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On settler appropriations: Kristen Dobbin, ‘Appropriation (?) of the Month: Indigenous Teacups’, IPinCH: Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage, 18/06/15

21Jun15

Excerpt: The artifacts in question are teacups, created by Indigenous artists from bark and grass or carved from stone. The teacups, often accompanied by matching saucers, remain formally recognizable, evoking European, especially British, civility and refinement, but are materially and technically distinct. In a certain light, their rendering by Indigenous artists from local materials has transformed them from something familiar to something exotic, foreign, and fundamentally “Other.” Is this an appropriation? If so, what is being appropriated here, exactly? Or does it, rather, represent the Indigenization of an everyday object, a process bound to occur in the colonial contact zone? These are questions that my colleague Lisa Truong and I debated earlier this spring, as we worked through our initial ideas about Indigenous teacups.


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First possession? Prior appropriation? Gary D. Libecap, Bryan Leonard, ‘The Economics of First Possession Rights to a Heterogeneous Resource: Prior Appropriation Rights to Water’, without mentioning indigenous peoples, 2015

21Jun15

Abstract: We analyze the economics of first-possession property rights to a large heterogeneous resource allocated under incomplete information and competitive claiming by agents. Our focus is on prior-appropriation surface water rights used in 18 western US states and generally in at least 3 western Canadian provinces, with specific attention to Colorado, 1852-2013. Prior appropriation was an institutional innovation, replacing common-law riparian rights, in a setting where water supplies were scarce, unevenly distributed, and remote from production sites where water was a key input. Prior appropriation emerged very rapidly within 20 years or less to be the dominant rights regime covering an immense area of over 1,197,000 square miles, suggesting large economic advantages relative to the incumbent institutional regime. Voluntary, large-scale property rights changes are unusual empirically. Prior appropriation encouraged valuable search and narrowed the information required to establish ownership to that described in immediate water diversion rather than an entire river basin. It thereby also lowered individual bounding and enforcement costs. Beneficial use revealed how much water remained for subsequent rights claimants. We examine the economic advantages of prior appropriation. The benefits of prior appropriation in general depended upon how rights were obtained, an issue that we examine in detail. At the time of claiming water there was little information about water source characteristics, and the process of claiming revealed such information. Hence, there was a tradeoff between claiming at a particular time and waiting. At any time, water rights claimants were equal in their lack of knowledge of the best water diversion locations. Each round of claiming revealed new information, but the quantities of remaining high-quality diversion sites were reduced. Individual claims were based on observable resource characteristics, such as current stream flow or quantity, distance to stream head, terrain topography, and proximate soil quality. Because claiming initially took place under open-access conditions, there was potential for rent dissipation. Nevertheless, so long as search revealed critical resource characteristics, they were stable, and individual claims were recognized, there was no basis for rent dissipation, even in a rush to claim given the number of claimants and resource size. In this regard we differ from the literature on first possession that generally points to full dissipation. Prior appropriation water rights became the basis for water trade, investment in dams and canals, and expansion of irrigated agriculture and other activities critical for economic development. Prior appropriation rights endure, affecting the distribution of water ownership and exchange. Assessment of the prior appropriation’s welfare effects requires accounting for its role in generating property rights to water, investment, production, and the transaction costs of water exchange.


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On settlers and natives: Janet Berry Hess, Osage and Settler: Reconstructing Shared History through an Oklahoma Family Archive, McFarland, 2015

18Jun15

Description: Drawing on a rare family archive and archival material from the Osage Nation, this book documents a unique relationship among white settlers, the Osage and African Americans in Oklahoma. The history of white settlement and colonization is often discussed in the context of the cultural erasure of, and violence perpetuated against, American Indians and enslaved blacks. Conversely, histories of American Indian nations often end with colonial conquest, and exclude the experiences of white settlers. The author’s anthropological approach examines the lived experience of individuals–including her own family members–and their nuanced and intersecting relationships as they negotiate cultural and geographic landscapes of oppression and technological change. The art, architecture, body ornamentation, sacred objects, ceremonies and performances accompanying this transformation are all addressed.


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On the politics of a settler society ‘manque’: David Chappell, ‘Decolonisation and nation-building in New Caledonia Reflections on the 2014 elections’, Political Science, 2015, 67, 1, pp. 56-72

18Jun15

Abstract: The French Pacific island ‘collectivity’ of New Caledonia has faced serious challenges in decolonising since the Second World War because, unlike Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US, it is a settler country manqué. Instead of becoming a small minority, the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants (today called Kanak (invariable spelling)) comprise nearly half the population and hold 46% of the seats in the Congress. Most of them seek independence, whereas most settlers want to remain part of France, albeit with autonomy. For a century after French annexation in 1853, colonial segregation onto small, marginal native reserves and a lack of civil rights created a unified consciousness among the 30 indigenous language groups. Apart from forced or low-wage labour situations or conversion by missionaries, they intermingled very little with settlers, who included French convicts and small farmers, ranchers and nickel miners, as well as indentured Asian labourers and Polynesian workers from Wallis and Futuna or French Polynesia. The Kanak finally received civil rights in 1946 and were a demographic majority, so they supported a multiracial political party for a generation while the territory gained autonomy. However, in the 1960s, Paris revoked such self-governing powers during a nickel boom, and new immigration made the Kanak a minority, which hardened ethno-political polarisation and sparked an independence movement that culminated in a Kanak revolt in the 1980s. Two peace accords ensued, which restored autonomy and proposed a ‘common destiny’ for local citizens. The May 2014 elections chose a Congress that can hold a referendum on independence, but factionalism within each ethno-political bloc delayed forming a cabinet until April 2015, when some pro-independence leaders chose to cooperate with some loyalists.


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On settler nationalism and nationalists and settlement: Timo Särkkä, ‘Imperialists without an empire? Finnish Settlers in Late Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Rhodesia’, Journal of Migration History, 1, 1, pp.75–99

17Jun15

Abstract: This article discusses settler identity formation, in the colonial polity known as Rhodesia, using Finnish nationals as a case study. It studies the involvement of Finns in natural resource extraction in Rhodesia at a time when the colonial economy and settler domination were still in their infancy, and examines both Finnish participation in colonial practices and the limitations of Finns as colonialists. White settlers in Rhodesia have typically been categorised as ‘Europeans’ partly because of their sense of representing a generalised idea of Western civilisation and partly in order to underline contrasts between black and white experiences in the history of colonialism. By focusing on the more specific provenance of the settlers (their nationality and country of origin), it is possible to reveal idiosyncrasies through which we can appreciate settler identity formation more precisely. Finnish settlers, in their various capacities as prospectors, soldiers, hunters and planters, adapted ideas and identities that cannot easily be disentangled from those of colonisers.


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On Chinese settler expansion: Patrick Fuliang Shan, Taming China’s Wilderness: Immigration, Settlement and the Shaping of the Heilongjiang Frontier, 1900-1931, Taming China’s Wildernes, Ashgate, 2014

17Jun15

Description: Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the Chinese province of Heilongjiang, historically known as Northern Manchuria, remained a sparsely populated territory on the northeastern frontier. For about two centuries, the rulers of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) – whose historical homeland was in Manchuria – enforced a policy that prohibited Chinese immigration and settlement and maintained the region’s reputation as the Great Northern Wilderness. Yet, as this new study demonstrates, by the early 20th century the Chinese government reversed its previous policy and began to encourage immigration into Heilongjiang, turning a backwater into a thriving frontier region.

Covering the period between the reversal of the anti-immigration policy around 1900 and the Japanese occupation of Heilongjiang in 1931, this book investigates this distinctive frontier and the impact upon it of the settlement of four million Chinese settlers during a thirty-one year period. Following an introduction providing a background to the period covered, the study is divided into five chapters. The first chapter looks at patterns of immigrations, settlement and the features of the newly developing frontier society. Chapter two then deals with land possession, tenure and relations amongst the newly arrived settlers. The third chapter discusses the transformation of the ethnic make-up of the region, and the move from a largely nomadic culture to one of settled farmers. Chapter four probes the social problems these changes caused, particularly banditry. The final chapter revises commonly held notions about Russian dominance of the region, arguing that Russia’s influence was limited to the railway zone. Taken together, these chapters not only provide an overview of a territory undergoing rapid and sustained change, but also provide insights into wider Chinese history, as well as adding to the on-going scholarly interest in border and frontier studies.


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A comparative analysis of settler colonial establishment: Ashley Sanders, Between two fires: The origins of settler colonialism in the United States and French Algeria, PhD Dissertation, Michigan State University, 2015

17Jun15

Abstract: This dissertation is a comparative study of the establishment of settler colonies in the American Midwest (1778–1795) and French colonial Algeria (1830–1848). It examines how interactions between the Indigenous populations, colonists, colonial administrators, the military, and the métropole shaped their development and advances the theory of settler colonialism. This study centers on the first fifteen to twenty years of conquest/occupation in the American Midwest, focusing specifically on southern Illinois and Indiana, and the province of Constantine, Algeria. Despite differences in geography, relative size of the military presence and Indigenous demographics, the process of establishing settler colonies in both locations followed similar trajectories. The study analyzes the founding moment of initial military occupation in Indiana/Illinois in 1778 and Constantine in 1836–1837 as well as subsequent land policies, settlement, and Indigenous resistance movements.

I argue that settler colonies in the American Midwest and Algeria resulted from a bottom-up process in which settler desires for land and greater economic opportunities compelled them to migrate (or emigrate) and stake their claim to these territories. This movement then served as a catalyst for initially makeshift colonial policies that only became systematized over time. The relationship between settlers and the Indigenous populations in both locations, as well as administrators’ responses to prevailing circumstances on the ground shaped the establishment of stable settler governments.

This research broadens our conceptions of American history and deepens our understanding of the processes by which settler colonies formed and “worked.” Settler colonialism’s legacy continues to influence geopolitics, national policy decisions, and people’s daily lives. Hence, the formation and eventual structures of settler colonies help researchers explain the founding of many contemporary societies and, taken together, recast empire, settler roles, and Indigenous actions within colonial contexts.


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Developing the contemporary technologies of settler colonial governance: Guillaume Peterson St-Laurent, Philippe Le Billon, ‘Staking claims and shaking hands: Impact and benefit agreements as a technology of government in the mining sector’, The Extractive Industries and Society, 2015

17Jun15

Abstract: Seeking to avoid or resolve conflicts with local communities, extractive industries have increasingly sought to negotiate agreements with the aim of not only compensating for operational impacts, but also sharing project benefits. We compare these impact and benefit agreements (IBAs) with two other major ‘technologies of government’—free entry and environmental impact assessments. Special emphasis is placed on the role of IBAs in (re) producing power structures in a context of neoliberal governance, and more specifically, in Canada’s politics of recognition and reconciliation toward Aboriginal communities. We suggest that these agreements represent a technology of government, which create distance between the formal governmental institutions and other actors in the mining sector, especially companies and affected Aboriginal peoples with territorial claims. While IBAs often represent an improvement on the other two previous technologies, they also constitute a withdrawal of state responsibilities toward Aboriginal communities that potentially maintains uneven negotiating power, affects conditions for consent, and disciplines Aboriginal self-conduct toward extractive projects. As such, IBAs can come to (re) produce conditions allowing the maintenance of structures of power found under neoliberal governance.


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Testing indigenous sovereignties: Julian Brave Noisecat, ‘Labor Rights And Tribal Sovereignty Collide At Indian Casinos’, Huffington Post, 15/06/15

16Jun15

Excerpt: The [Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing for a bill that would exempt tribes from the National Labor Relations Act, or NLRA, the Great Depression-era law that covers collective bargaining in the private sector] reveals ongoing tensions between labor and native rights about whether the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, the agency that enforces the law, can adjudicate disputes between tribal businesses and their workers. The jurisdiction of the NLRB in Indian Country has been a contentious issue between unions and Indian Nations that extends back to the Indian Gaming Regulatory ACT of 1988.


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Settlers looking at settlers: Miriam Billig, Udi Lebel, ‘Introduction: Judea and Samaria Jewish settlers and settlements – cultural sociology of unsettled space’, Israel Affairs, 21, 3, 2015 pp. 309-312

15Jun15

Introducing a special issue on ‘Judea and Samaria Jewish Settlers’.


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