National Indigenous History Month: To Read

An investigative exploration of the separate "Indian hospitals" that existed in Canada for many decades, told through memoir, archival research, and interviews with survivors.
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Healing Histories is the first detailed collection of Indigenous perspectives on the history of tuberculosis in Canada's Indigenous communities and on the federal government's Indian Health Services. Featuring oral accounts from patients, families, and workers who experienced Canada's Indian Hospital system, it presents a fresh perspective on health care history that includes the diverse voices and insights of the many people affected by tuberculosis and its treatment in the mid-twentieth century.
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Fighting for A Hand to Hold exposes the medical establishment's role in the displacement, colonization, and genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Through meticulously gathered government documentation, historical scholarship, media reports, public inquiries, and personal testimonies, Shaheen-Hussain connects the draconian medevac practice with often-disregarded crimes and medical violence inflicted specifically on Indigenous children.
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Tracing the history of the system from its fragmentary origins to its gradual collapse, Maureen K. Lux describes the arbitrary and contradictory policies that governed the 'Indian Hospitals, ' the experiences of patients and staff, and the vital grassroots activism that pressed the federal government to acknowledge its treaty obligations. A disturbing look at the dark side of the liberal welfare state, Separate Beds reveals a history of racism and negligence in health care for Canada's First Nations that should never be forgotten.
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This edited collection, comprised largely of contributions by Indigenous authors, offers the voices and expertise of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis writers from across Canada. The multitude of health determinants of Indigenous peoples are considered in a selection of chapters that range from scholarly papers by research experts in the field, to reflective essays by Indigenous leaders.
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This text describes what is distinctive about Indigenous approaches to health and healing and why it should be studied as a discrete field. It provides a framework for professionals to approach Indigenous clients in a way that both respects the client's worldview while retaining a professional epistemology.

"Aboriginal Law Handbook, 5th Edition is a practical ... reference work to the law as it affects Aboriginal peoples and organizations, for both lawyers and non-lawyers. It also features in-depth analysis on a number of legal and policy issues affecting Aboriginal peoples."--Provided by publisher

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission urged a better understanding of Aboriginal law for all Canadians. This book responds to that call, outlining significant legal developments in straightforward, non-technical language. Jim Reynolds provides the historical context needed to understand the relationship between Indigenous peoples and settlers and explains key topics such as sovereignty, fiduciary duties, the honour of the Crown, Aboriginal rights and title, treaties, the duty to consult, Indigenous laws, and international law. He concludes that rather than leaving the judiciary to sort out essentially political issues, politicians need to take responsibility for this crucial aspect of building a just society.
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From the bestselling author of Bad Medicine and its sequel Bad Judgment comes a wide-ranging, magisterial summation of the years-long intellectual and personal journey of an Alberta jurist who went against the grain and actually learned about Canada's Indigenous people in order to become a public servant. "Probably my greatest claim to fame is that I changed my mind," writes John Reilly in this broadly cogent interrogation of the Canadian justice system.
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The book introduces and describes the principal characteristics of the Canadian constitution, including Canada's institutional structure and the principal drivers of Canadian constitutional development. The constitution is set in its historical context, noting especially the complex interaction of national and regional societies that continues to shape the constitution of Canada. The book argues that aspects of the constitution are best understood in 'agonistic' terms, as the product of a continuing encounter or negotiation, with each of the contending interpretations rooted in significantly different visions of the relationship among peoples and societies in Canada.

In a display case at the entrance to the Yellowknife courthouse are a collection of fourteen Inuit carvings that represent landmark cases in the legal history of the Northwest Territories. These cases, which came to trial between 1955 and 1970, and the carvings that represent them illuminate a pivotal period of social change when the Inuit camp system was eroding and age-old practices and traditions were being called into question.Dorothy Harley Eber tells the stories behind the carvings and provides fascinating insights into the unique situations that developed as the Inuit came in contact with Canada's justice system. Images of Justice resonates with voices of the North and comes alive through interviews with many of those involved in the cases - defendants, judges, and prosecutors. Eber also provides valuable information on the little-known carvers who created these remarkable works of art. At a time when alternative legal systems for Native peoples are being debated, Images of Justice provides a lively, accessible account of the northern courts, their evolution, and their future in a changing northern society.
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In The Inconvenient Indian, Thomas King offers a deeply knowing, darkly funny, unabashedly opinionated, and utterly unconventional account of Indian-White relations in North America since initial contact. Ranging freely across the centuries and the Canada-U.S. border, King debunks fabricated stories of Indian savagery and White heroism, takes an oblique look at Indians (and cowboys) in film and popular culture, wrestles with the history of Native American resistance and his own experiences as a Native rights activist, and articulates a profound, revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands. Suffused with wit, anger, perception, and wisdom, The Inconvenient Indian is at once an engaging chronicle and a devastating subversion of history, insightfully distilling what it means to be "Indian" in North America.
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"Includes an Inuktut-English dictionary plus notes on Inuktut grammar, syllabics and dialects"--Cover

This new edition of The Law School Book is essential reading for anyone beginning the study of law or for those considering application to law school. Professor Hutchinson explores both the theoretical foundations of the Canadian legal system and the practical demands on law students today with humour and perceptiveness. His aim is to "provide the reader with insights and tips on how to cope with the routines of law school life and succeed in becoming a good law student and an even better lawyer." As a basic orientation to the law the book is accessible, though-provoking and, at times, controversial.

"In Reconciling Sovereignties, Felix Hoehn presents a persuasive case that the once unquestioned and uncritical acceptance of the Crown’s assertion of sovereignty over Aboriginal peoples and their territories is now being replaced by an emerging paradigm that recognizes the equality of Aboriginal and settler peoples and requires these peoples to negotiate how they will share sovereignty in Canada." --Publisher's description

"The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement is the foundation of Nunavut and it is important that people know what it says. NTI recognizes that the language in the NLCA is very difficult to understand so we decided some time ago to provide people with a version of the Agreement that is less complex." --from news release by Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated

A topical and informed primer for the most urgent yet least understood geopolitical issue of our time; Arctic sovereignty. Who actually controls the Northwest Passage? Who owns the trillions of dollars of oil and gas beneath the Arctic Ocean? Which territorial claims will prevail those of the U.S., Russia, Canada or the Nordic nations and why? And, in an age of rapid climate change, how do we protect the fragile Arctic environment while seizing the economic opportunities presented by the rapidly melting sea ice? In the highly readable book Who Owns the Arctic, Michael Byers, a leading Arctic expert and international lawyer explains the sometimes contradictory rules governing the division and protection of the Arctic and the disputes that remain unresolved. What emerges is a vision for the Arctic in which co-operation, not conflict, prevails, and where the sovereignty of individual nations is exercised for the benefit of all.
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As an Elder once said, "Learn one Cree word a day for 100 days, and emerge a different person." In 100 Days of Cree Neal McLeod offers a portal into another way of understanding the universe-and our place within it-while demonstrating why this funny, vibrant, and sometimes salacious language is "the sexiest" of them all (according to Tomson Highway). Based on a series of Facebook posts, the 100 short chapters or "days" in the book present chains of related words, some dealing with the traditional -the buffalo hunt, the seasons-and others cheekily capturing the detritus of modern life-from internet slang to Johnny Cash songs to Viagra. The result is both an introduction to the most widely spoken Indigenous language in Canada and an opportunity to see the world, and ourselves, in another way.
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In Cherokee Asegi udanto refers to people who either fall outside of men's and women's roles or who mix men's and women's roles. Asegi, which translates as "strange," is also used by some Cherokees as a term similar to "queer." For author Qwo-Li Driskill, asegi provides a means by which to reread Cherokee history in order to listen for those stories rendered "strange" by colonial heteropatriarchy. As the first full-length work of scholarship to develop a tribally specific Indigenous Queer or Two-Spirit critique, Asegi Stories examines gender and sexuality in Cherokee cultural memory, how they shape the present, and how they can influence the future.
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Funny Little Stories is a collection of nine stories representing the Plains Cree, Woods Cree, and Swampy Cree dialects, with a pronunciation guide and a Cree-to-English glossary. Students and Elders come together in this volume to offer samples of three distinct genres of Cree storytelling: word play, humorous accounts of life experiences, and traditional stories about Wisahkecahk, the trickster-hero. Each story is illustrated and is presented in both Standard Roman Orthography and syllabics, with English translation.

With a focus on historic sites, this volume explores the recent history of non- heteronormative Americans from the early twentieth century onward and the places associated with these communities. Authors explore how queer identities are connected with specific places: places where people gather, socialize, protest, mourn, and celebrate. The focus is deeper look at how sexually variant and gender non-conforming Americans constructed identity, created communities, and fought to have rights recognized by the government. Each chapter is accompanied by prompts and activities that invite readers to think critically and immerse themselves in the subject matter while working collaboratively with others.

This exciting and groundbreaking fiction anthology showcases a number of new and emerging 2SQ (Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous) writers from across Turtle Island. These visionary authors show how queer Indigenous communities can bloom and thrive through utopian narratives that detail the vivacity and strength of 2SQness throughout its plight in the maw of settler colonialism's histories. Love after the End demonstrates the imaginatively queer Two-Spirit futurisms we have all been dreaming of since 1492. Contributors include Darcie Little Badger, Mari Kurisato, Kai Minosh Pyle, David Alexander Robertson, and jaye simpson.
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Nakón-i'a wo! Beginning Nakoda is a language resource designed to help revitalize and document Nakoda, now spoken in Montana and Saskatchewan.  Written for beginning learners of Nakoda (also known as Assiniboine), this workbook, arranged thematically, provides a Nakoda/English lexicon, a vocabulary, a table of kinship terms, a glossary of linguistic terminology, and exercises to do after each lesson. This book was made possible with the assistance of Elders and Language Keepers of the Nakoda Nation: Armand McArthur and Wilma Kennedy, Main Consultants; with additional contributions by Pete Bigstone, Leona Kroscamp, Freda O'Watch, and Ken Armstrong.
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Storytelling has the capacity to address feelings and demonstrate themes - to illuminate beyond argument and theoretical exposition. In Otter's Journey, Borrows makes use of the Anishinaabe tradition of storytelling to explore how the work in Indigenous language revitalization can inform the emerging field of Indigenous legal revitalization. She follows Otter, a dodem (clan) relation from the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, on a journey across Anishinaabe, Inuit, Māori, Coast Salish, and Abenaki territories, through a narrative of Indigenous resurgence. In doing so, she reveals that the processes, philosophies, and practices flowing from Indigenous languages and laws can emerge from under the layers of colonial laws, policies, and languages to become guiding principles in people's contemporary lives.
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This collection of reminiscences and personal stories tells us about the daily lives of Cree women over the past century: household chores, snaring rabbits, and picking berries, going to school, marriage, bearing and raising children. Seven Cree women share memories about their lives and the history of their people, and provide insights into the traditional teachings of a society where practical and spiritual matters are never far apart.

"This book offers insights from young trans, queer and two-spirit Indigenous people in Toronto who examine the breadth and depth of meanings that two-spirit holds. Tracing the refusals and desires of these youth and their communities, Urban Indigenous Youth Reframing Two-Spirit expands critical conversations on queerness, Indigeneity, and community and simultaneously troubles the idea that articulating a definition of two-spirit is a worthwhile undertaking. Beyond the expansion of these conversations, this book also seeks to empower community members, educators, and young people - both Indigenous and non-Indigenous - to better support the self-determination of trans, queer and two-spirit Indigenous youth. By including a research zine and community discussion guidelines, Laing demonstrates the possibility of powerful change that comes from Indigenous people creating spaces to share knowledge with one another"

"Words of the Inuit" is an important compendium of Inuit culture illustrated through Inuit words. It brings the sum of the author's decades of experience and engagement with Inuit and Inuktitut to bear on what he fashions as an amiable, leisurely stroll through words and meanings.
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"A curated selection from hundreds of poems written over two years of a near-daily haiku practice. Sections of selected poems such as 'recovery,' 'courting,' and 'ceremony,' tell a story of what 2016-2018 was like in the life of a two-spirit, transmasculine, Ktunaxa PhD Candidate in their late 20s, living in Peterborough Ontario."-- Provided by publisher

This guide contains: A historical overview of the portrayal of Indigenous peoples in literature; Common errors and how to avoid them when writing about Indigenous peoples; Guidance on working in a culturally sensitive way; A discussion of problematic and preferred terminology; Suggestions for editorial guidelines.
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Part survey of the field of Indigenous literary studies, part cultural history, and part literary polemic, Why Indigenous Literatures Matter asserts the vital significance of literary expression to the political, creative, and intellectual efforts of Indigenous peoples today.
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Nancy Turner has studied Indigenous peoples' knowledge of plants and environments in northwestern North America for over forty years. In Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge, she integrates her research into a two-volume ethnobotanical tour-de-force. Drawing on information shared by Indigenous botanical experts and collaborators, the ethnographic and historical record, and from linguistics, palaeobotany, archaeology, phytogeography, and other fields, Turner weaves together a complex understanding of the traditions of use and management of plant resources in this vast region.

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert). Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings--asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass--offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices.
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Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.

Prints and companion booklet based on Christi Belcourt's painting Medicines to help us. Contributions by elders Rose Richardson and Olive Whitford. Michif-Cree translations by Rita Flamand. Crosse Michif translations by Laura Burnouf

In this delightful book, Laurie Lacey's reflections on the magical world of plant life and the gathering of remedies chronicles more than 70 plants used by the Mi'kmaq as medicines. Since the Mi'kmaq healing process begins with the gathering and preparation of medicines, Lacey takes us into swamps and bogs, the barrens and woods, to explore the habitats of plants with healing properties. He then illustrates each medicinal plant and describes its traditional use or uses. Whether one is hiking through a field listening for the sound of the "sacred plant," the yellow rattle, exploring bogs in the hope of finding the elusive blue flag, or simply interested in the Mi'kmaq approach to health and healing, Mi'kmaq Medicines will prove a helpful and enjoyable companion. This new edition includes a fully revised text and a new preface from the author on current perspectives in Mi'kmaq medicines.

"Plants, People, and Places argues that the time is long past due to recognize and accommodate Indigenous Peoples' relationships with plants and their ecosystems. Essays in this volume, by leading voices in philosophy, Indigenous law, and environmental sustainability, consider the critical importance of botanical and ecological knowledge to land rights and related legal and government policy, planning, and decision making in Canada, the United States, Sweden, and New Zealand."

Mary Siisip Geniusz has spent more than thirty years working with, living with, and using the Anishinaabe teachings, recipes, and botanical information she shares in Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask. Geniusz gained much of the knowledge she writes about from her years as an oshkaabewis, a traditionally trained apprentice, and as friend to the late Keewaydinoquay, an Anishinaabe medicine woman from the Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan and a scholar, teacher, and practitioner in the field of native ethnobotany.
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