Indigenous Citizens

Pamela Palmater is one of the strong voices of a new generation of Native activists and intellectuals. Her essays on Indigenous Nationhood are intelligent, thoughtful, and well informed. And they take no prisoners. Thomas King, author of An Inconvenient Indian and many others."

In Citizens Plus, Alan Cairns unravels the historical record to clarify the current impasse in negotiations between Aboriginal peoples and the state. He considers the assimilationist policy assumptions of the imperial era, examines more recent government initiatives, and analyzes the emergence of the nation-to-nation paradigm given massive support by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. We are battered by contending visions, he argues - a revised assimilation policy that finds its support in the Canadian Alliance Party is countered by the nation-to-nation vision, which frames our future as coexisting solitudes. Citizens Plus stakes out a middle ground with its support for constitutional and institutional arrangements which will simultaneously recognize Aboriginal difference and reinforce a solidarity which binds us together in common citizenship. Selected as a BC Book for Everybody

This groundbreaking volume describes unprecedented changes in education across Latin America, resulting from the endorsement of Indigenous peoples' rights through the development of intercultural bilingual education. The chapters evaluate the ways in which cultural and language differences are being used to create national policies that affirm the presence of Indigenous peoples and their cultures within Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Guatemala. Describing the collaboration between grassroots movements and transnational networks, the authors analyze how social change is taking place at the local and regional levels, and they present case studies that illuminate the expansion of intercultural bilingual education. This book is both a call to action for researchers, teachers, policy-makers and Indigenous leaders, and a primer for practitioners seeking to provide better learning opportunities for a diverse student body.

Taking on existing interpretations of "Peruvian exceptionalism," this book presents a multi-sited ethnographic exploration of the local and transnational articulations of indigenous movements, multicultural development policies, and indigenous citizenship in Peru.

Indigenous Nationals/Canadian Citizens begins with a detailed policy history from first contact to the Sesquicentennial with major emphasis on the evolution of Canadian policy initiatives relating to Indigenous peoples. This is followed by a focus on the key Supreme Court decisions that have dramatically enhanced Indigenous peoples' legal and constitutional rights. Attention is then directed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the associated "Calls to Action," including their relationship to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. With this as backdrop the focus turns to envisioning a brighter future for First Peoples beginning with the adoption of an analytical framework. After rejecting Indigenous nationals, Indigenous citizens (the traditional AFN position) and Canadian nationals, Canadian citizens (the Chrétien-Trudeau White Paper proposal), the chosen framework is Indigenous nationals, Canadian citizens. The two penultimate chapters address the manner in which this model has been successfully applied to the 14 Yukon First Nations as well as to the four Inuit land claims agreements. The final substantive chapter applies the Indigenous nationals, Canadian citizens model to the 70-plus First Nations in Saskatchewan (referred to as CSIN, the Commonwealth of Sovereign Indigenous Nations). In essence, CSIN would embrace provincial-type powers within, and closely integrated with, the province of Saskatchewan. Among other features, CSIN would embody the requisite degree of scale economies, self-government and property rights that are essential for Saskatchewan First Nations to successfully make the transition to Indigenous nationals and Canadian citizens.

Indigenous Citizens challenges the commonly held assumption that early nineteenth-century Mexican state-building was a failure of liberalism. By comparing the experiences of two Mexican states, Oaxaca and Yucatán, Caplan shows how the institutions and ideas associated with liberalism became deeply entrenched in Mexico's regions, but only on locally acceptable terms. Faced with the common challenge of incorporating new institutions into political life, Mexicans—be they indigenous villagers, government officials, or local elites—negotiated ways to make those institutions compatible with a range of local interests. Although Oaxaca and Yucatán both had large indigenous majorities, the local liberalisms they constructed incorporated indigenous people differently as citizens. As a result, Oaxaca experienced relative social peace throughout this era, while Yucatán exploded with indigenous rebellion beginning in 1847. This book puts the interaction between local and national liberalisms at the center of the narrative of Mexico's nineteenth century. It suggests that "liberalism" must be understood not as an overarching system imposed on the Mexican nation but rather as a set of guiding assumptions and institutions that Mexicans put to use in locally specific ways.

Indigenous Nationhood is a selection of blog posts by well-known lawyer, activist and academic Pamela Palmater. Palmater offers critical legal and political commentary and analysis on legislation, Aboriginal rights, Canadian politics, First Nations politics and social issues such as murdered and missing Indigenous women, poverty, economics, identity and culture. Palmater’s writing tackles myths and stereotypes about Indigenous peoples head-on, discusses Indigenous nationhood and nation building, examines treaty rights and provides an accessible, critical analysis of laws and government policies being imposed on Indigenous peoples. Fiercely anti-racist and anti-colonial, this book is intended to help rebuild the connections between Indigenous citizens and their home communities, local governments and Indigenous Nations for the benefit of future generations.

Thirteen essays examine literature, film, cartoons, music, etc. to conceptualize citizenship as a narrative construct.