[NA-Discuss] Indigenous Peoples Fellowship Program

Eric Brunner-Williams ebw at abenaki.wabanaki.net
Wed May 29 18:17:13 UTC 2013


Dear Colleagues,

The Thompson text, already submitted and so beyond recall, only refers
to employment data from Nunavut, and that only from 2001.

For those not familiar with the administrative law scope of the
Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND), the
term "Indian" refers to Status Indians defined by the Indian Act of
1951, subsequently modified by the Constitution Act of 1982, and
subsequently modified, extending Indian Status to Indian Women who
previously lost that Indian Status upon contracting marriage to a
non-Indian, by amendment in 1985. The scope of DIAND is modernly this
larger class of Status Indians, First Nations (governments with which
the Crown entered into treaties, e.g., the Numbered Treaties), Inuit
(not restricted to the Inuit population of Nunavut) and Metis.

For those not familiar with the administrative law scope of the
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs (DoI, BIA), the
term "Indian" refers to Federally Recognized Indian Tribes and their
citizens, Native Alaskans and Native Hawi'ians. The form of "Federal
Recognition" consists of Treaty Tribes, Indian Territory Tribes
(extinguished between the Oklahoma Statehood Act and the Principal
Chiefs Act), post-1870 unratified Treaty Tribes, Native Corporations
formed under Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Native Hawi'ians,
and modern Executive, Congressional and Judicial Acts, Public Laws,
and Rulings establishing, or re-establishing, government to government
relationships, e.g., the Maine Land Claims Settlement Acts of 1980 and
1995.

While territorially large, the Inuit population of Nunuvut comprise a
less than half of the total Inuit population (Greenland and Russia
excluded), and less than 0.5% of the First Nation, Metis, and Inuit
population claimed by Canada, and only one of the 630 Native
Governments with government-to-government relations with the
Government of Canada. Another 566 Native Governments have
government-to-government relations with the Government of the United
States.

Personally, I'd prefer to offer greater detail, as the decision to
revise the eligibility criteria of the Fellowship Program may be
referred to the Board and Corporation Counsel, and as it would, if
entertained, alter the status quo, be subject to critical review by
parties interested in restricting the existing distribution of travel
support to the North American Region to NARALO's Chair, its Secretary,
and an occasional additional person. Interests in regional
under-representation could come from regional resident for-profit or
governmental participants, or from others with a property interest in
a finite share of the status quo distribution of travel support that
may be reduced if the Fellowship Program eligibility rule were modified.

I would also, and this was an issue over which there is a history of
difference, address the fact that the larger Indigenous Language
populations in the United States are those speaking Nahuatl, Maya,
Mixtec and Zapotec, and who do not fall within the administrative law
scope of the BIA, but cannot be presumed to have no interest in access
to the internet, or that their interest is met elsewhere.

Authorship has responsibilities, for style, tone, intent, and
misplaced commas. There is no one right way to plead the case that a
rule intended to benefit a class or a category has unintended, but
curable consequences.

Eric Brunner-Williams
Eugene, Oregon


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