Elder brother and the law of the people : contemporary kinship and Cowessess First Nation / Robert Alexander Innes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Innes, Robert Alexander.

Series:

Critical studies in native history ; 17.

Critical studies in native history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cowessess First Nation.

Physical Description:

249 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Winnipeg : University of Manitoba Press, [2013]

Summary:

In the pre-reserve era, Aboriginal bands in the northern plains were relatively small multicultural communities that actively maintained fluid and inclusive membership through traditional kinship practices. These practices were governed by the Law of the People as described in traditional stories of Wîsashkêcâhk, or Elder Brother, that outlined social interaction, marriage, adoption, and kinship roles and responsibilities. In Elder Brother and the Law of the People, Robert Innes offers a detailed analysis of the role of Elder Brother stories in historical and contemporary kinship practices in Cowessess First Nation, located in southeastern Saskatchewan. He reveals how these tradition-inspired practices act to undermine legal and scholarly definitions of "Indian" and counter the perception that First Nations people have internalized such classifications. He presents Cowessess's successful negotiation of the 1996 Treaty Land Entitlement agreement and their high inclusion rate of new "Bill-C31s" as evidence of the persistence of historical kinship values and their continuing role as the central unifying factor for band membership. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Elder Brother as Cultural Hero: The Law of the People and Contemporary Customary Kinship 23

Chapter 2 A Historical View of the Iron Alliance 43

Chapter 3 Multicultural Bands on the Northern Plains and the Notion of "Tribal" Histories 70

Chapter 4 The Multicultural Compositon of Cowessess First Nation 90

Chapter 5 Cowessess Band Members and the Importance of Family Ties 114

Chapter 6 First Nations Response to Membership: Bill C-31 and Cowessess First Nation 141

Chapter 7 Implementing Treaty Obligations in Saskatchewan: Cowessess First Nation and Treaty Land Entitlement 166.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780887557460

0887557465

OCLC:

807033193