The Red Indians: An Episodic, Informal Collection of Tales from the History of Aboriginal People's Struggles in Canada by Peter Kulchyski
12mo. pp. 158. 1 map illustration. wrs. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, [2018].
New.
Fifth Printing.
ISBN-13: 9781894037259
The title, The Red Indians, is a wordplay on the colonial practice of labeling and distinguishing different "Indians." Here it refers to First Nations people who are on the political left - those who struggle against capitalism as well as colonialism. Kulchyski gives us episodes from the history of the contact between aboriginal people and colonizers, through the treaty processes and early political organizing, up to more recent policies of assimilation and the struggles of today.
The title, The Red Indians, is a wordplay on the colonial practice of labeling and distinguishing different "Indians." Here it refers to First Nations people who are on the political left - those who struggle against capitalism as well as colonialism. Kulchyski gives us episodes from the history of the contact between aboriginal people and colonizers, through the treaty processes and early political organizing, up to more recent policies of assimilation and the struggles of today.
This book provides an introductory historical overview and an astute, nuances analysis of Canadian aboriginal politics. Kulchyski shows how there has been a "turn to the political" in the last hundred years of Indigenous Canadian history, that treaties are not a side issue but rather at the very heart of Canada's constitutional fabric, and that the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada is the history of Canada itself - and the future.