Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Social Science Indigenous Studies

The Truth that Wampum Tells

My Debwewin on the Algonquin Land Claims Process

by (author) Lynn Gehl

Publisher
Fernwood Publishing
Initial publish date
Apr 2014
Category
Indigenous Studies
  • Book

    ISBN
    9781552666593
    Publish Date
    Apr 2014
    List Price
    $22.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

"From the Foreword, by Heather Majaury: I am prone to think that when Creator lowered Lynn to Mother Earth it was for her to complete this difficult task of bravery. Indeed we can all learn from her, as she has fulfilled her responsibility.

In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Treaty at Niagara, The Truth that Wampum Tells offers readers a first-ever insider analysis of the contemporary land claims and self-government process in Canada. Incorporating an analysis of traditional symbolic literacy known as wampum diplomacy, Lynn Gehl argues that despite Canada’s constitutional beginnings first codified in the 1763 Royal Proclamation and ratified during the 1764 Treaty at Niagara, Canada continues to deny the Algonquin Anishinaabeg their right to land and resources, their right to live as a sovereign nation, and consequently their ability to live mino-pimadiziwin (the good life). Gehl moves beyond Western scholarly approaches rooted in the historical archives, academic literature and the interview method. She also moves beyond discussions of Indigenous methodologies, offering an analysis through her debwewin journey: a wholistic Anishinaabeg way of knowing that incorporates both mind knowledge"

About the author

Contributor Notes

Lynn Gehl (Gii-Zhigaate-Mnidoo-Kwe) identifies as Algonquin Anishinaabe from the Ottawa River Valley. She completed a PhD in Indigenous studies as an older adult. Throughout her life and education she has been busy learning, thinking and writing about the societal structures that have shaped her life, such as the limitations of the biomedical model, the sex discrimination in the Indian Act and the genocide of the contemporary land claims and self-government process in Canada.