Criminalization at Tyendinaga: Securing Canada’s Colonial Property Regime through Specific Land Claims

Abstract

Drawing on unpublished material on the history of the Culbertson Tract, records obtained through access to information requests, and firsthand knowledge from the community, we trace Mohawk legal and extralegal strategies aimed at reclaiming the Tract to show how Canada legitimizes and manages the continued dispossession of land from the Mohawks of Tyendinaga. Through the criminalization of community members opposing settlement terms under the land claims policy, we conclude that the policy of extinguishment contained in the land claims policy is furthered by policing resistance with the use of security forces on the ground.

Transcarceral lawscapes enacted in moments of Aboriginalisation: a case-study of an Indigenous woman released on urban parole

“…Shiri Pasternak (2014; Pasternak et al ., 2013) analyses colonial legal geographies through the concept of jurisdiction. Relying on Shaunnagh Dorsett and Shaun McVeigh (2007; 2012), Pasternak sees jurisdiction as the provisional product of legal techniques, or techne , ‘institut[ing] a relation to life, place, and event through processes of codification or marking’ (Pasternak, 2014, p. 151, quoting from Dorsett and McVeigh, 2007; also see Cowan and Wincott, 2016).…”

“…Relying on Shaunnagh Dorsett and Shaun McVeigh (2007; 2012), Pasternak sees jurisdiction as the provisional product of legal techniques, or techne , ‘institut[ing] a relation to life, place, and event through processes of codification or marking’ (Pasternak, 2014, p. 151, quoting from Dorsett and McVeigh, 2007; also see Cowan and Wincott, 2016). Pasternak, along with Sue Collis and Tia Dafnos (2013), also relies upon Marianne Valverde, who argues that ‘definitions of jurisdiction usually refer to divides of territory and authority, although ‘jurisdiction also differentiates and organises the “what” of governance – and more importantly because of its relative invisibility, the “how” of governance’ (Pasternak et al ., 2013, p. 66, quoting from Valverde, 2009). Valverde (2009; 2014), like Pasternak (2014) and others (Pasternak et al ., 2013), makes it clear that jurisdiction is a concrete abstraction, extended and practised through bodies, that produces spatiotemporalities of legal governance by authorising certain ways of inhabiting, doing or becoming in the world.…”

“…Pasternak, along with Sue Collis and Tia Dafnos (2013), also relies upon Marianne Valverde, who argues that ‘definitions of jurisdiction usually refer to divides of territory and authority, although ‘jurisdiction also differentiates and organises the “what” of governance – and more importantly because of its relative invisibility, the “how” of governance’ (Pasternak et al ., 2013, p. 66, quoting from Valverde, 2009). Valverde (2009; 2014), like Pasternak (2014) and others (Pasternak et al ., 2013), makes it clear that jurisdiction is a concrete abstraction, extended and practised through bodies, that produces spatiotemporalities of legal governance by authorising certain ways of inhabiting, doing or becoming in the world. But, specific to Canada's relations with Indigenous peoples, Pasternak (2014) argues that contemporary enactments of jurisdiction, despite existing through particularised struggles (such as land-claim policies, Pasternak et al ., 2013), produce ‘abstract order’ (Pasternak, 2014, p. 154) in space that allows settlers to mythologise and obscure their legalised violence.…”

Indigenous Rights and Multilevel Governance: Learning From the Northwest Territories Water Stewardship Strategy

“…As a result of these pressures, much has in fact changed, with state governments pursuing various kinds of constitutional and legislative measures that recognize degrees of Indigenous land and selfgovernment rights. Critics argue, however, that such changes are often superficial, generally conserving the supremacy of state sovereignty, imposing Western models of land tenure, and in most cases continuing to leave Indigenous communities exposed to unequal economic power relations (see for example Coulthard, 2014;Irlbacher-Fox, 2009;Lemaitre, 2011;Milne, 2013;Pasternak, Collis & Dafnos, 2013;Reyes-García et al, 2014;Samson, 2016).…”

Pacification and Indigenous Struggles in Canada

“…With an average of 20 years to settle a claim, communities and land are vulnerable to further encroachments as the claim moves through the process (Gordon 2010;Pasternak, Collis and Dafnos 2013).…”