First Nations History

Tutchener and Claudie’s article is a timely reconsideration of the term ‘contact’ and its place in Australian First Peoples archaeology. Tutchener and Claudie argue that the concept of ‘contact’, used to describe early, cross-cultural interactions between the First Peoples of Australia and Europeans, has become ‘outdated and requires revisiting’. Two elements of their argument are considered here: that the term ‘contact’ continues to be used widely in Australia, and that it ‘does not recognise and respect the persistence of Indigenous culture’. Here, it is argued that reasons for the continued use of 'contact' in Australian First Peoples archaeology warrant further consideration, and that, for some Traditional Custodians, the concept of ‘contact’ assists with identifying cultural resilience in their community. The question that follows is, can we practicably avoid using the term ‘contact’ in Australian archaeology?

(Cet exposé n'est qu'une esquisse sans pretention) (This presentation is simply an unpretentious sketch)
Unions Métis et réclamations au Québec; est une analyse de recherche conduite de 2006 à 2009 contenant les résultats de recherche généalogiques d’individus réclamant le statut Indien et / ou Métis, en liens avec le registraire des membres de certaines Premières nations au Québec. La recherché fut effectuée par Eric Pouliot-Thisdale, gradué en sciences sociales et membre de la Faculté des Sciences Humaines de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, lors de recherches
universitaires et d’implications pour une association étudiante.

Eric Pouliot-Thisdale est recherchiste depuis 15 années dans le domaine des archives publiques de diverses sources, incluant les archives historiques et démographiques, qui a mené plusieurs recherches pour certains conseils de bande quant aux revendications territoriales politiques, ainsi que pour des particuliers. Il est actuellement chercheur, auteur et chroniqueur historique pour le journal hebdomadaire de la communauté de Kahnawake, gagnant du lauréat de la meilleure entreprise éducative, membre de Quebec Community Newspapers Association en 2016.

Au Québec, un mythe démographique et sociologique collectif laisse supposer que la majorité des habitants de la province sont de souches métisses; métissés par des alliances interethniques avec les indiens.

Cependant, selon la présente analyse basée sur des recherches approfondies accumulées sur 3 années consécutives par le biais de catégories de divers groupes d'âge, ainsi que plusieurs autres analyses démographique déjà effectuées précédemment par d’autres universités; cette spéculation populaire ne semble pas faire le poids sur la réalité fournie par les dossiers archivés.

En prenant compte de l’aperçu des résultats de cette présente étude, rassemblés à partir de recherches qui ont été menées entre 2006-2009, au Québec, pour les personnes qui étaient en quête d'ancêtres autochtones; le pourcentage de réalisme semblait aléatoire dans la plupart des cas. Pour obtenir un aperçu rapide de ces requêtes rencontrées, seulement 21,33% des candidats provenaient de métissages réels. Mais principalement au Québec une population d'environ 50% à 85% serait spéculée métissée, même si les compilations détaillées n'ont encore jamais été suffisamment présentées.

Également, ces résultats semblent avoir été promus plus particulièrement dans les zones où les origines de ces premiers métissages ont eu lieu la plupart du temps, créant donc un certain manque de régularité.

Historiquement, à partir des données découvertes dans les archives, la plupart des gens d'origines françaises vivant à proximité des territoires autochtones n’avaient fondamentalement pas de relations associées, spécifiquement avec les Premières nations, comme l'ont confirmés diverse études précédentes

Carved and painted onto wood, stone, bone, animal skins or metal, woven and knit into cloth, material culture from Northwest Coast Native peoples has historically been a one-of-a-kind iteration and a declaration of of familial rights and privileges.  These items adorned public and private spaces, including the body, and were traditionally produced by hand.  In recent years, some designs have been serialized and mass produced through new technologies like silk screen and digital printing, adorning everything from coffee mugs to t-shirts, sunglasses, jewelry and other garments (Roth 2012; Roth 2015). This chapter explores the history of Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations specifically and analyzes their distinctive aesthetics and design practice through the lens of fashion theory.  The chapter concludes with a discussion of contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth designers and the circulation of their work.  I ask: how does fashion operate within Nuu-chah-nulth social organization and how has ongoing colonialism and hybridization of prestige and capitalist economies transformed Nuu-chah-nulth fashion systems and design ideas? The findings discussed in this chapter draw from ongoing ethnographic research (beginning in October 2009) and archival- and museum-based research at both major and minor institutional repositories in the United States, Canada, Germany and England.

Why is it that Chief Joseph Brant, one of the key indigenous North American leaders, is fondly remembered in Canada, but largely forgotten or dismissed in the United States?  How did his strong Anglican heritage shape his leadership?  How did Brant face betrayal and setback in his life?  What can we learn from his life?  Would Canada still exist without his contribution?

Like Chief Joseph Brant, Chief Dan George has left a remarkable legacy across Canada. He himself was a chief’s son. In the 1990 North Vancouver Centennial book, Chuck Davis describes Chief Dan George as one of North Vancouver’s most famous citizens. Born on July 24th 1899, Chief Dan George died at age 82 on September 12th 1981.  His birth name was Gwesanouth/Teswahno Slahoot, meaning ‘thunder coming up over the land from the water.’  His name was changed to Dan George when he entered the Native residential school at age 5.  He memorably said that “A man who cannot be moved by a child’s sorrow will only be remembered with scorn.” Sadly, the use of his indigenous language was forbidden.  “My culture”, said Chief George, “is like a wounded stag that has crawled away into the forest to bleed and die alone. The only thing that can truly help us is genuine love.”

On ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Prophecy: “These Indians will enlighten the whole world.” By Christopher Buck and Kevin Locke [Lakota], Version #4 (April 26, 2020). • This is a work-in-progress. • “The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the official views of the Bahá’í Faith.” • (Photos are linked: Click on each photo to view source.) • Feedback invited.

“Attach great importance to the Indigenous population of America. … Likewise, these Indians, should they be educated and guided, there can be no doubt that they will become so illumined as to enlighten the whole world.” – ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan, p. 33.

Tablet to Amir Khan
(English & Persian)

“Undoubtedly in those regions [the Americas] the Call of God must have been raised in ancient times, but it hath been forgotten now.”

https://www.bahai.org/…/additional-tablets-ext…/169212878/1…

Original Persian (transliterated):
al-battih dar án ṣafahát níz dar azmanih-yi-qadímih vaqtí nidá-yi-iláhí buland gashtih va-lákin hál farámush shudih ast.

IntroductionPolybius, with his concept of Anacy dosis where "(...) the natural course or order in which constitutions change, are transformed, and return again to their original stage" (Trompf, 1979, p. 5), was the first to suggest that history may repeat itself (Trompf 1979, p. 15). Yet, the concept of historic recurrence has not been left unchallenged, having progressivism as its main contender. Baum (1978) and Edelstein (1967) argue that although progressivist ideas date as far back as the work of Xenophanes, it was the writings of the Age of Enlightenment that received praise for their notion of progress, dynamic change and human control (pp. 67-70). It is in this light that:... risk analysis might be regarded as not only a product of enlightenment thinking, but also the means to deliver the ultimate enlightenment fantasy: the idea that successive generations will learn more about the world, and so become more able to manipulate it for human gain and contentment. (Horl...

This book won the Canadian Historical Association's "Best Book in Aboriginal History Prize" in 2011, as well as the Canadian Historical Association's "Clio Prize for Best Book in British Columbia History" in 2011.  It explores the history of identify reformation among the Sto:lo Coast Salish of the lower Fraser River in the nineteenth century.  It pays special attention to the gendered expressions of collective affiliation and how the structures of Salish culture challenged and sometimes accommodated colonial-induced events.

The extreme violence that women suffer during conflict does not arise solely out of the conditions of war; it is directly related to the violence that exists in women's lives during peacetime. Throughout the world, women experience violence because they are women, and often because they do not have the same rights or autonomy that men do. They are subjected to gender-based persecution, discrimination and oppression, including sexual violence and slavery.
(Elizabet Rehn and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. (2002, 10)

In 2002, the Federal Court in Canada v. Misquadis ruled that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) had discriminated against the urban Aboriginal community, a decision upheld on appeal (Ardoch Algonquin First Nation v. Canada (Attorney General), 2003). The court determined that Aboriginal political organizations can represent urban Aboriginal interests, and that the HRSDC must provide funding for the infrastructure required to deliver services and establish representative governance. In doing so, the court defined off-reserve Aboriginal people as a group of self-organized, self-determining, and distinct communities, analogous to a reserve community. While reinforcing the political connection between on- and off-reserve Aboriginal people, the court more importantly created an Aboriginal community separate from the reserve. This essay will revisit Misquadis and explore the underlying assumptions about urban Aboriginal communities upset by this ruling.

Carved and painted onto wood, stone, bone, animal skins, or metal, or woven and knitted into cloth, the material culture from Northwest Coast Native peoples has historically been a one-of-a-kind iteration and a declaration of familial rights and privileges. These items have adorned public and private spaces, including the body, and were traditionally produced by hand. In recent years, some designs have been serialized and mass produced through new technologies such as silk screen and digital printing, adorning everything from coffee mugs to t-shirts, sunglasses, jewelry, and other garments (Roth 2012; Roth 2015). This chapter explores the history of Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations specifically and analyzes their distinctive aesthetics and design practice through the lens of fashion theory. The chapter concludes with a discussion of contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth designers and the circulation of their work. I ask: how does fashion operate within Nuu-chah-nulth social organization and how has ongoing colonialism and hybridization of prestige and capitalist economies transformed Nuu-chah-nulth fashion systems and design ideas? The findings discussed in this chapter draw from ongoing ethnographic research (beginning in October 2009) and archival- and museum-based research at both major and minor institutional repositories in the United States, Canada, Germany, and England.

In the decade and a half before the establishment of the southern section of the British Columbia-Alberta bounday in 1905, the Canadian state began to codify the future western interprovincial boundary.  Defining the scope of inclusion (and exclusion) through the alignment of this political boundary with the rigid continental height of land (also known as "The Great Divide") watercourse was the chosen method of codification.  The Kutnaxa, Shuswap and Stoney people inhabiting the valleys and foothills enveloping this singularly defined landscape were, in return, affected by the privileged continental divide watercourse construction.  These groups maintained hunting grounds that privileged largely amorphous and more fluid watershed/courses.  Stoney “incursions” into Kootenay and Shuswap territory over the mountains (mainly through Elk and Kananaskis Passes) to hunt big game created a flurry of correspondence between the Federal Office of Indian Affairs at Fort Steele, B.C. and their colleague/counterparts in Regina and Ottawa.  Drawing upon the parallel oral testimonies of Stoney and Kootenay leaders to Indian Affairs officials in B.C. and NWT/AB, this paper details how local indigenous and Euro-Canadian communities contested two significantly different watercourses as part of a larger geographical and landscape discourse.   

All parties demonstrated a concern with maintaining peace and order.  During this half-decade, the Continental Divide watershed defined the place where overlapping Kootenay, Stoney and Shuswap territories converged with Euro-Canadian territorial discourses.  This contestation culminated in a written agreement that eschewed the imposition of any so-called fixed dividing line along the Continental Divide for one that maintained the liminality and reciprocity inherent in watershed-inflected hunting grounds.  Six years later, however, when the controversy returned (1901-1905), the discourse changed radically from one rooted in dialogue to that of property legislation and its associated notions of exclusivity and inclusiveness.  Furthermore, the controversy took on a class and race based lens when the interests of sport hunters took hold.  In addition, the revival of the notion of a fixed continental divide boundary apparently defined through precise scientific topographical and hydro-geological measurement  of the mountains become a flash point of resistance as the Stoney continued to use the passes to follow game into British Columbia.  Consequently, several visions seemed to both overlap and blend into one another.  This case study demonstrates the confusions that can arise when an abstract watercourse-based geographical idea is imposed on another.

Indigenous history is commonly approached as a counter-narrative, treated as if it threatens some stable, communal understanding of history and place. A Western epistemology has rigidly shaped how most Torontonians see, and as a result it can be challenging to see Indigenous history as autonomous. The city feels unified to High Park as place—in Toronto, in Ontario, in Canada. All three are Haudenosaunee words, constantly used without any reflection of their history that predates the colonization of the country. The dissonances created by contrasting forms of perception contribute to an estrangement of Indigenous communities from locations that have significant spiritual meaning to them. In High Park, visions of a sublime expanse of nature, and as a place of rich Indigenous history, contrast and compete. Wherever these visions are expressed, a contest is enacted between the oral and the literary, between mythology and history, between spirituality and science.

This dissertation examines changes in Haida economic adaptations during the late pre-contact and early contact periods in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia). This was primarily achieved through the analysis of faunal and artifactual assemblages recovered from archaeological excavations at eight village sites in Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site (southernmost Haida Gwaii). In addition, extensive syntheses of early historic accounts, ethnographic descriptions, and previous archaeological work provide context for the interpretation of the archaeological data and complementary data on the economic responses of the Haida to European contact and the maritime fur trade.

The new archaeological data presented in this dissertation, combined with previously published results, form the basis of a detailed description of the nature of Haida economic adaptations during the late pre-contact period (ca. 500 AD to 1774 AD). Most notably, these data clarify a previously recognized shift from a more generalized, rockfish-oriented economy to a more specialised, salmon focused economy between 1,200 BP and 800 BP. These distinct economic adaptations, now widely demonstrated for southern Haida Gwaii, have been formalized as an earlier Xyuu daw Phase (ca. 2,000 BP to 1,000 BP) and a later Qayjuu Phase (ca. 1,000 BP to contact), both within the previously described late Graham Tradition.

While the maritime fur trade and the incorporation of the Haida into the European capitalist world system increased the focus of the Haida on the hunting of sea otters, altered the Haida seasonal round, and introduced new items of material culture, it had relatively little impact on the Haida subsistence economy. Salmon continued to dominate Haida subsistence, while the majority of the introduced material culture was non-utilitarian or was incorporated into existing cultural practices. In contrast, European traders were forced to adopt a degree of Haida tradition into trade practices, and in many cases were dependent on the Haida to meet their own subsistence needs. More profound changes to Haida culture, including the rise of Haida economic dependency on the world economy, arose during the subsequent period of increasing European encroachment and settlement.

Long before the arrival of Europeans, the Coast Salish First Nations of southwestern Vancouver Island turned mountain goat wool, dog hair, and plant fibres into woven textiles of great utility and value for the peoples of the Pacific Northwest.  Around 1860, Coast Salish women in the Cowichan Valley were introduced to European two-needle and multiple-needle knitting and began to produce what came to be known as the Cowichan sweater. Preparation combined ancient fibre processing and spinning techniques with European knitting to produce a high quality, iconic garment. Profit margins for the knitters were minimal but knitting provided an economic foothold in a new and challenging market-based economy.  In 2011, the Government of Canada designated the “Coast Salish Knitters and the Cowichan Sweater” as an event of national historic significance on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Quel est le champ d’action des Amérindiens dans le contexte politique canadien? Malgré les tentatives de l’État canadien de briser la structure politique traditionnelle des Autochtones en introduisant le système électif et politique du conseil de bande, ceux-ci sont loin d'avoir été des victimes passives. L'étude du leadership interstitiel est la ligne directrice de cette thèse car il est la clé d’une pratique politique « in the cracks » qui confère un pouvoir marginal aux Amérindiens. En s'intéressant aux conditions historiques et sociales de déploiement de l’arène politique en milieu de réserve, il est possible de comprendre la quotidienneté et la contemporanéité de l’exercice du pouvoir au sein d’une population minoritaire fortement politisée.

La recherche ethnographique porte sur la politique locale de la communauté algonquine de Kitigan Zibi (Québec). L’analyse des acteurs anishnabeg a montré une variabilité du leadership politique chez les Algonquins et l’existence de différents types de leader malgré l’imposition d’une fonction de chef par la Loi sur les Indiens. Le contrôle des affaires politiques officielles d’une bande par les agents coloniaux, c'est-à-dire les missionnaires et les agents indiens, n’a pas donné lieu à un contrôle total de sa dynamique politique interne et de ses membres. L'enquête de terrain a dévoilé que les diverses manifestations et actions politiques menées par les Anishnabeg s’avèrent être des stratégies du pouvoir dans la marge, une forme quotidienne de résistance face aux nouvelles façons de faire la politique établies par les autorités canadiennes, des ruses et des tactiques employées pour tenter de changer le système formel en remettant en question le pouvoir des Affaires indiennes. La contestation et la résistance ne sont toutefois pas l’unique moteur du leadership et de la politique amérindienne. En fait, le leadership politique chez les Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg est aussi basé sur diverses représentations (traditionnelles, spirituelles, symboliques) qui ont permis aux Algonquins de préserver une identité politique malgré certaines ruptures et transformations introduites dans leur société par les colonisateurs. Les ambiguïtés, les contradictions et les paradoxes de la quotidienneté politique d’une bande autochtone ne sont pas que le résultat de la rencontre d’un univers politique Autre, mais aussi l’aboutissement de l’évolution et de la reconstruction d’un système sociopolitique traditionnel et de ses dynamiques internes reliées au pouvoir, d’une redéfinition de l’autorité et de la légitimité du politique, de l'essor de leaders nouveau genre pour répondre adéquatement aux exigences politiques de la vie en réserve. La politique de réserve n’est pas une chose concrète mais plutôt une dynamique dans un temps et dans un lieu donné, au chevauchement culturel de diverses traditions politiques et formes d’autorité, au truchement de divers espaces (imposé ou symbolique) et institutions (formelle et informelle). Les Algonquins se renouvellent continuellement politiquement au sein de leur système. Ceci n’est pas un effet de l’acculturation, d’une hybridité ou de la modernité mais relève bien de la tradition. Le rattachement de fonctions et dynamiques traditionnelles à la structure formelle constitue un début de gouvernance « par le bas ». Cette dernière renouvelle de l’intérieur, par l’établissement d’un dialogue, la relation entre les leaders autochtones et les représentants de l’État, ce qui donne aux acteurs locaux une marge de manœuvre. Les Algonquins ont saisi les incompatibilités des deux systèmes – blanc et autochtone – pour définir un nouveau territoire, « in the cracks », qui devient leur domaine d’action. L'analyse de la flexibilité du leadership algonquin, de la vision eurocanadienne du leadership amérindien, de l’usage instrumental des exigences de l’État, des élections et des éligibles contemporains, de l'empowerment des femmes algonquines et du leadership féminin en milieu de réserve, a révélé que le leadership interstitiel est une force politique pour les Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg.

En portant un regard critique sur la politique locale dans le quotidien d'une bande et en incluant les voix autochtones, il est possible d’observer le processus de décolonisation et des formes embryonnaires de pratiques postcoloniales au sein des réserves. Cette recherche a démontré que le chef et les autres leaders sont au cœur de cette dynamique politique dans les marges, de l’essor et de l’émancipation politique de leur bande.
Abstract:
What is the scope of Indian participation in Canadian politics? Despite the Canadian governments’ attempts to break traditional Indigenous' political structures by introducing the Band Council system, First Peoples are far from passive victims. The study of interstitial leadership is the theoretical framework of this thesis because it is the key to political practices that take place "in the cracks", thereby conferring marginal power to Indigenous Peoples. By examining the historical and social conditions for the development of the political arena in reserves, it is possible to understand the everyday and contemporaneity of the exercise of power within a highly politicized minority population.

The present ethnographic research focuses on the local politics of the Algonquin community of Kitigan Zibi (Quebec). Anishnabeg stakeholder analysis showed a variability of Algonquin political leadership and the existence of different types of leaders in spite of the imposition of a single chief through the Indian Act. The control of the band’s official political affairs by colonial agents, that is to say the missionaries and the Indian agents, has not resulted in the complete control of internal political dynamics and members. The fieldwork revealed that the various political actions undertaken by the Anishnabeg prove to be power strategies from the margin, a form of everyday resistance to the new ways of doing politics established by the Canadian authorities. These actions were also tricks and tactics used to challenge the formal system and the Indian Affairs power. Opposition and resistance however are not the only instruments of Native leadership and politics. In fact, the Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg political leadership is also based on various representations (i.e. traditional, spiritual, and symbolic) that helped preserve Algonquin political identity despite some disruptions and changes introduced into their society by the colonizers. Ambiguities, contradictions and paradoxes found in everyday band politics are not only the result of the meeting of an Other political universe. They are also the culmination of the development and reconstruction of a traditional sociopolitical system and its internal dynamics related to power, a redefinition of the authority and political legitimacy, the rise of a new leaders genre to adequately respond to the demands of the reserve’s political life. Reserve politics are not a concrete ‘thing’ but rather a dynamic that exists within a particular time and in a given place. Additionally, overlapping different cultural and political traditions as well as various forms of authority, occur in various spaces (imposed or symbolic) and institutions (formal and informal). The Algonquin are continually renewing themselves politically within their system. This is not an effect of acculturation, hybridity, and modernity but of tradition. The joining of traditional functions and dynamics to the formal structure represents the beginning of a governance "from below". The latter renews from within, through the establishment of a dialogue, the relationship between Aboriginal leaders and representatives of the State, which provides room for manoeuvre to local protagonists. The Algonquins seized upon the incompatibilities between the two systems - Settler and Aboriginal - to define a new territory "in the cracks" which became their field of action. The analysis of the flexibility of Algonquin leadership, the Euro-Canadien vision of the Native leadership, the instrumental use of State requirements, the contemporary elections and candidates, Algonquin women's empowerment and female leadership within reserve have showed that the interstitial leadership is a political force for the Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg.

By wearing a critical eye on local politics in daily band life and  by including Indigenous voices, it is possible to observe the process of decolonization as well as the embryonic forms of postcolonial practices within reserves. This research has shown that the chief and other leaders are at the heart of this political dynamic in the margins and the political development and empowerment of their band.

This dissertation investigates the ideology of Pacific Spirit Regional Park, an urban forest adjacent to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Using the tools of archaeology and anthropology, I analyse the history, landscape, performance, and discourse of the park to understand Pacific Spirit as a culturally-constructed place that embodies an ideology of imperialism. Central in this dynamic is the carefully crafted illusion of Pacific Spirit as a site of “nature,” placed in opposition to “culture,” which naturalizes the values that created and are communicated through the park and thereby neutralizes their politics. They remain, however, very political. The park as nature erases the history and heritage of the Indigenous peoples of this region, transforming Pacific Spirit into a new terra nullius—a site to be discovered and explored, militaristic themes that consistently underlie park programs and propaganda. These cultural tropes connect to produce a nationalistic settler narrative wherein class ideals of nature and community are evoked in the celebration of Canada’s history of colonialism and capitalist expansion—paradoxically, the very processes that have caused the fragmentation of communities and ecosystems. The park as nature also feeds into the portrayal of this space as having been saved from development and, as such, an environmental triumph. In this context, the park is viewed as escape from the psychological trauma and alienation of city living and is celebrated and revered as a sacred place. This portrayal enables the forgetting of injustice and promotes a collective amnesia through the creation of a fairy-tale version of reality. The result is to disperse emotion and energy that otherwise could be mobilized against capitalism to prevent ongoing global ecological devastation. The ideology of the Pacific Spirit as nature therefore constitutes social violence by rewriting both the past and present of this land and its peoples, thereby hindering recognition of and rebellion against power. Pacific Spirit is thus a hegemonic space that reproduces colonial relationships and naturalizes capitalism. Exposing the park as a cultural place and illuminating the ideology that it perpetuates may be a crucial first step towards disrupting power through the creation of counter-narratives.

The Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland faced increasing European hostilities, expansion and the loss of access to resources during the historic period. Ultimately these conditions would compel the Beothuk to retreat into the interior of the island where they dwindled into extinction in 1829. The fact of the Beothuk's extinction, combined with the existence of a rich and colorful historical narrative has created a tendency to portray the Beothuk as a doomed people, without agency or adaptation en route to extinction. This paper conceptualizes the Beothuk as active players pursuing social objectives within this malevolent historical context. The Beothuk employed strategies such as settlement and subsistence reorganization, the avoidance of Europeans, an emphasis on ideology and identity, and the harassment of settlers as a means of coping with the cultural and social turmoil of the historic period.

The tourism industry is particularly reliant on the use of imagery to create a brand for a destination or attraction in order to effectively market its product. In the case of Indigenous tourism, a paradox often exists between maintaining a level of recognition and familiarity that mirror the expectations of the public imagination, and conveying a representation that is locally meaningful and emblematic. Investigation into the visual representation and communication of identity through tourism is a means to illustrate three overlapping issues that are prevalent throughout the literature on Indigenous tourism. These are: control, authenticity, and hybridity. This research project addresses these issues through an extensive review of anthropological and tourism-related literature and its application to the specific case study of one Indigenous tourism business, the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre (NDCC), owned and operated by the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) in Osoyoos, British Columbia (BC), Canada. Semiotic and visual analyses are used to elucidate the messages about OIB identity communicated through the Centre’s visuals, in order to bring the example of the OIB and NDCC into conversation with the larger issues found within Indigenous tourism.

South African commercial and production pottery is a
highly neglected field of research. In this article I focus on
reproductions of San rock paintings on domestic crockery
produced by Grahamstown Pottery’s Drostdy Ware
in the 1950s. At first glance, Drostdy’s Bushman wares
appear to resemble clichéd copies of Helen Tongue’s
(1909) reproductions. It is argued that Drostdy’s Bushman
wares offer a partial reflection into the complex,
evolving and frequently contradictory public sentiment
of the 1950s regarding the provenance of San rock art;
its raison d’etre; its public profile in the media, literature,
popular fiction, scientific literature, the arts, festivals
and exhibitions. This article contends that Drostdy’s
Bushman wares both espoused and contested contemporary
realities. The interstitial agency of Drostdy’s
Bushman wares was asserted via the triangulation of
textual markings on their bases; iconography and design;
and compounded by their relative quantitative “weight”.
These wares challenge the political neutrality or complicity
of much contemporary South African art and craft
production.

In this article, I explore the slow development of a national debate in Canada about genocide in the Indian Residential Schools, which I compare to earlier “history wars” in Australia and United States. In the first section I begin with a brief introduction to the history of the IRS system and some of its legacies, as well as attempts at redress. These include financial compensation through the 2006 IRS Settlement Agreement, an official apology, and the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which has been a nodal point for articulating claims of genocide. I follow this in section two with an analysis of the history wars in the United States and Australia over indigenous genocide, before engaging in section three with debates about genocide in Canada. Overt debates about genocide have been relatively slower in developing, in part because of the creation of a TRC, mandated with collecting the “truth” about the IRS system while similarly engaging in “reconciliation” (a contested term) with settler Canadians. While Canada’s history wars may seem slow in getting off the ground, they may have a greater effect in stimulating national awareness than in the United States and Australia because of the more sustained mandate and national presence of the TRC. However as I will later discuss, a certain inbuilt caution on the part of the TRC due to lessons learned from the US and Australia may prevent any official finding of genocide.

What is it in the way that we imagine the political that might demand or suggest an easy answer? By " easy answer " one might think of a diagnostic, a characteristic of action, a statement of effect, rather than analysis that may course to the unthinkable. Recognition, repair, resilience, resistance, revolution—all diagnos-tics, all characterological, all containers for describing the political. And in this, for grasping at intent and at outcomes. The political describes distributions of power, of effective and affective possibility, the imagination of how action will unfold to reach back to that distribution for a resort , but also for a push on what should be. For anthropologists this is a record of the observed and of the political, rendered objectlike. And this rendering of complexity is far from new. The early Africanists like E. E. Evans-Pritchard (1940) took structure and function to constrain action, and even Americanists like Lewis Henry Morgan (1851) saw gov-ernance and hierarchy converge into stages of civilization that one could sort people into, seamlessly, in a global project of naming and sorting. Morgan's gaze on material culture operated as an anthropological and political magic wand of sorting, ordering, and ranking. The context for both was the colonial and imperial

Manitou College, one of the first Canadian post-secondary
institutions for indigenous students, was created in 1973 on
the abandoned site of the missile base located in La Macaza,
Quebec. Despite its very short existence, Manitou College had
a considerable impact on the definition of a collective
indigenous identity and on the construction of First Nations
leadership in Canada and Quebec. Using primary and
secondary sources as well as new testimonies from key actors,
this article aims to contextualize the rise and fall of Manitou
College.

En 1973, dans les installations de l’ancienne base miliaire de La Macaza, au Québec, ouvrait l’un des premiers établissements postsecondaires destinés aux étudiants autochtones du Canada. Si l’expérience du Collège Manitou ne dura que quelques années, elle eut pourtant un effet considérable sur la fortification d’une identification collective, sur l’essor d’un leadership et sur le processus d’autonomisation autochtones au Canada et au Québec. À travers le recensement de sources primaires et secondaires et l’apport de nouveaux témoignages d’acteurs clés, cet article propose de retracer les grandes lignes qui ont caractérisé la création, le développement puis la fermeture du Collège Manitou.

The analysis of kinship relations and kinship terminology, has long been a central focus of anthropological inquiry. Additionally, linguistic relationships and changes in languages have often been argued to reflect prehistoric intergroup relationships and groups movements. This paper seeks to provide a basic analysis of selected kin terms for five Northwest Coast languages, namely Spokane, Shuswap, Saanich, Ahousaht, and Ditidaht. In addition, the role that such linguistic data can play in addressing the larger questions of the region's prehistory will be addressed. Specifically, the linguistic data presented will be analyzed from the perspective of Elmendorf's (1961) hypothesis regarding the prehistoric relationships between Interior and Coastal SaIish Ianguages.

As archaeologists, our knowledge of native customs can be shaped by what's in our cultural conscience from western movies. In fact, the seeds of interest of native pre-history were planted in many of us by watching western movies. How much of what we know about first peoples is accurate from the big screen? Utilizing textual archaeology (where the historical accounts are treated as artifacts because of the information embedded within), we explore what practices have historical backing that are sourced back into deep time.

This thesis looks at ideological and cultural decolonization in the context of the Urban Native Community of Vancouver. The oppression that First Nations populations endured during colonialism has left a strong impact. Communities struggle with ample traumas, ranging from ill health to addiction and substance abuse, high school dropouts and high incidences of crime and violence. In this ethnographic case study I spent seven months in this highly diverse urban native community. I wanted to learn about the historical and contemporary causes of peoples' colonial traumas, and, perhaps more importantly, about the ways in which they heal them. Decolonization is not simply a political notion: decolonization means that we have to examine both the base and the superstructure of our society, and the way we have internalized these. As the participants in this study showed me, it is a long and tedious process, in which we can leave no stone unturned, and from which there is no return.

This is my MA Thesis, presented in 2003 at the Free University of Amsterdam, for the completion of my degree in Cultural Anthropology. The things that I learned during this journey continue to inspire me and guide me in the academic work I do today in my Caribbean community of Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean. May my journey inspire someone else also.

Key words: First nations, Vancouver, British Columbia, decolonization, colonialism, racism, residential schools, healing.

Prepared for Stronger than Stone: (Re)Inventing the Indigenous Monument Conference, Co-hosted by the Illingworth Kerr Gallery at the Alberta College of Art + Design (ACAD), Calgary; and the Mendel Art Gallery, Museums 3.0, the Kenderdine Art Gallery at the University of Saskatchewan, and the Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Saskatoon, November 2014.

Since its opening in Odanak in 2011, Kiuna Institution has been the only post-secondary institution designed by and for Quebec’s First Nations. Like its predecessor, Manitou Community College in La Macaza (1973-1976), and the Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) of the United States, it is committed to cultural safety and continuity. Now, however, with the introduction of Indigenous perspectives and curricula into the provincial educational system, a number of conceptual and logistical challenges are emerging. Can post-secondary institutions provide a supportive environment that helps Indigenous students develop their identity? Can adaptation of curricular programs encourage them to stay in school and succeed academically? This article aims to analyze the different components and approaches of Kiuna’s First Nations Social Science Program. Based on the testimonies and experiences of First Nations’ students, graduates, and professionals gathered between 2013 and 2015, it tends to show that adaptation of curricula and services does contribute to cultural safety, to a stronger cultural identity and, therefore, to perseverance and post-secondary success of First Nations students.

Updated with the permission of Recherches amérindiennes au Québec from the original French version: Dufour, E. (2015). “ « Une école où tu réapprends à être fier de ce que tu es… » : L’Institution Kiuna et le programme Sciences humaines – Premières Nations ”. Recherches amérindiennes au Québec, 45(2-3): 163-176.

This thesis considers the Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka’wakw testimonies before the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia (1913-1916).  To objectively analyze these testimonies content analysis was employed.  Some issues considered by Aboriginal testifiers were land additions, Aboriginal title, local education, health care, non-traditional economic activities, and non-Native territorial expansion.  The importance of these issues is similar for the Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka’wakw and the primary concern is additional lands. 

A comparison with Naneen Stuckey’s 1981 study of the Tsimshian testimonies reveals a relatively high similarity of concerns among these Nations, although the Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka’wakw are more similar to each other than either is to the Tsimshian.

By considering the Aboriginal testimonies one gains an understanding of the important issues and the First Nation perspective earlier this century.  Given the significance of Aboriginal issues in British Columbia today, this provides an important historical background.