was stolen from Indigenous peoples. Indigenous lands and peoples around the world remain colonized, and the practice of Black slavery continues in practices of mass incarceration. The land of the free, like other "developed" nations, polices its borders to keep out unwanted foreigners. Walls are not really necessary. Worldwide, the freedom of some depends on the exploitation and oppression and exclusion of most of the world's people"--

"Examining the restitution of cultural property to Indigenous Peoples in human rights law, this book offers a detailed analysis of the opportunities and constraints of international law as a tool of resistance and social transformation for marginalized groups. In accordance with an increasing insistence on respect for diverse cultures, and through their own international mobilization, Indigenous Peoples have participated in the construction of a distinct human rights framework. Significant academic inquiry has focused on the substantive gains made by Indigenous Peoples in this context; along with its impact on a body of law that had previously denied Indigenous Peoples a basis for claims to their own cultural materials and practices. Accordingly, this book acknowledges that Indigenous Peoples, as non-state actors, have generated greater substantive and procedural legitimacy in human rights law making. Offering normative insights into the participation of non-state actors in international law making, it also, however, demonstrates that, despite their significant role in constructing the legal framework of human rights in the 21st century, the participation of Indigenous Peoples continues to be structurally limited. With its interdisciplinary approach to the field, this book will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of law, politics, anthropology and indigenous studies"--

Self-Determination as Voice addresses the relationship between Indigenous peoples' participation in international governance and the law of self-determination. Many states and international organizations have put in place institutional mechanisms for the express purpose of including Indigenous representatives in international policy-making and decision-making processes, as well as in the negotiation and drafting of international legal instruments. Indigenous peoples' rights have a higher profile in the UN system than ever before. This book argues that the establishment and use of mechanisms and policies to enable a certain level of Indigenous peoples' participation in international governance has become a widespread practice, and perhaps even one that is accepted as law. In theory, the law of self-determination supports this move, and it is arguably emerging as a rule of customary international law. However, ultimately the achievement of the ideal of full and effective participation, in a manner that would fulfil Indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, remains deferred.

"Written by leading Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, Voicing Identity examines the issue of cultural appropriation in the contexts of researching, writing, and teaching about Indigenous peoples. This book grapples with the question: who is qualified to engage in these activities and how can this be done appropriately and respectfully? The authors address these questions from their own individual perspectives and experiences, often revealing personal struggles and their ongoing attempts to resolve them. There is diversity in perspectives and approaches, but also a common goal: to conduct research and teach in respectful ways that enhance understanding of Indigenous histories, cultures, and rights, and promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Bringing together contributors with diverse backgrounds and unique experiences, Voicing Identity will be of interest to students and scholars studying Indigenous issues as well as anyone seeking to engage in the work of making Canada a model for just relations between the original peoples and newcomers."--

"In 1987, when Karen Van Fossan's teenage identity was stolen in a botched bank robbery, she maintained an unquestioning allegiance to the colonial legal system. In 2021, when she found herself in a jail cell on a Water Protector charge, she had long since been a resister of her own colonial culture. But what does it mean, as a descendent of colonialism, to seek to be un-colonial?"--

"A call for the rethinking Navajo sovereignty in a way more rooted in Navajo beliefs, culture, and values"--Provided by publisher.

"Illuminating the First Nations struggles against the Canadian state, It's All about the Land exposes how racism underpins and shapes Indigenous-settler relationships. Renowned Kahnaw:ke Mohawk activist and scholar Taiaiake Alfred explains how the Canadian government's reconciliation agenda is a new form of colonization that is also guaranteed to fail. Bringing together Alfred's speeches and interviews from over the past two decades, the book shows that Indigenous peoples across the world face a stark choice: reconnect with their authentic cultures and values or continue following a slow road to annihilation. Alfred proposes a radical vision for contesting and confronting the ongoing genocide of the original peoples of this land: Indigenous Resurgence. This way of thinking, being, and practising represents an authentic politics that roots resistance in the spirit, knowledge, and laws of the ancestors. Set against the historic arc of Indigenous-settler relations in Canada and drawing on the rich heritage of First Nations resistance movements, It's All about the Land traces the evolution of Indigenous struggle and liberation through the dynamic processes of oratory, dialogue, action, and reflection."--

"The book provides individual Diné/Navajo examinations and understandings of Níhi kéyah, Navajo homeland. These examinations and understandings represent a distinctive lens of Diné/Navajo peoples and way of life"--

Diné perspectives : revitalizing and reclaiming Navajo thought-book

"Informed by personal experience and offering an inclusive view, Diné Identity in a Twenty-First-Century World showcases the complexity of understanding and the richness of current Diné identities"--

"An original account of the stakes of sovereignty for recovering anticolonial pasts and fashioning anticolonial futures. Despite their signal contributions to present-day anticolonial struggles from #NODAPL to Idle No More, Indigenous societies around the globe are recurrently neglected in histories and theories of decolonization. What results from this disregard is not only skewed history, but also diminished political horizons for those (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) striving to transform an unequal world profoundly shaped by colonialism. Bridging political theory and Indigenous Studies, political theorist David Temin shows how key 20th-century Indigenous intellectual-activists in lands today claimed by Canada and the United States fundamentally recast the philosophical substance and normative goals of decolonization. Through history, textual interpretation, and conceptual analysis, his book recasts a vision of anticolonial thought and agency that circles around a politics of self-determination disentangled from sovereignty as institution and ideal-one committed to the relational flourishing of human and other-than-human beings against colonial domination"--

"An award-winning author investigates the entangled history of her Jewish ancestors' land in South Dakota and the Lakota, who were forced off that land by the United States government. "A brilliantly conceived family history, one that places questions of responsibility and atonement at the center of the conversation about America's political future."--the Whiting Foundation. Growing up, Rebecca Clarren only knew the major plot points of her tenacious immigrant family's origins. Her great-great-grandparents, the Sinykins, and their six children fled antisemitism in Russia and arrived in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, ultimately settling on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota. Over the next few decades, despite tough years on a merciless prairie and multiple setbacks, the Sinykins became an American immigrant success story. What none of Clarren's ancestors ever mentioned was that their land, the foundation for much of their wealth, had been cruelly taken from the Lakota by the United States government. By the time the Sinykins moved to South Dakota, America had broken hundreds of treaties with hundreds of Indigenous nations across the continent, and the land that had once been reserved for the seven bands of the Lakota had been diminished, splintered, and handed for free, or practically free, to white settlers. In The Cost of Free Land, Clarren melds investigative reporting with personal family history to reveal the intertwined stories of her family and the Lakota, and the devastating cycle of loss of Indigenous land, culture, and resources that continues today. With deep empathy and clarity of purpose, Clarren grapples with the personal and national consequences of this legacy of violence and dispossession. What does it mean to survive oppression only to perpetuate and benefit from the oppression of others? By shining a light on the people and families tangled up in this country's difficult history, The Cost of Free Land invites readers to consider their own culpability and what, now, can be done"--

"Over the span of ten years, seven high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The seven were hundreds of miles away from their families, forced to leave their reserve because there was no high school there for them to attend. Award-winning journalist Tanya Talaga delves into the history of this northern city that has come to manifest, and struggle with, human rights violations past and present against aboriginal communities."--

Involving Indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge in natural resource management produces more equitable and successful outcomes. Unfortunately, argue Anne Ross and co-authors, even many "progressive" methods fail to produce truly equal partnerships. This book offers a comprehensive and global overview of the theoretical, methodological, and practical dimensions of co-management. The authors critically evaluate the range of management options that claim to have Integrated Indigenous peoples and knowledge, and then outline an innovative, alternative model of co-management, the Indigenous Stewardship Model. They provide detailed case studies and concrete details for application in a variety of contexts. Broad in coverage and uniting robust theoretical insights with applied detail, this book is ideal for scholars and students as well as for professionals in resource management and environmental policy. --Book Jacket.

"This book examines the construction of memory in two indigenous sacred sites in the US and Mexico. It juxtaposes two relationships, the Chemehuevi people and their ties with the Old Woman Mountains of the East Mojave Desert, and the Caxcan people and their ties with Tlachialoyantepec in Zacatecas, Mexico. This research outlines a personal journey, a process of making connections through indigenous decolonial methodologies, and a research project in histories of both the Chemehuevi and Caxcan and their relationships to sacred mountains. This work emphasizes cultural engagements with performative and phenomenological insights as having historic preservation value"--

"Canada's colonial history continues to have a devastating impact on Indigenous peoples and communities. Decolonizing Data explores how ongoing structures of colonialization negatively impact the well-being of Indigenous peoples and communities across Canada, resulting in persistent health inequalities. In addressing the social dimensions of health, particularly as they affect Indigenous peoples and BIPOC communities, Decolonizing Data asks, should these groups be given priority for future health policy considerations? Decolonizing Data provides a deeper understanding of the social dimensions of health as applied to Indigenous peoples, who have been historically underfunded in and excluded from health services, programs, and quality of care; this has most recently been seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on both Western and Indigenous methodologies, this unique scholarly contribution takes a sociological perspective, as well as the "two-eyed seeing" approach to research methods. By looking at the ways that everyday research practices contribute to the colonization of health outcomes for Indigenous peoples, Decolonizing Data exposes the social dimensions of healthcare, and offers a careful and respectful reflection on how to "unsettle conversations" about applied social research initiatives for our most vulnerable groups."--

"Justice, Indigenous Womxn, and Two-Spirit People is an edited volume that offers a broad overview of topics pertaining to gender-related health, violence, and healing. Employing strength-based approach (as opposed to a deficit model), the chapters address the resiliency of Indigenous women and two-spirit people in the face of colonial violence and structural racism. The book centers the concept of "rematriation"-the concerted effort to place power, peace and decision making back into the female space, land, body and sovereignty-as a decolonial practice to combat injustice. Chapters include such topics as reproductive health, diabetes, missing and murdered Indigenous women, Indigenous women in the academy, and Indigenous women and food sovereignty. As part of the Indigenous Justice series, this book aims to provide an introductory overview of the topic geared toward undergraduate and graduate classes"--