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Record Nr. |
UNINA9910791589003321 |
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Autore |
Mills Antonia Curtze |
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Titolo |
Eagle down is our law [[electronic resource] ] : the Witsuwit'en law, feasts, and land claims / / Antonia Mills |
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Pubbl/distr/stampa |
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Vancouver, : UBC Press, 1994 |
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ISBN |
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7-7480-5137-2 |
1-283-22565-4 |
9786613225658 |
0-7748-5444-8 |
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Descrizione fisica |
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1 online resource (232 p.) |
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Disciplina |
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Soggetti |
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Gitksan Indians - Land tenure |
Indians of North America - Land tenure - British Columbia |
Indians of North America - British Columbia - Claims |
Gitksan Indians - Social life and customs |
Indians of North America - British Columbia - Social life and customs |
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Lingua di pubblicazione |
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Formato |
Materiale a stampa |
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Livello bibliografico |
Monografia |
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Note generali |
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Nota di bibliografia |
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Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-197) and index. |
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Nota di contenuto |
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Front Matter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Foreword -- Preface -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- The Nature of Witsuwit'en Society -- The Nature and Function of the Witsuwit'en Feast -- Genesis of the Witsuwit'en -- Witsuwit'en Institutions -- Witsuwit'en Law -- The Witsuwit'en Interface with the World -- Epilogue -- Notes -- References -- Index |
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Sommario/riassunto |
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Eagle Down Is Our Law is about the struggle of the Witsuwit'en peoples to establish the meaning of aboriginal rights. With the neighbouring Gitksan, the Witsuwit'en launched a major land claims court case asking for the ownership and jurisdiction of 55,000 square kilometers of land in north-central British Columbia that they claim to have held since before the arrival of the Europeans. In conjunction with that court case, the Gitksan and Witsuwit'en asked a number of expert witnesses, among them Antonia Mills, an anthropologist, to prepare reports on their behalf. Her report, which instructs the judge in the case on the laws, feasts, and institutions of the Witsuwit'en, is presented here. Her |
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testimony is based on two years of participant observation with the Witsuwit'en peoples and on her reading of the anthropological, historic, archaeological, and linguistic data about the Witsuwit'en. In 1991, the judge who rendered the decision in the court case, known as Delgamuukw v. the Queen, dismissed the testimony of Mills and other anthropologists and ruled that the Witsuwit'en and Gitksan have no aboriginal title. This book contains the report that Mills rendered to the court. With its publication, the public can judge the quality of the expert opinion report for themselves. The report is introduced by Chief Gisdaywa (Alfred Joseph) of the Witsuwit'en, Chief Mas Gak (Don Ryan) of the Gitksan, anthropologist Michael Kew, and legal scholar Michael Jackson. A prologue by Mills describes the report in the context of the epic three-year court case, and an epilogue, also by Mills, describes what has happended in the provincial appeal and what the Gitksan and Witsuwit'en have done since the decision to further address the issues of aboriginal rights. 'Eagle down is sacred among the Gitksan and Witsuwit'en peoples and is a symbol of peace. It is used to sanctify the beginning of our peacemaking process . The Gitskan and Witsuwit'en have yet to use eagle down in their dealings with the Crown in Canada. [We] have been waiting almost two centuries to make peace with the Crown . Eagle down gives us optimism. We have kept the eagle down for thousands of years because it works. Eagle down is our law.' - Mas Gak (Don Ryan) |
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