Social Science Native American Studies
No need of a chief for this band
The Maritime Mi'kmaq and Federal Electoral Legislation, 1899-1951
- Publisher
- UBC Press
- Initial publish date
- Jan 2011
- Category
- Native American Studies, Post-Confederation (1867-)
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780774817905
- Publish Date
- Jan 2011
- List Price
- $34.95
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780774817899
- Publish Date
- May 2010
- List Price
- $95.00
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780774817912
- Publish Date
- Jan 2011
- List Price
- $29.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
In 1899 the Canadian government passed legislation to replace the community appointment of Mi'kmaw leaders and Mi'kmaw political practices with the triennial system, a Euro-Canadian system of democratic band council elections. Officials in Ottawa assumed the federally mandated and supervised system would redefine Mi'kmaw politics. They were wrong. Many Mi'kmaw communities rejected or amended the legislation, while others accepted it only sporadically to meet specific community needs and goals. Compelling and timely, this book supports Aboriginal claims to self-governance and complicates understandings of state power by showing that the Mi'kmaw, rather than succumbing to imposed political models, retained political practices that distinguished them from their Euro-Canadian neighbours.
About the author
Contributor Notes
Martha Elizabeth Walls teaches Canadian, Atlantic Canadian, and First Nations history.