Wednesday 21 March 2012

Conclusion for this project

This is the last post for the anthropology project that I started this for but honestly I do not want to end this blog. The Native Sovereignty Movement is a large and current social movement that is constantly changing and evolving. I would like to actually broaden the topic of this blog to include the entire Native Rights Movement and have more time to delve into the history of this movement.

I would particularly like to look into archaeological agreements as well because I find agreements like NAGPRA(Native American Grave Protection and Reparation Act) to be interesting and I do think that they have an effect on the Native Sovereignty Movement.

I believe that any opinion you have on this subject has validity so long as it is not based in ignorance or misunderstanding and I would like to expand this blog to act as a database for information about the Native Rights Movement.

There will probably be about a week of no new posts but I hope that after that point I can return to building upon our knowledge of how Natives and non-Natives have lived together and possible ideas for how to better our relations.

Until then, thank you for your time and feel free to comment on any of my posts. Hopefully, you feel that I have helped increase your understanding of the Native Sovereignty Movement.

If you would like to read more blogs in this style:
Blog Investigating the Anti-Gay Movement
Blog investigating the LGBT Movement
Blog done by our professor. Looks into a variety of events and groups.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Native Land Right Movement

While I am focusing on the self-government movement, I do believe that the land right movement is very closely tied to the self-government movement. Many of the same groups that protest for self-government also are seen at protests for native land rights as well.

First of all, I would like to start by recommending you watch this video by 8th Fire. It was brought to my attention by my T.A and it explains the problems and possible solutions far better than I could ever hope to in such a short time. This video is particularly good because it avoids the 'white man guilt syndrom'; a term I use to define when a piece of work focuses on the idea that all the problems are the fault of the settlers and usually does not focus on what we as a country of Natives and non-Natives should be doing to fix those problems. This video talks about the wide variety of issues that face the Native community today from land claims to education rights from a perspective not often seen in popular media: Native people.

Land claims are basically who has the right to chose what can happen to the land. Many treaties and the Indian act have parts that refer to land claims but it is not that simple. Across Canada, there are many of treaties and each is slightly different and sets aside different land for reserves for the Natives. If you recall my second post where I posted this map showing how Native was an umbrella term for the many different cultures that existed here pre-contact. Well have another look and compare it to the second map that shows the treaties and see if you can see a difference.
Courtesy of 8th Fire
Courtesy of 8th Fire
If you noticed that many treaties or land claims cover the area of multiple tribal groups then you noticed the same thing I did. First of all, tribes that lived near each other were not always allies yet settlers would group them all together and divide up the land. 
If you also take into account the fact that traditionally most native cultures did not believe in ownership of the land and many were nomadic cultures it starts to make sense why today they may feel as though they had been taken advantage of.
One side note I would like to focus on for a moment is while reading many online discussions and comments on articles about Native rights, I noticed a large number of people writing things about how Natives lost or were conquered and should therefore assimilate. 

First of all, there really was never much of a war. Yes, there was conflicts between certain groups and settlers or traders but it was never a declared war against all Native people. If the settlement of Canada could be considered a war in any way, it would have been a war of words, treaties, and promises.

Secondly, they were never conquered. Natives of various origins are still alive today along with their stories, lifeways, and traditions even with events such as the residential schools that tried to conquer their culture. 
And just to give you an idea of just how important this is to so many people look at the photos below that was taken in 2007. This is not an issue that we can just wait and hope it will go away, we; Natives and non-natives alike, have to become more proactive to find a solution to the tension between our peoples.
Anti Weyerhaeuser protest, Ottawa, 2007.
Courtesy of  Free Grassy Narrows
Courtesy of Chris Saad/ MyNews.CTV.ca

Next blog will just be a short conclusion as it is the due date for this project.

Monday 19 March 2012

Costuming of AIM protests

AIM (American Indian Movement) has been around since the 1968 when it was first founded and so it has gone through a wide variety of styles of protests and costuming.






In the photo of the 1968 American Indian Movement protest there are several people wearing outfits with traditional tasseling or beading as though to visually point out that the traditional culture is still very alive. In this photo you see that it does seem a peaceful march and one can even see that there are young children marching with the adults. The large sign being held up could have been the predecessor to their symbol today(the black, yellow, white and red flag)

Armed Native Americans Man Roadblock
Armed AIM Roadblock courtesy of Soldiers For The Cause


1992 Anti-Columbus Day Protest
That being AIM has also had violent direct actions for example armed roadblocks as well. In this photo we can clearly see that these individuals associate themselves with AIM and have even spay painted it on the side of the vehicle. In this case though, there are no children, only men and guns.


This is a protest against Columbus Day because some people feel that it is improper to have a holiday in the name of a settler and feel that it does a diservice to their ancestors who died in conflicts against the settlers. I would like to point out that the foremost banner is from AIM however to the far left there is a darker banner that appears to have writing that appears to be of asian origin on it. This is one thing I noticed about AIM; they often have other groups protesting with them or they protest with other groups.


American Indian movement activist Glenn Morris is arrested during protests to halt the annual Columbus Day Parade in 2007 in Denver. (AP photo)
"American Indian movement activist Glenn Morris
 is arrested during protests to halt the annual
 Columbus Day Parade in 2007 in Denver." 
Courtesy of The Buffalo Post

This is Glenn Morris one of the leaders of AIM being arrested during the annual repeat of the march seen above. I would like to point out the use of AIM's colours on his clothing in a fashion that is similar to clothing that you might see in an aboriginal history museum. I would point out what red may represent but I mentioned it in my last post. However, I did want to add that in the archaeological record, many native cultures used red ochre in their burials and sacred places so the colour red has had a strong meaning and value in the native cultures for many years.

In many Native protests there is someone dressed in traditional style clothing or clothing that follows some part of the traditional clothing style. I believe that this is meant to be a visual representation of the enduring power of native cultures. It tells the viewers of the protest that the traditional culture is still alive today and that there are people who are proud to be Native, Indian, Cree, Blackfoot, James Bay Cree, status or not, however they chose to identify themselves. It sends the same message as the image said in my first post: We Shall Remain.

Another use of a tradition in protest is the use of drumming which is often accompanied by singing and dancing. The amount of noise that just ten drummers can make would be enough for protesters to draw attention to their cause but imagine over a hundred dancer, singers, and drummers.





Occupy Denver-Native American Glenn Morris, AIM-Colorado
"Glenn Morris, a leader of the American Indian Movement
 of Colorado (AIM) addressing Occupy Denver October 22"2011.
 Courtesy of Carol Berry

This is another photo of Glenn Morris speaking to the Occupy Movement in Denver. In the foreground right we see a young woman and in this case, all of the individuals are wearing modern style casual clothes.







In comparison with the last photo, this photo seems to have a very different feel to it. In the foreground we see the AIM flag but instead of the casually-clad people in the last photo the flag is hoisted by people wearing almost militant gear. This row looks more like a row of flag bearers preparing for a battle than the young children we saw in the first image. I would also like to point out that the third flag down the row is the Red Power United flag whom I talked about in my last post as being a more violent direst action group.


Overall, I would saw that AIM does not have as standard a costume as some other groups may nor do they have a standard style but their adaptability may be what has made their group so popular.

Sunday 18 March 2012

Costuming of Red Power United


What do the people wear and why? When you are out protesting you know people will be looking at you. In fact, you hope they will because you are there to draw attention to something you see as important. So then the costumes that people wear while protesting often carries as much of a message as the slogans they stand by. So let us take a look at the variety of costuming seen in Native Self-government Groups Protests.

Red Power United
Red Power United define their actions as direct action and even offer non-violent direct action training. While they are not solely focused on Native Self-government rights they do highly support it.

red power, native rights group, protests, protesters, g20, allan gardens, toronto, city, life
Courtesy of Toronto City Life


This is a small group of Red Power United protesters. Interestingly enough, the writer of the blog of Toronto City Life actually described them as a militant group.
First thing to notice, the colour red as a theme which is not too surprising as their groups name is RED Power United however it does have other connotations. 
The colour red could also be in reference to the old derogatory term for native people: redskins. If this is the case, this group would be taking what was meant to be slang and hurtful towards their people and utilizing it to define themselves, to punctuate their solidarity. 
As any elementary student is taught, red can also be a representation of blood. As many Native protest groups do focus on the pains of their ancestors, I do not believe that I would be out of placing in saying that the red shirts could symbolize the pain, hardships, and death of their ancestors and culture.
In terms of logistics, having a colour that protesters in your group often wear is useful because it can show your strength in numbers and allow protesters and bystanders to easily those fighting under your cause.  Red; in particular, is a good colour for protesters to wear because it is eye-catching. 
Courtesy of Red Power United

The fist that many of the members have raised is a motif also seen on some of their symbols and posters.
This fist could represent the willingness to fight for their cause and I can imagine that a sea of people all thrusting their fists in the air would be a very persuading event to see. It could also represent solidarity.






In my next blog I will be looking at the costuming of AIM(American Indian Movement) protests.
If you know of any particular protest or group that you would like me to look at the costuming of, please send me a link to a page about the group or protest.

Thursday 15 March 2012

The Actors in This Movement Part 2

Red Power United
Open in new window
Flag of Red Power United. Courtesy of CFNE

Red Power United is a Native rights group that focuses in urban areas. They are a direct action group and they even have direct action training available. Their goal is "to bring about social, political, economic, and environmental change when needed in Urban communities"(http://www.redpowerunited.com/).

For a view of their protests you can watch the video above. In a later blog, I will be talking about their costuming or what they are wearing.

Mohawk Warriors
Below is a video that shows some of the actions and protests of the group known as the Mohawk Warriors. They used the same flag red flag and appear to possibly the originations of that flag. They practiced civil disobedience as oppose to anarkism(Young-Leslie).The video is extremely biased as it is a tribute but I chose it because the bias is very blatant and hard to ignore so please keep in mind that it is a tribute.

At about 1:50 in video, I believe you see video footage similar to this extremely famous picture:
Courtesy of cpcml
The Mohawk Warriors are most famous for the Oka Crisis. In 1990, the Mohawk Warriors set up an armed blockade at Kanehsatake. After the death of one police officer, 2000 police were sent in whom were later replaced with the military(http://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/oka-crisis-1990/). The stand-off lasted a total of 77 days, during which acts of sabotage and violence were carried out.
I will not be doing an entire blog on the costuming of the Mohawk Warriors but I would like to draw attention to their militant style and aggressive nature. This is a group that does not do passive protests however many groups such as the Red Power United use the same or similar flag so this group had to have had an impact on the movement somehow.

Aboriginal Rights Coalition Of BC(ARC)
This group is not as famous as the Mohawk Warriors but it had the first example of anarchism that I had seen in this movement. Anarchism is where you do not acknowledge the government, you do not protest, you act as though the change you want has already happened. In this case, ARC is spoiling their ballots so they are not playing a part in the choosing of the government but they are still putting across the point that they are there(http://arcbc.tripod.com/flyer.pdf).

A really good website for the basic outline of the Native Right Movement: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/aboriginals/native-rights-movement.html

A website with links for Anti-Native Rights Groups(keep in mind the bias here please):
http://sisis.nativeweb.org/links/anti.html

Work Cited:
Aboriginal Rights Coalition of BC. Electronic source. http://arcbc.tripod.com/flyer.pdf
Mohawk Warrior Publication. Electronic source. http://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/oka-crisis-1990/
Red Power United. Electronic source. http://www.redpowerunited.com/)
Dr. Young-Leslie, Heather. Lecture slides. Feb. 6th. "Social Actors".

Wednesday 14 March 2012

The Actors in This Movement Part 1

In this case, the term actors refers to the individuals or the groups that play some role in this movement(Young-Leslie). This can be both supporters of the movement and those that support the dispersal of the movement. In the case of the Native Sovereignty Movement here are the actors that I have found:

The Indian Act
 Indian Act makes all native people wards of the government
Courtesy of Where Are The Children Collection
While not a group or an individual the Indian Act  has a large effect on the Native sovereignty movement. The full document here from the Department of Justice.
This is the document that is still used today to determine who is Native and what rights they have, of course there has been some changes, such as it use to be that if a status native woman married a non-native (even a non-status native) she would lose her status.










Jean Chrétien
Courtesy of National Archive of Canada : 
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien. © Office of the Prime Minister
Before Jean Chrétien became Prime Minister, he was the Minister of Indian Affairs and 
Northern Development. In 1969, he proposed The White Paper; a government paper that proposed that Native people should have exactly the same rights as any other Canadian citizen: no less, no more. The White Paper would abolish the Indian Act. In a statement on The White Paper, Jean Chrétien said "to be an Indian must be to be free - free to develop Indian cultures in an environment of legal, social and economic equality with other Canadians"(http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100010189). This link will lead you to the government's website where you can read the white paper: Here.
The White paper was not met with the support that Chrétien hoped. Indian Chiefs of Alberta published a foundational document stating that :
"We have studied carefully the contents of the Government White Paper on Indians 
and we have concluded that it offers despair instead of hope. Under the guise 
of land ownership, the government has devised a scheme whereby within a 
generation or shortly after the proposed Indian Lands Act expires our people 
would be left with no land and consequently the future generation would be 
condemned to the despair and ugly spectre of urban poverty in ghettos."(pg 189)
I should mention that if you do go read either of these documents, please be advised that this was pior to popular societies adoption of the term native or aboriginal so they do use the term indian but it is not meant in the derogatory sense.


American Indian Movement (AIM)
Courtesy of AIM 
In 1968, the American Indian Movement was founded in Minneapolis. Inspired by Custer Died For Your Sin by Vine Deloria Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton-Banai, and George Mitchell banded together under the common hope to fight the injustices that had plagued the native people(Chapman, 2010). One of the first well-known events that AIM was involved with was the Trail of Broken Treaties wherein AIM leaders created twenty demands to present to the government; one of which being the demand for recognition as sovereign political groups.


This group often uses standoffs or occupies areas but they have time and time again made the American government notice them.




Other groups:
Native American Rights Fund(NARF)



Work Cited

Chapman, Robert
  2010. Culture Wars. Armonk, N.Y M.E Sharpe

Dr. Young-Leslie, Heather. Lecture slides. Feb. 6th. "Social Actors".

Indian Chiefs of Alberta
  1970 Citizens Plus. Electronic document. 
http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/aps/article/view/11690/8926

Jean Chrétien facts
  National Archive of Canada. Electronic document. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/2/4/h4-3505-e.html


Saturday 10 March 2012

Sovereignty and Self-Government

What is sovereignty/self-government?
Sovereignty "is closely related to the difficult concepts of state and government and of independence and democracy"(Britannica). In the Native Sovereignty Movement, it is often used as a synonym to self-government. Mostly, it refers to an increase in the power of Native people to run themselves. 

The Aboriginal Rights Coalition(ARC) which does have regional groups across Canada defines specifically aboriginal self-government as:
"Self-government is the means by which Aboriginal peoples could give concrete expression
 of themselves as distinct peoples, develop the economic potential of their own lands, and design own cultural, social, and religious institutions to meet the needs of their own people"(Aboriginal Rights Coalition)


Map of the estimated many different tribal distribution at time of contact.
Why is self-government important to these Native groups? I would argue it is due to the labeling of Native. Native is a term that actually covers a variety of cultures when settlers arrived they were all considered Indians.
In today's culture, there still is this idea that they are more similar in culture to each other than to other cultures(Young-Leslie). Once this idea begins it become easier to see why a group that has been marginalized would want to govern itself: if the popular idea that any Native is closer to another Native than to another Canadian citizen is true then it would lead to questioning why Native people are not governed by Natives. After all, supposedly they are all Natives right?
This logic is why I would argue that this movement is a self fulfilling prophesy: the government grouped together cultures, labeled them as one, and then is confused when they gain power and want the right to govern themselves. Native is a non-existent country with as many varied cultures as Canada and now they want rights and self-government.

Next Blog I will be talking about major Actors that have/are playing a role in the Native Sovereignty Movement


To read more about ARC: click here



Work Cited
Aboriginal Rights Coalition. Electronic source. http://home.istar.ca/~arc/english/new_cov_e.html

Britannica Academic Edition. Electronic source. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/557065/sovereignty
Britannica Academic Edition. Electronic source. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1357826/Native-American/273164/Assimilation-versus-sovereignty-the-late-19th-to-the-late-20th-century#ref968394

Dr. Young-Leslie, Heather. Lecture slides. March 5th "Ethnicity".

8th Fire Tribal Map. Electronic resource. http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/8thfire/map.html

Wednesday 7 March 2012

What is a social movement?

What is a social movement is not a simple question. It still does not have a solid definition yet and probably never will because the point of a social movement is to change the status quo of thinking.


A social movement is often confused with protests. A visual explanation is:


Picture-8-800x500
This is a protest that took place in Toronto.
Occupy Denver-Native American Glenn Morris, AIM-Colorado
A photo of a the leader of American Indian Movement(AIM, a group that we will talk about in a later post) addressing Occupy Denver
Both of these photos are; in fact, protests under the same social movement. Looking at the photos you can even see that protests, that may share many of the same basic ideas and movements, can be highly varied in their costumes(what they wear while protesting) and their slogans/signs.
Basically what I am saying is that social movement is the umbrella that covers a wide style and size of protests(Young-Leslie)


In the NSM(Native Sovereignty movement) case, the social movement is about about Native rights, particularly the right to self-govern. Meanwhile, protests are the events that people do to increase awareness of their cause.


Allow me to pause for a moment to cover a few terms that I just used. First of all, what is meant by Native in this context. This is another looks-simple-but-is-not question.
First of all, the government declares "Indian Status" as "being registered under the Indian Act is referred to as a Registered Indian"(http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100032374). 
<<As a quick aside, many of the government documents use the term Indian to describe what we now refer to as Natives or aboriginals. >>
So what is the criteria for registering under the Indian Act?
Here is the criteria found on this government site:

  1. "You were entitled to registration prior to the changing of the Indian Act on April 17, 1985
  2. You lost your Indian Status as a result of your marriage to a non-Indian man (s. 12(1)(b)), including enfranchisement upon your marriage to a non-Indian man (s. 109(2));
  3. Your mother and father's mother did not have status under the Indian Act, before their marriage and you lost your status at the age of 21 (s.12 (1)(a)(iv) – referred to commonly as the double-mother rule);
  4. Your registration was successfully protested on the grounds that your father did not have status under the Indian Act, however your mother had status;
  5. You lost your registration because you or your parents applied to give up registration and First Nation membership through the process known as "enfranchisement"; or
  6. You are a child of persons listed in 1 to 5 above"
So the government has very set ideas of what makes you a Status Native but there is also Non-Status Native which is often defined as people who identify themselves as Indians but who are not entitled to registration on the Indian Register pursuant to the Indian Act" (AADNC definition)

When one look at these two definitions, one can see that there could be point of contention: Status is defined by a the Canadian government so an individual's level of inclusion in a group is defined by a governing power rather than themselves. Especially when there is individuals of this group that feel their identity should not be controlled by this faction, reasons are beginning to become apparent for why there would be protest about their right to sovereignty including their right to define themselves.


Yelvington has the idea that ethnicity is defined by the other:
 'Ethnicity is an aspect of social relationship between 
agents who consider themselves as being culturally 
distinctive from members of other groups with 
whom they have a minimum of regular interaction. 
It can thus also be defined as a social identity based 
on a contrast to others, characterised by 
metaphoric or fictive kinship' (Yelvington, 1991: 
168)
This means that the ethnic grouping of Native had to be defined by having non-Natives(Young-Leslie). This also brings up the fact that the term Native takes many varied groups of peoples, all of whom have varied traditions and cultures from the others, and lumping them all together. Oddly enough, I would argue that without this lumping ethnic term the Native sovereignty movement would not be able to exist. The term Native allowed groups that would not have defined themselves as allies to band together against a 'common enemy' (often the government or anti-native right groups). I will talk more about how this alliance created the movement in my next blog.


In my next blog, I will discuss the definition of sovereignty and history of this movement and the factors behind it.

Works Cited:
AADNC. Electronic source. http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100014433/1100100014437

Dr. Young-Leslie, Heather. Lecture slides. March 5th "Ethnicity".
Dr. Young-Leslie, Heather. Lecture slides. January 23rd "Social Movements".
Yelvington Kevin A. 
  1991 Ethnicity as Practice? A Comment on Bentley. Comparative Studies in Society and History, Volume 33(1):158-168
Aborignial affairs and Northern Development Canada. Electronic source. http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100032472

Monday 5 March 2012

Welcome

First of all: Welcome to my blog.

What is this blog going to be about?
This is going to a blog focusing on the rise of the movement often known as the Native Sovereignty Movement. Though it does go by other names, I will be using this one most commonly. 
An image from a PBS series about the importance of Native Americans in American history
I want to cover the history, the protests, the news coverage, the arguments for and against this movement, and I want to cover it in a fashion that makes it easier for everyone to understand.

I personally am a native student though I have grown up off-reserve and I hope that this project will help connect me to my culture and my rights. That being said, I will try to make sure my personal bias does not mean that I am posting only material agreeing with my personal opinion. Every social movement has at least two sides and both do have valid ideas so I will try not to be biased in my presentation of these ideas.

This blog is the final project of my 200 level Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology wherein we are to investigate a social movement( a term I will define in my next post) and make our research and findings available to the public. This means that if at any point I say something you do not agree with or have a source that you think would help with my topic, please feel free to either leave the link in the comments or email it to me. I will try to update at least twice a week so please do keep an eye on my blog, whether you are very knowledgeable in this area or want to find out more, hopefully I will have something new for everyone to learn.


I will be using information, photos and pictures from other groups. I will be using these under the Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia under
"2.1 By Students:
Students may incorporate portions of lawfully acquired copyrighted works when producing their own educational multimedia projects for a specific course"( http://www.adec.edu/admin/papers/fair10-17.html).
Guidelines can be found at this site. If I make a mistake in citing or linking, please let me know