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Indigenous Americas Robert Warrior, Series Editor Red Skin, White Masks Chadwick Allen, Trans-Indigenous: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies Raymond D. Austin, Navajo Courts and Navajo Common Law; A Tradition of Tribal Self-Governance Lisa Brooks, The Common Pot; The Recovery of Native Space in the Northeast Kevin Bruyneel, The Third Space of Sovereignty; Glen Sean Coulthard The Postcolonial Politics of U.S.-Indigenous Relations Glen Sean Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks; Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition James H. Cox, The Red Land to the South; American Indian Writers and Indigenous Mexico Daniel Heath Justice, Our Fire Survives the Storm; A Cherokee Literary History Brendan Hokowhitu and Vijay Devadas, The Fourth Eye; Indigenous Americas Maori Media in Aotearoa New Zealand Thomas King, The Truth About Stories; A Native Narrative Scott Richard Lyons, X-Marks; Native Signatures of Assent Jean M. O’Brien, Firsting and Lasting; Writing Indians out of Existence in New England M Paul Chaat Smith, Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong IN NE SO Gerald Vizenor, Bear Island; The War at Sugar Point TA Robert Warrior, The People and the Word; Reading Native Nonfiction Robert A. WilUams, Jr., Like a Loaded Weapon; The Rehnquist Court, University of Minnesota Press Indian Rights, and the Legal History of Racism in America MINNEAPOLIS • LONDON Portions of chapter i were previously published as “This Is Not a Peace Pipe: Towards a Critical Indigenous Philosophy” University of Toronto Quarterly 77, no. 1 (2008): 164-66, reprinted with permission from University of Toronto Press, www.utpjoumals.com; and as “Subjects of Empire: Indigenous Peoples and the ‘politics of Recognition in Canada,” Contemporary Political Theory 6, no. 4 (2007): 437-60. Portions of chapter 3 were previously published as “Resisting Culture: Seyla Benhabib's For Deliberative Approach to the Politics of Recognition in Colonial Contexts,” in Richard Park Coulthard Deliberative Democracy in Practice, ed. David Kahane (Vancouver, BC: University (1942-2012) of British Columbia Press, 2009), 138-54, reprinted with permission of the publisher, copyright University of British Columbia Press 2009, all rights reserved. Copyright 2014 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other-wise, without the prior -written permission of the pubUsher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapohs, MN 55401-2520 http: //www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PubUcation Data Coulthard, Glen Sean. Red skin, white masks : rejecting the colonial politics of recognition / Glen Sean Coulthard. (Indigenous Americas) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8166-7964-5 (he : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8166 7965-2 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Indians of North America—Canada—Government relations. 2. Indians of North America—Canada—Politics and government. 3. Indians of North America—Legal status, laws, etc.—Canada. 4. Indians, Treatment of—Canada. 5. Canada—Ethnic relations—Political aspects. 1. Title. E92.C68 2014 323.1197 '071—dc23 2013049674 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. 22 21 20 19 18 17 11 10 9 8 7 6 ■r CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction. Subjects ofEmpire i 1 The Politics of Recognition in Colonial Contexts 25 2 For the Land: The Dene Nations Struggle for Self-Determination 51 3 Essentiahsm an4^ the Gendered Pohtics of Aboriginal Self-Government 79 4 Seeing Red: Reconcihation and Resentment 105 5 The Plunge into the Chasm of the Past: Fanon, Self-Recognition, and Decolonization 131 Conclusion. Lessons from Idle No More: The Future of Indigenous Activism 151 Notes i8i Index 221 Acknowledgments X Credit is also due to the many iUuminating conversations I hat-e had oyer d.e years with these brillitmt interlocutonn Erin Freeland B Jlantyne, Uanne INTRODUCTION Simpson, Audta Simpson, Andy Smldt, J. P. Fulfbrd, Duncan teomMto Williams, Jeff Comtassel, Michael Asch,AvigailEisenbetg,JerOTy , Subjects of Empire arts Jersen, Peter Kiffchyskl, Paul Patton, Kevin Bruynee^ Bachard Day Harsh. Walia, Dimd Dennis, Cliff Atleo, Ivan Real recognition of our presence and humanity would require a genuine Laura Janara, Barbara Arneil, Bruce Baum, Jeffery Webber, Nikolas Kompri- reconsideration of so many people's role in North American society that dis. Brad Brian, Sylvia Federtci, Andrej Gnibaclc, Dylan Roiy ea, B^ it would amount to a genuine leap of imagination. Hokowhitu, Vince Diaz, Stephanie Irlbacber-Fox, Francois Paulette Stephm —Gborge Manuel and Michael Posluns, Kakfwi, Kyla Kakfwl Scott, Amos Scott, Melaw Nakehko, The Fourth World Therese Sangris, Toby RoUo, Amjohal, Shyl. SeUer, Matt Hern, Geoff htonn, Mike Kebs, Denise Ferreira Da Sihra, Scott Moigensen, Shirt PasKm*. Ch Finley, Arthur Manuel, Val Napoleon, Mande. McDondd, S.ku Allooloo, From “Wards of the State” to Nina Larrson, and JarrettMartmeau. rri Pnlnm Subjects of Recognition? A shout-out is also due to my students at the University of Btinsh Colum- bia and elsewhere. Thanks to Kelsey Wrlghtson and Matthew WildcM for the ver the last forty years, the self-determination efforts and objectives of Indigenous peoples in Canada have increasingly been cast in the language care they put into helping prepare the text, both intdlectually and physical O to. pubhcarton. I have also learned so much horn my comrersa ions in and of “recognition.”' Consider, for example, the formative declaration issued by „uJideoftheclassroomwithDanielVodi,JessicaRosinsld,DerekKornelsen, my people in 1975: JessicaHdlenbeck, Dawn Hoogeveen, Kelly Aguhre, and Charlotte Itogstom Fmally, I could not have completed diis project without the love and We the Dene of the NWT [Northwest Territories] insist on the right to be regarded by ourselves and the world as a nation. support of Amanda Dowlingi our children, codduudi and my mother, Chrlsttne Codthard. Thlsbookw lor all of you^ Our struggle is for the recognition of the Dene Nation by the Government and people of Canada and the peoples and governments of the world.... I dedicate Red Sim While Masks to the loving memory of my fcth , -And while there are realities we are forced to submit to, such as the existence Richard Park Coulthard (wao.a). I miss you more thmi words can say. of a country called Canada, we insist on the right to self-determination and the Mahsi cho! recognition of the Dene Nation.^ Now fast-forward to the 2005 policy position on self-determination issued by Canada’s largest Aboriginal organization, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN). According to the .AFN, "a consensus has emerged... around a vision of the relationship between First Nations and Canada which would lead to strengthening recognition and implementation of First Nations’ governments.”^ This “vision,” the AFN goes on to explain, draws on the core principles out lined in the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RC-AP); that is, recognition of the nation-to-nation relationship between First Nations Introduction Introduction 3 2 and the Crown; recognition of the equal right of First Nations to self- On a more discursive plane, the increase in recognition demands made determination; recognition of the Crowns fiduciary obUgation to protect by Indigenous and other marginalized minorities over the last forty years has Aboriginal treaty rights; recognition of First Nations’ inherent right to self- also prompted a flurry of intellectual activity that has sought to unpack the government; and recognition of the right of First Nations to economically complex ethical, poUtical, and legal questions that these types of claims raise. benefit from the use and development of their lands and resources.^ Since To date, much of this literature has tended to focus on a perceived relation 2005 the AFN has consistently reasserted and aflEirmed these guiding princi ship between the affirmative recognition and institutional accommodation ples at its Annual General Assembhes and in the numerous resolutions that of societal cultural differences on the one hand, and the fireedom and auton omy of marginaUzed individuals and groups living in ethnically diverse states these gatherings have produced. These demands have not been easy to ignore. Because of the persistence and on the other. In Canada it has been argued that this synthesis of theory and dedication of coundess Indigenous activists, leaders, communities, and orga practice has forced the state to dramaticaUy reconceptualize the tenets of its nizations, we have witnessed within the scope of four decades the emergence relationship with Indigenous peoples; whereas before 1969 federal Indian pol of an unprecedented degree of recognition for Aboriginal “cultural” rights icy was unapologeticaUy assimilationist, now it is couched in the vernacular of within the legal and poUtical firamework of the Canadian state.^ Most signifi “mutual recognition.”® cant on this front was Canada’s eventual “recognition of existing aboriginal In the foUowing chapters I criticaUy engage a multiplicity of diverse anti- and treaty rights” under section 35(1) of the Constitution Act of 1982. This imperiaUst traditions and practices to challenge the increasingly common constitutional