Eagle down is our law : the Witsuwit'en law, feasts, and land claims / Antonia Mills.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mills, Antonia Curtze.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gitxsan Indians--Land tenure.

Gitxsan Indians.

Indians of North America--Land tenure--British Columbia.

Indians of North America.

Indians of North America--British Columbia--Claims.

Gitxsan Indians--Social life and customs.

Indians of North America--British Columbia--Social life and customs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (232 p.)

Place of Publication:

Vancouver : UBC Press, 1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Eagle Down Is Our Law is about the struggle of the Witsuwit'en peoples to establish the meaning of aboriginal rights. With the neighbouring Gitksan, the Witsuwit'en launched a major land claims court case asking for the ownership and jurisdiction of 55,000 square kilometers of land in north-central British Columbia that they claim to have held since before the arrival of the Europeans. In conjunction with that court case, the Gitksan and Witsuwit'en asked a number of expert witnesses, among them Antonia Mills, an anthropologist, to prepare reports on their behalf. Her report, which instructs the judge in the case on the laws, feasts, and institutions of the Witsuwit'en, is presented here. Her testimony is based on two years of participant observation with the Witsuwit'en peoples and on her reading of the anthropological, historic, archaeological, and linguistic data about the Witsuwit'en. In 1991, the judge who rendered the decision in the court case, known as Delgamuukw v. the Queen, dismissed the testimony of Mills and other anthropologists and ruled that the Witsuwit'en and Gitksan have no aboriginal title. This book contains the report that Mills rendered to the court. With its publication, the public can judge the quality of the expert opinion report for themselves. The report is introduced by Chief Gisdaywa (Alfred Joseph) of the Witsuwit'en, Chief Mas Gak (Don Ryan) of the Gitksan, anthropologist Michael Kew, and legal scholar Michael Jackson. A prologue by Mills describes the report in the context of the epic three-year court case, and an epilogue, also by Mills, describes what has happended in the provincial appeal and what the Gitksan and Witsuwit'en have done since the decision to further address the issues of aboriginal rights. 'Eagle down is sacred among the Gitksan and Witsuwit'en peoples and is a symbol of peace. It is used to sanctify the beginning of our peacemaking process . The Gitskan and Witsuwit'en have yet to use eagle down in their dealings with the Crown in Canada. [We] have been waiting almost two centuries to make peace with the Crown . Eagle down gives us optimism. We have kept the eagle down for thousands of years because it works. Eagle down is our law.' - Mas Gak (Don Ryan)

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Prologue

The Nature of Witsuwit'en Society

The Nature and Function of the Witsuwit'en Feast

Genesis of the Witsuwit'en

Witsuwit'en Institutions

Witsuwit'en Law

The Witsuwit'en Interface with the World

Epilogue

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-197) and index.

ISBN:

7-7480-5137-2

1-283-22565-4

9786613225658

0-7748-5444-8

OCLC:

747432344