Indigenous Peoples and the Modern State

Edited by Duane Champagne, Karen Jo Torjesen, Susan Steiner

Publication date:

09 June 2005

Length of book:

208 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759107984

Champagne and his distinguished 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. Many countries still face extreme differences among ethnic groups and submerged nations, leading to marginalization and violence. Examining these inherent instabilities in multicultural nations such as the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala, the authors confront problems of coerced assimilation for indigenous communities whose identities predate the formation of the nation states, often by thousands of years. The contributors show how indigenous people seek to preserve their territory, their rights to self-government, and their culture. This book is a valuable resource for Native American, Canadian and Latin American studies; comparative indigenous governments; constitutional law; and international relations.

1 Preface 2 Part I: Indigenous Identity and the State 3 Chapter 1: Rethinking Native Relations with Contemporary Nation-States 4 Chapter 2: Crossing Borders/Border Crossings: Native American Identity 5 Chapter 3: Status Indian: Who Defines You? 6 Chapter 4: Discussion of Indigenous Identity and the State 7 Part II: Culture and Economics 8 Chapter 5: The Culture of Leadership: Indigenous Leadership in a Changing Economy 9 Chapter 6: Doing our Share: Employment and Entrepreneurship in Canada's Aboriginal Community 10 Chapter 7: Discussion of Culture and Economics 11 PART III. Trilateral Discussions: Canada, the United States and Mexico 12 Chapter 8: We Come to Ask for Justice, Not Crumbs 13 Chapter 9: Competing Narratives: Barriers Between Indigenous Peoples and the Canadian State 14 Chapter 10: The Mayan Quest for Pluricultural Autonomy in Mexico and Guatemala 15 Chapter 11: Indigenous, Cosmopolitan, and Integrative Medicine in the Americas 16 Chapter 12: Discussion of Trilateral Exchanges between Canada, the United States and Mexico 17 Index 18 About the Authors

Indigenous Peoples and the Modern State offers a broad and richly comparative study critically analyzing the generally contentious but occasionally cooperative relationships between aboriginal peoples and three contemporary states—U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Utilizing a 'trilateral' approach, the contributors focus on cultural identity, land, sovereignty, leadership, economics, intellectual property, and other topics that continue to animate the evolving relationship between Native nations and the states that formed in their midst.