Aboriginal Law & Indigenous Laws

In 2000, the Nisga'a treaty marked the culmination of over one hundred years of Nisga'a people protesting, petitioning, litigating, and negotiating for recognition of their rights. Beyond Rights explores this groundbreaking achievement and its impact. The Nisga'a were trailblazers in gaining Supreme Court recognition of unextinguished Aboriginal title, and the treaty marked a turning point in the relationship between First Nations and provincial and federal governments. Using this treaty as a pivotal case study, Carole Blackburn analyzes treaty making as a way to address historical injustice and to achieve contemporary legal recognition, and explores the possibilities for a distinct Indigenous citizenship in a settler state.

Over the course of a century, until the late 1700s, the British Crown, the Iroquois, and other Indigenous groups of eastern North America developed an alliance and treaty system known as the Covenant Chain. Bruce Morito offers a philosophical rereading of the historical record of negotiations, showing that the parties developed an ethic of mutually recognized respect. This ethic, Morito argues, remains relevant to current debates about Aboriginal and treaty rights because it is neither culturally nor historically bound. Real change is possible, if efforts can be shifted from piecemeal legal and political disputes to the development of an intercultural ethic based on trust, respect, and solidarity.

This book examines the treaties that promised self-government, financial assistance, cultural protections, and land to the more than 565 tribes of North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, and Canada).

This book provides the first systematic and comprehensive analysis of the factors that explain both completed and incomplete treaty negotiations between Indigneous groups and the federal, provincial, and territorial governments of Canada.

Odagahodhes highlights the Indigenous values that brought us to the Sacred meeting place in the original Treaties of Turtle Island, particularly the Two Row Wampum, and the sharing process that was meant to foster good relations from the beginning of the colonial era. The book follows a series of Indigenous sharing circles, relaying teachings by Gae Ho Hwako and the responses of participants – scholars, authors, and community activists – who bring their diverse experiences and knowledge into reflective relation with the teachings. Through this practice, the book itself resembles a Teaching Circle and illustrates the important ways tradition and culture are passed down by Elders and Knowledge Keepers. The aim of this process is to bring clarity to the challenges of Truth and Reconciliation. Each circle ends by inviting the reader into this sacred space of Odagahodhes to reflect on personal experiences, stories, knowledge, gifts, and responsibilities.

John Borrows and Michael Coyle bring together a group of renowned scholars, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to cast light on the magnitude of the challenges Canadians face in seeking a consensus on the nature of treaty partnership in the twenty-first century. The diverse perspectives offered in this volume examine how Indigenous people’s own legal and policy frameworks can be used to develop healthier attitudes between First Peoples and settler governments in Canada. While considering the existing law of Aboriginal and treaty rights, the contributors imagine what these relationships might look like if those involved pursued our highest aspirations as Canadians and Indigenous peoples.

This book offers an examination of historical treaties and agreements bearing on Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations in Toronto, Canada, with generative arts-based activities for readers to use individually or in groups to explore their own relationship to the lands and Indigenous peoples of the Greater Toronto Area.