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The mathematics of blood quantum insult human dignity (and indigeneity too): Esther M. Pearson, ‘Native American Injustice and the Mathematics of Blood Quantum’, in Edward Sieh, Judy McGregor (eds), Human Dignity Establishing Worth and Seeking Solutions Editors, Palgrave, 2017, pp. 301-317

07May17

Abstract: No clearer attempt to break down human dignity exists than the use of a mathematical quantification of the degree of Indian blood. This fractional measurement objectifies Native American people, leaving them estranged from full development and matriculation in mainstream American society. As stated by T. R. Garth (1930) in “Race Psychology,” “Any disposition on our part to withhold from some race the right to a free and full development must be taken as an indication of rationalization on account of race prejudice, and such an attitude is inexcusable in an intelligent populace.” The philosophical framework of denial of free and full development of society and culture is apparent in the US government’s use of blood quantum to define Native Americans.


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Imperial and settler colonial histories are entangled: Daniel K. Richter, ‘His Own, Their Own: Settler Colonialism, Native Peoples, and the Balance of Power in Eastern North America, 1660-1715’, in Ignacio Gallup-Diaz (ed.), The World of Colonial America An Atlantic Handbook, Routledge, 2017

07May17

Access the chapter (but not its abstract or page numbers) here.


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If he says so … : Australia and US ‘rebellious children of the same parent’ (i.e., ‘siblings’ will never squabble if they BOTH occupy someone else’s estate).

06May17

From Melbourne’s The Age.


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The literacies of colonialism and settler colonialism: Emma Battell Lowman, ‘Mamook Kom’tax Chinuk Pipa / Learning to Write Chinook Jargon: Indigenous Peoples and Literacy Strategies in the South Central Interior of British Columbia in the Late 19th Century’, Historical Studies in Education, 2017

03May17

Abstract: During the mid-nineteenth century, the advent of multiple gold rushes swept foreign populations into what is now known as the British Columbia Interior, bringing a variety of European languages to the homeland of a multitude of Indigenous languages. In order to bridge communication gaps between these populations, Chinook Jargon, a composite trade pidgin, quickly spread. The Jargon or “Wawa” became so common that, in the last decade of the century, Catholic priest Father J. M. R. Le Jeune developed and standardized a shorthand writing system for the Jargon—Chinuk pipa—and used it to publish a popular local newspaper. At the same time, residential schools began operating in the region, and English was aggressively promoted; however, contrary to expectations at the time and perceptions since, English literacy developed slowly in the British Columbia Interior. By contrast, Chinook pipa spread quickly and literacy in the Chinook Jargon—for a time—outstripped English literacy. Drawing on extensive primary research in the archives of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate missionary order, interviews, and literature in linguistics, missionary history, Indigenous languages, and colonial exchange, this article considers the different learning and teaching strategies that were used to develop English and Chinook literacy, and their subsequent successes or failures. In so doing, it challenges understandings about the role of pidgins and literacy in more global settler colonial contexts and offers an intervention to the wider theme of the role of literacy in the missionary project.


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Settler anxiety and missionary pacification: Sean Carleton, ‘Settler Anxiety and State Support for Missionary Schooling in Colonial British Columbia, 1849 –1871’, Historical Studies in Education, 2017

02May17

Abstract: Indigenous peoples and settlers engaged in innumerable conflicts in the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia between 1849 and 1871. The constant threat of violent Indigenous resistance to settler colonization in the Pacific Northwest—both real and imagined—produced feelings of anxiety for settlers, especially state officials, that shaped colonial strategy and statecraft. To buttress colonial security, the nascent state partnered with Christian missionaries in the hope that missionaries could use education to cultivate the goodwill of Indigenous peoples and train them to accept colonization. The state’s support for early missionary schooling in colonial British Columbia is examined in the context of settler anxieties regarding three instances of Indigenous resistance: a Lekwungen convergence at Fort Victoria in 1851, the Puget Sound War of 1855–56, and the 1864 Tsilhqot’in War. In different ways, settler anxiety over these conflicts acted as a catalyst, prodding the state to support missionary schooling as a financially expeditious way of trying to contain Indigenous resistance and safeguard colonial security.


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South Australia as a laboratory of settler political traditions: Angela Woolacott, ‘Radical roots in Fiji: The impact of colonialism on Don Dunstan’, Griffith Review, 55, 2017, pp. 103-112

02May17

Abstract: South Australia’s reputation for progressive reform extends back to its origins in Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s scheme for imperial systematic colonisation. Wakefield’s grand plans, which inspired followers and shaped several colonies in Australasia, aimed to rid Australia of convict transportation and to assist respectable free settlers. While land policy would limit the expansion of the frontier and regulate class relationships, those who worked hard would be able to acquire land, and settlers would have a voice in the framing of their laws. Wakefield’s scheme was born in the milieu of early nineteenth-century British philosophical radicalism. Jeremy Bentham died before South Australia was settled, but he was a keen supporter of its planning, and suggested that it be named to reflect its radical promise: ‘Felicia’, ‘Felicitania’ or ‘Liberia’. Regardless of just how well the state has lived up to those early rosy hopes, its sense of reformist exceptionalism has been woven into its history. One of its most important political leaders, Don Dunstan, the democratic socialist and nationally influential premier from 1967-68 and 1970-79, self-consciously adopted this tradition by titling his 1981 political memoirs Felicia.


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The reservation and the reserve lie beyond the boundary of the settler normal: Jessica Hansen, ‘Boundaries on the “Wild” : Late Nineteenth-Century Governmental Language Concerning Yellowstone National Park and the American Indian’, Kalamazoo College, 2017

30Apr17

Abstract: This project examines how these two differing land preserves with opposite goals were promoted and defended in similar ways and run in similar manners. It examines the reservations and the park through the governmental language used to discuss each at the times of their creations. Though founded on vastly different purposes—a site of preservation versus a site of conversion—the two can be seen as abstractly similar in ways. Making use of worthless land, undesirable to white settlers, the boundaries of each served to supposedly protect that which inhabited the land. Both were sites of culture, with reservations promoting acculturation, while Yellowstone eventually being seen as a cultural gemstone to rival the man-made sites of Europe. The development of the American Indian reservation system and Yellowstone National Park parallel and yet contradict one another. The development of the American Indian reservation system and Yellowstone National Park parallel and yet contradict one another. While Yellowstone was meant to preserve the wild and reservations were meant to “tame the wild,” the early establishment and administration of each mimicked the other. Though very different, the reservation system and Yellowstone can be seen as related in their early days of conception. This is a comparative study to understand further how the West was seen through the eyes of federal officials and how it was conquered and handled on a frontier driven by greed and glory. The study begins by examining the thoughts and events that led to government officials deciding to take an active role in the distribution of land in the West and what land they thought could be set aside. It then moves on to the inherent value of the land. What qualities must the land have in order to justify the creation of a public park when western land was in high demand? What land could be used for the purposes of assimilating American Indians and what land did settlers have inherent rights to? This section examines the undesirability of the land in the West. Once established what could be set aside, what did the boundaries around the lands hope to accomplish? The land reserves hoped to protect what resided inside from those who might take advantage of them and cause depredations. The difference between the park boundaries and those of the reservation was that latter was not only meant to keep unwanted people from entering but they were also meant to keep the inhabitants within. The study then moves to at the malleability of both. While both Yellowstone and the reservation system went on to become permanent institutions in the United States, neither were necessarily meant to. The section examines the flexibility and malleability that characterized each, giving greater insight into governmental thought on both preservation and the future of American Indians. The last section focuses on how the government handled each after their establishment. It examines the priority of each in the eyes of Washington and how it led in one case to a change in procedure and policy and what that confirmed about the government’s priorities. Through the comparative examination and analysis of both Yellowstone National Park and the American Indian reservation system, this study hopes to arrive at a better understanding of Indian and land protection policies of the time. 


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Connecting ‘the ideological with the material forces of settler colonialism’ (and a triangular system of relations): Sarah Rotz, ‘”They took our beads, it was a fair trade, get over it”: Settler colonial logics, racial hierarchies and material dominance in Canadian agriculture’, Geoforum, 82, 2017, pp. 158–169

30Apr17

Abstract: Canada is in a liminal space, with renewed struggles for and commitments to indigenous land and food sovereignty on one hand, and growing capital interest in land governance and agriculture on the other. While neoliberal capital increasingly accumulates land-based control, settler-farming communities still manage much of Canada’s arable land. This research draws on studies of settler colonialism, racial hierarchy and othering to connect the ideological with the material forces of settler colonialism and show how material dominance is maintained through colonial logics and racially ordered narratives. Through in-depth interviews, I investigate how white settler farmers perceive and construct two distinctly ‘othered’ groups: Indigenous peoples and migrant farmers and farm workers. Further, I show the disparate role of land and labour in constructing each group, and specifically, the cultural and material benefits of these constructions for land-based settler populations. At the same time, settler colonial structures and logics remain reciprocally coupled to political conditions. For instance, contemporary neoliberalism in Canadian agriculture modifies settler colonial structures to be sure. I argue, however, that political economic analyses of land and food production in Canada (such as corporate concentration, land grabbing and farm consolidation) ought to better integrate the systemic forces of settler colonialism that have conditioned land access in the first place. Of course, determining who is able to access land—and thus, who is able to grow food—continues to be a territorial struggle. Thus, in order to shift these conditions we ought to examine how those with access and control have acquired and maintained it.


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The Nortwest Ordinance had an implicit twin (the Southwest Ordinance?): they both stole indigenous land: Robert Alexander, The Northwest Ordinance Constitutional Politics and the Theft of Native Land, McFarland, 2017

28Apr17

Description: Passed by Congress in July 1787, the Northwest Ordinance laid out the basic form of government for all U.S. territory north of the Ohio River. That summer, the Constitutional Convention drafted the defining document of the American Republic as a whole. A bargain struck between Congress and the Convention outlawed slavery north of the Ohio, but gave Southern states a Congressional and Electoral College representation based on population figures that included slaves—each valued at three-fifths of a free white citizen.

Because of this agreement, the western lands acquired from Great Britain after the Revolutionary War were divided into slave and free states—a compromise which, when it failed, precipitated the Civil War 74 years later. For years most historians denied that this political deal took place. Drawing on contemporary letters and documents, this detailed analysis re-examines the Ordinance and how Congress silently permitted the South’s “peculiar institution” to move westward.


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Indigenous protest is violent; is settler repression peaceful? Ueslei Marcelino, Anthony Boadle, ‘Indigenous protest over land rights turns violent on front steps of Brazil Congress’, The Age, 26/04/17

26Apr17

Excerpt: Indigenous people and police have clashed in Brazil’s capital city, as officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas while tribe members shot arrows in return during a protest against planned government changes to reservation legislation.

The Tuesday demonstration was peaceful until police blocked some protesters, their bodies painted and carrying colourful headdresses, from climbing a ramp that leads into the congressional building.


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