Category: Scholarship

Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors

Taiaiake

The original 1995 book description:

This book is the first comprehensive study of the driving force behind Native political activism, and the only scholarly treatment of North American Indian politics which integrates an explicitly Native perspective. With a broad historical scope rich in detail, and drawing on the particular experience of the Mohawks of Kahnawake, it offers an explanation of Indian and Inuit political activism focusing on the importance of traditional values and institutions in shaping Native responses to the state.

The book explains the recent rise of a militant assertion of sovereignty on the part of Native people in terms of three major factors: the existence of alternative institutions in the body of the nation’s traditional culture; the self-conscious development of an alternative identity; and a persistent pattern of negative interaction with the state. It differs from other analyses focusing on similar factors in that it views nationalism not as a movement which activates in response to external factors, but as a persistent feature of political life which manifests itself in either a latent or active form in response to the interaction of the three factors discussed in the model.

Alfred – Heeding the VoicesDownload

A Critical Reflection on “From Bad to Worse: Internal Politics in the 1990 Crisis at Kahnawake”

Taiaiake

I was honoured to contribute to a special edition of Recherches amérindiennes au Québec by writing a critical reflection, three decades post-facto, on my first ever academic publication, which was an article about the political situation in Kahnawà:ke in the immediate aftermath of the 1990 Crisis. The new critical reflection as well as the original 1991 piece from Northeast Indian Quarterly/RAQ are provided below in both their French and English versions.

Alfred, Critical Reflection… RAQ 50(3) 2020-21 EnglishDownload
Alfred, Réflexion critique… RAQ 50(3) 2020-21 FrancaisDownload
Alfred, From Bad to Worse, NIQ Spring 1991Download
Alfred, De mal en pis, RAQ 21(3) 1991Download

Expert Report on the Sovereignty of the Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke

Taiaiake

This paper is a type corrected version of the report I submitted as an expert witness on the question of the sovereignty of the Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke in the case of R. v DEREK WHITE AND HUNTER MONTOUR argued in 2021 before the Superior Court in Montrèal.

Report: Indigenous Collaboration in Impact Assessment

Taiaiake

This report was produced in support of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada’s Indigenous Advisory Committee in the development of advice for the Agency on collaboration agreements with Indigenous Peoples in Impact Assessment. Under the direction of the Indigenous Advisory Committee’s collaboration sub-committee, I conducted research on past agreements and arrangements with the intent of providing information and perspective to the Committee to inform their discussions at the big-picture level and provide a basis for the Committee’s advising the Agency on challenges and opportunities in this area. The report is the result of research and analysis conducted with the goal of providing an objective analysis of past and present examples of collaboration agreements and advice on designing agreements drawing on the experiences and perspectives of participants in various collaborations. 

Indigenous Collaboration in Impact AssessmentDownload

From Red Power to Resurgence

taiaiakealfred

This lecture tracing the evolution of Indigenous activism in North America was presented at Simon Fraser University’s Institute for the Humanities’ “Then and Now: 1968-2018 Conference” in Vancouver, BC on November 2, 2018:

From Red Power to Reconciliation