White Man's Law : : Native People in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Jurisprudence / / Sidney L. Harring.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Harring, Sidney L.,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (488 p.)

In the nineteenth century many Canadians took pride in their country's policy of liberal treatment of Indians. In this thorough reinvestigation of Canadian legal history, Sidney L. Harring sets the record straight, showing how Canada has consistently denied Aboriginal peoples even the most basic civil rights.Drawing on scores of nineteenth-century legal cases, Harring reveals that colonial and early Canadian judges were largely ignorant of British policy concerning Indians and their lands. He also provides an account of the remarkable tenacity of First Nations in continuing their own legal traditions despite obstruction by the settler society that came to dominate them.The recognition of 'pre-existing Aboriginal rights' in the Constitutional Act of 1982 has shown that Aboriginal legal traditions have a definite place in contemporary Canadian law. This study clearly demonstrates that Canadian Native legal culture requires further study by scholars and more serious attention by courts in rendering decisions.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Privilege of British Justice': Colonialism and Native Rights -- 2. 'A Condescension Lost on Those People': The Six Nations' Grand River Lands, 1784-1860 -- 3. The Common Law Is Not Part Savage and Part Civilized': Chief Justice John Beverley Robinson and Native Rights -- 4. The Migration of These Simple People from Equity to Law': Native Rights in Ontario Courts -- 5. 'Entirely Independent in Their Villages': Criminal Law and Indians in Upper Canada -- 6. 'A More Than Usually Degraded Indian Type': St. Catherine's Milling and Indian Title Cases -- 7. 'Canadian Courts Are Open to Enforce Their Contracts': Canadian Law and the Legal Culture of Ontario Indians -- 8. The Indians Are a Perseverant Race': Indian Law in Quebec and Atlantic Canada -- 9. 'Can We Be Free under the Law of Queen Victoria on Top of Our Land?': Indians and the Law in British Columbia -- 10. The Enforcement of the Extreme Penalty': Canadian Law and the Ojibwa-Cree Spirit World -- 11. 'No Recognized Law': Canadian Law and the Prairie Indians -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Photo Credits -- Index