Law enforcement, entrusted with the duty to protect and serve, has the potential to inflict more harm than good. Nowhere is this more evident than in the systemic failings of serving Indigenous communities. Drawing from her own experiences as a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Angeline Boulley, shines the light on the concerning dynamic that exists between Indigenous communities and law enforcement in her novel Firekeeper’s Daughter. Set in Sault Ste. Marie Michigan alongside an Ojibwe community, the story is told through the lens of Daunis Fountaine as her community is struck with a meth problem and an undercover FBI investigation. Angeline Boulley uses her novel to prompt critical reflection on many social justice …show more content…
Furthermore, the tendency for law enforcement to overlook the effects they may have on the community contributes to the dysfunctional dynamic. The troubling relationship between Indigenous communities and law enforcement is illustrated in Angeline Boulley’s novel Firekeeper’s Daughter. The novel highlights the mistreatment and misrepresentation of Indigenous characters, as well as the mistrust between them. This demonstrates how systemic oppression endangers the rights and well-being of Indigenous peoples. Throughout the novel, the underprotection and disregard of Indigenous women clearly depicts the mistreatment between Indigenous communities and law enforcement. This theme strongly translates to the existing relationship between Indigenous communities and law enforcement, specifically relating to missing and murdered Indigenous women. The NWAC estimates that 39% of MMIW cases occurred after 2000, which is about 20 women and girls a year (). Daunis acknowledges the many young girls lost during the investigation by stating, “As I dance, I pray for Lily. For Robin. For Heather. And even for
The Oka Uprising was initially a peaceful protest over the expansion of a golf course on Mohawk territory that turned violent after Quebec’s provincial police, the Sûreté du Québec, responded to the protest with tear gas and flash-bang grenades, eventually escalating to a gun battle between protesters and police. Years after the stand-off, revisionist military historians have praised the Canadian military for avoiding bloodshed because of their “personal commitment [and] calm and attentive approach to native reality,” in which they ought to be commended for “carrying the burden of peace” (Conradi 548). However, Robinson rejects this notion and instead proposes a re-imagining of the Oka conflict through the “adjustment” of First Nations people who fought at Oka with the “bombing of the last Canadian reserve” (Robinson 211). Through “carrying the burden of peace” the Officers are given the power to destroy any semblance of Indigenous tradition, such as the potlatch, and to violently corral all First Nations people to sectioned off “Urban Reserves”. By disrupting popular Canadian perception of law enforcement Robinson succeeds in creating a dystopian image of corrupted power that allows readers to sympathize with the subjection of First Nations people of
Her book focuses on the myriads of issues and struggles that Indigenous men and women have faced and will continue to face because of colonialism. During her speech, Palmater addressed the grave effects of the cultural assimilation that permeated in Indigenous communities, particularly the Indian Residential School System and the Indian Act, which has been extensively discussed in both lectures and readings. Such policies were created by European settlers to institutionalize colonialism and maintain the social and cultural hierarchy that established Aboriginals as the inferior group. Palmater also discussed that according to news reports, an Aboriginal baby from Manitoba is taken away every single day by the government and is put in social care (CTVNews.ca Staff, 2015). This echoes Andrea Smith’s argument in “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing” that colonialism continues to affect Aboriginals through genocide (2006, p. 68). Although such actions by the government are not physical acts of genocide, where 90% of Aboriginal population was annihilated, it is this modern day cultural assimilation that succeeded the Indigenous Residential School System and the Indian Act embodies colonialism and genocide (Larkin, November 4,
“The Fire,” chapter two of the novel “Kindred” by Octavia E. Butler is about how Dana survives in the past after she is conscious of where and when she is. The story starts with Dana frightened of being transported again, which she did. After saving the boy, Rufus, from burning his house, she discovered that she has gone to the past, 1815, and that Rufus was her ancestor. Since it was the age where slavery was present, she escaped Rufus’ house in fear of being slaved to search for Alice, another one of her ancestor, hoping to get shelter. She found it at the time Alice’s family was raided by the whites, and Alice’s father was captured. She helped Alice’s family, but soon after she was discovered by a white man. Dana knocked him unconscious, then returned home. Afterwards, Kevin and her prepared Dana in an event where she get transported again.
In the words of Ross, her focus and goal for writing this book was to write “…about the racialized and gendered experiences of incarceration, with a focus on Native American women and the loss of sovereignty as it is implicitly tied to Native criminality…” because there was little information on this subject. This means that Ross studied wo...
Lives for Native Americans on reservations have never quite been easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely oblivious about. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich brings those problems to light. She gives her readers a feel of what it is like to be Native American by illustrating the struggles through the life of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a North Dakota reservation. This book explores an avenue of advocacy against social injustices. The most observable plight Joe suffers is figuring out how to deal with the injustice acted against his mother, which has caused strife within his entire family and within himself.
8th Fire: Indigenous in the City, is part of a documentary series that describes the challenges that aboriginal people face when moving to the large cities from reservations. The documentary begins by describing the stereotypes that English Canadians as well as other visible minority groups perceive aboriginal people to be. They show how damaging the stereotypes are to the First Nations, especially in the area of education. The documentary concludes by offering a few some solutions of how to change and improve the relationship between the aboriginal community and the rest of Canada. The two main aspects of the film that I will focus my analysis on is the education system from past to present and the negative impacts it has had on the First Nation’s people as well as aboriginal stereotyping. These two themes were the most prominent topics brought up throughout the film, and while one topic was well argued and framed, the other I will argue was more damaging than educational. I should mention that due to my ethnicity being of aboriginal decent, Métis in particular, I was extremely critical of the film because though these issues need to be addressed publicly, if they are presented in the wrong light, it can cause more negative implications than positives.
LaPrairie, C. (1998). The new justice: Some implications for aboriginal communities. Canadian Journal of Criminology. 40 (1), 61-79.
In this proposal our team seeks to explore the injustices within the Indian Act. To achieve this our proposed research will examine the target population being the aboriginal woman. The paper will further explore the oppressions faced by the aboriginal women within the Indian Act. In conclusion, this proposal will sum up the negative impact that the Indian Act had on aboriginal women and how it continues to oppress this population within the Canadian National discourse.
Generations of native people in Canada have faced suffering and cultural loss as a result of European colonization of their land. Government legislation has impacted the lives of five generations of First Nations people and as a result the fifth generation (from 1980 to present) is working to recover from their crippled cultural identity (Deiter-McArthur 379-380). This current generation is living with the fallout of previous government policies and societal prejudices that linger from four generations previous. Unrepentant, Canada’s ‘Genocide’, and Saskatchewan’s Indian People – Five Generations highlight issues that negatively influence First Nations people. The fifth generation of native people struggle against tremendous adversity in regard to assimilation, integration, separation, and recovering their cultural identity with inadequate assistance from our great nation.
It is the belief of first nations that the healing process and renewal of relationships are the essential ingredients for the building of healthy First Nations communities. First nations realize that the current justice process does not address the real issues at hand nor does it fit into their traditional forms of achieving justice. In fact, the current justice process systematically removes the offenders from their people and communities effectively severing all ties and ...
Comack, E. (2012). Racialized policing: Aboriginal people's encounters with the police. Black Point, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing.
Aboriginal communities experience oppression and live in quieter urban and rural areas. Due to this, they are not able to benefit from society’s organizations as the residents in the busy cities do. Therefore, they need more support from the city officials to be safe when experiencing violence. However, the communities they live in are not providing them with the resources to overcome violence. Functionalism explains the members need to benefit more from police forces; this helps emphasize that police officers must develop safer shelters and protocols. Meaning, they can create secure community buildings for the citizens to be protected in by a higher authority. Likewise, the officials are the only individuals who can attempt to stop the murders from reoccurring by solving the murder cases and charging the person. The police influence society’s wellbeing, and by not protecting Aboriginal community’s lives, they contribute to the deaths and society moves away from
With such tarnished views of the justice system and those who work for it, policing alongside a Native American tribe can face additional problems and challenges. How Native American’s and Americans communicate
No community in Canada comes into conflict with criminal justice system officials more disproportionately than Aboriginals (Dickson-Gilmore, 2011, p.77). Indeed, Aboriginal Canadians are often subject to both overt and unintended discrimination from Canadian law enforcement due in large part to institutionalized reputations as chronic substance abusers who are incapable of reform (Dickson-Gilmore, 2011, p.77-78). One of the more startling contemporary examples of this is the case of Frank Paul; a Mi’kmaq Canadian who was left to die in a Vancouver alley by officers of the Vancouver Police Department after being denied refuge in a police “drunk tank”. Not surprisingly, this event garnered significant controversy and public outcry amongst Canada’s Aboriginal population who have long been subject to over-policing and persistent overrepresentation as offenders in the Canadian criminal justice system (Jiwani & Dickson-Gilmore, 2011, p.43 & 81).
It is important to understand the cultural tradition carried out by Indigenous Australians because they are still practiced today. A strategy would be running workshops to get an education about policing directly from officers and youths sharing their cultural values and tradition (Grant, H 2015). This strategy provides police officers to learn about the Indigenous youth and their culture, while the youths build a positive relationship with police aiming to developing confidence and becoming a better role model in their community (Cunneen 2001). In regards to the case study if the ingenious children would have been involved in programs like this or had a better relationship with the police they would not have stolen the car or been shot (Cunneen 2001).