Native Power

Discusses events that took place before and after Native American activism began. Includes a chronology from 1887 to 1988.

Power is understood to be manifested in a multiplicity of ways: through cosmology, economic control, and formal hierarchy. In the Native societies examined, power is continually created and redefined through individual life stages and through the history of the society. The important issue is autonomy - whether, or to what extent, individuals are autonomous in living their lives. Each author demonstrates that women in a particular cultural area of aboriginal North America had (and have) more power than many previous observers have claimed.

Native American Ceremony and the Use of Sacred Plants. This comprehensive guide to the sacred plants traditionally used by Native Americans and other Indigenous peoples presents 14 significant plants, with information on their properties, growing conditions, and medicinal applications (incense cedar, red cedar, copal, juniper, lavender, mugwort, osha, pinon, white sage, desert sage, sweet grass, ceremonial tabacco, red willow bark and yerba santa). Descriptions of Native American ceremonies and rituals in which these plants play a central role are included.

THE #1 BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE WRITERS' TRUST BALSILLIE PRIZE FOR PUBLIC POLICY A compelling political memoir of leadership and speaking truth to power by one of the most inspiring women of her generation Jody Wilson-Raybould was raised to be a leader. Inspired by the example of her grandmother, who persevered throughout her life to keep alive the governing traditions of her people, and raised as the daughter of a hereditary chief and Indigenous leader, Wilson-Raybould always knew she would take on leadership roles and responsibilities. She never anticipated, however, that those roles would lead to a journey from her home community of We Wai Kai in British Columbia to Ottawa as Canada’s first Indigenous Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the Cabinet of then newly elected prime minister, Justin Trudeau. Wilson-Raybould’s experience in Trudeau’s Cabinet reveals important lessons about how we must continue to strengthen our political institutions and culture, and the changes we must make to meet challenges such as racial justice and climate change. As her initial optimism about the possibilities of enacting change while in Cabinet shifted to struggles over inclusivity, deficiencies of political will, and concerns about adherence to core principles of our democracy, Wilson-Raybould stood on principle and, ultimately, resigned. In standing her personal and professional ground and telling the truth in front of the nation, Wilson-Raybould demonstrated the need for greater independence and less partisanship in how we govern. “Indian” in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power is the story of why Wilson-Raybould got into federal politics, her experience as an Indigenous leader sitting around the Cabinet table, her proudest achievements, the very public SNC-Lavalin affair, and how she got out and moved forward. Now sitting as an Independent Member in Parliament, Wilson-Raybould believes there is a better way to govern and a better way for politics—one that will make a better country for all.

An incisive look at American Indian and Euro-American relations from the 16th century to the present, this book focuses on how such relations have shaped the Native American political identity and tactics in the ongoing struggle for power. Cornell shows how, in the early days of colonization, Indians were able to maintain their nationhood by playing off the competing European powers; and how the American Revolution and westward expansion eventually caused Native Americans to lose their land, social cohesion, and economic independence. The final part of the book recounts the slow, steady reemergence of American Indian political power and identity, evidenced by militant political activism in the 1960s and early 1970s. By paying particular attention to the evolution of Indian groups as collective actors and to changes over time in Indian political opportunities and their capacities to act on those opportunities, Cornell traces the Indian path from power to powerlessness and back to power again.

Thirteen essays explore some 500 years of literacy campaigns in vastly different societies: Reformation Germany, early modern Sweden and Scotland, 19th century US, 19th-20th century Russia and the Soviet Union, pre-revolutionary and revolutionary China, and a variety of Third World countries. The 1763 Royal Proclamation forbade non-natives under British authority to molest or disturb any tribe or tribal territory in British North America. Clark, a lawyer specializing in aboriginal rights, contends that this Proclamation had legislative force and that, since imperial law on this matter has never been repealed, the right to self-government continues to exist for Canadian natives. He also explores the difficulties of aboriginal self-government in the constitution and offers some advice to government and aboriginal negotiators. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR