Synopsis
This text is a historically grounded look at the wide variety of issues that inform the lives of Native peoples in Canada today. The book is divided into four sections: Philosophy and Worldview, History, Political Economy, and Contemporary Issues. In addition to those topics commonly considered in existing texts, such as health, politics, self-government, and urban reserves, Belanger includes unique chapters on Native philosophy, language, art and literature, and writing about Native history and Native issues. This text is designed to satisfy the needs identified by students, while presenting an academic interpretation illustrative of how Native people in Canada scrutinize the last four centuries of contact. It also highlights the socio-political and socio-economic challenges impacting Native leaders and their communities nationally. Belanger avoids historicizing Native people. Rather, the text contextualizes the larger historical narrative while also demonstrating how history continues to inform the evolution of self-government, urban reserve development, literature, and health. Written in a narrative style that largely avoids technical language, this book is unique in that it is written for lower-division students being introduced for the first time to Native issues framed from an academic perspective.
About the Author
Dr.Yale D. Belanger (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor of Native American Studies (NAS) at the University of Lethbridge (Alberta). Trained as a political historian, his doctoral work at Trent University focused on the emergence and evolution of Aboriginal political organizations in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Canada. Currently the book review editor for the Native Studies Review, Dr. Belanger also sits (since 2002) on the editorial board of Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development (JAED). He is widely published in various edited compilations and in journals such as Canadian Foreign Policy, Saskatchewan Institute on Public Policy, Alberta History, Canadian Journal of Native Studies, Native Studies Review, and American Indian Quarterly. In 2006 he produced Gambling with the Future: The Evolution of Aboriginal Gaming in Canada (Purich), the first book-length treatment of casino gaming as developed by Canada’s First Nations. In 2008 he edited the third edition of Aboriginal Self-Government in Canada: Current Trends and Issues. Dr. Belanger is a regular contributor to the Canadian and international media, having appeared on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), on The National with Peter Mansbridge, on CBC Radio International, in the National Post, and in other venues. Dr. Belanger lives in Lethbridge with his wife Tammie-Jai and their two “girls” Jessie and Nicki.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
