At The Edge Of The State Indigenous Peoples And Self Determination

Focusing on issues raised by the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, this study reveals the obstacles to self-determination for these peoples in all parts of the world. The author argues, using both legal and social theory, that the right of self-determination can be available to indigenous peoples, and proposes measures that the UN might institute to oversee the realization of this right. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

While indigenous peoples make up around 370 million of the world’s population – some 5 per cent – they constitute around one-third of the world’s 900 million extremely poor rural people. Every day, indigenous communities all over the world face issues of violence and brutality. Indigenous peoples are stewards of some of the most biologically diverse areas of the globe, and their biological and cultural wealth has allowed indigenous peoples to gather a wealth of traditional knowledge which is of immense value to all humankind. The publication discusses many of the issues addressed by the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and is a cooperative effort of independent experts working with the Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. It covers poverty and well-being, culture, environment, contemporary education, health, human rights, and includes a chapter on emerging issues.

Champagne and his coauthors reveal how the structure of a multinational state has the potential to create more equal and just national communities for Native peoples around the globe. In the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala, they show how indigenous people preserve their territory, rights to self-government, and culture. A valuable resource for Native American, Canadian, and Latin American studies; comparative indigenous governments; and international relations.

Sovereignty Matters investigates the multiple perspectives that exist within indigenous communities regarding the significance of sovereignty as a category of intellectual, political, and cultural work. Much scholarship to date has treated sovereignty in geographical and political matters solely in terms of relationships between indigenous groups and their colonial states or with a bias toward American contexts. This groundbreaking anthology of essays by indigenous peoples from the Americas and the Pacific offers multiple perspectives on the significance of sovereignty.

Review: "During the past decade there has emerged growing criticism largely from anti-essentialist social scientists and multicultural politicians advocating a critique of ethnic and indigenous movements, accompanied by a general backlash in governmental policies and public opinion towards ideigneous communities. This book focuses on the implication of change for indigenous peoples, their political, legal and cultural strategies."--BOOK JACKET

Adopted in 2007, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples establishes self-determination--including free, prior, and informed consent--as a foundational right and principle. Self-determination, both individual and collective, is among the most important and pressing issues for Indigenous women worldwide. Yet Indigenous women's interests have been overlooked in the formulation of Indigenous self-government, and existing studies of Indigenous self-government largely ignore issues of gender. As such, the current literature on Indigenous governance conceals patriarchal structures and power that create barriers for women to resources and participation in Indigenous societies. Drawing on Indigenous and feminist political and legal theory--as well as extensive participant interviews in Canada, Greenland, and Scandinavia-- this book argues that the current rights discourse and focus on Indigenous-state relations is too limited in scope to convey the full meaning of "self-determination" for Indigenous peoples. The book conceptualizes self-determination as a foundational value informed by the norm of integrity and suggests that Indigenous self-determination cannot be achieved without restructuring all relations of domination nor can it be secured in the absence of gender justice. As a foundational value, self-determination seeks to restructure all relations of domination, not only hegemonic relations with the state. Importantly, it challenges the opposition between "self-determination" and "gender" created and maintained by international law, Indigenous political discourse, and Indigenous institutions. Restructuring relations of domination further entails examining the gender regimes present in existing Indigenous self-government institutions, interrogating the relationship between Indigenous self-determination and gender violence, and considering future visions of Indigenous self-determination, such as rematriation of Indigenous governance and an independent statehood.

Just as dahshaa – a rare type of dried, rotted spruce wood – is essential to the moosehide-tanning process in Dene culture, self-determination and the alleviation of social suffering are necessary to Indigenous survival in Northwest Territories. But is self-government an effective path to self-determination? Finding Dahshaa shows where self-government negotiations between Canada and the Dehcho, Délînê, and Inuvialuit and Gwich'in peoples have gone wrong and offers, through descriptions of tanning practices that embody principles and values central to self-determination, an alternative model for negotiations. This book, which includes a foreword by Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus, is the first ethnographic study of self-government negotiations in Canada.

Indigenous peoples, Ted Moses