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Browsing All Posts published on »February, 2011«
Chronicle of Canadian Aboriginal Policy, 1828 to 1876
Aboriginal policy in the North American colonies of Great Britain was originally pursued on a nation to nation basis. Aboriginal nations were dealt with as military allies and enemies, and as essential trading partners. This changed dramatically after the War of 1812. In the decades after that war, which was essentially an extension of the […]
Four false assumptions of Canadian Aboriginal policy
February 26, 2011
From the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996 Four false assumptions … The first held Aboriginal people to be inherently inferior and incapable of governing themselves. The second was that treaties and other agreements were, by and large, not covenants of trust and obligation but devices of statecraft, less expensive and more […]
The Many Fingers of the Indian Agents
February 23, 2011
Under Canada’s various Indian Acts, there was once and for a very long time the position on the Indian Superintendent, or, as he was more generally known, the Indian Agent. The Indian Agent represented the Indian Act and the law in general to the Aboriginal people he had jurisdiction over. The Indian Agent had many […]
Last True American Found Living Outside of Knoxville, Tennessee
February 23, 2011
Knoxville. “We’ve found the last true American. He’s healthy, he’s optimistic and he’s living on the outskirts of Knoxville, Tennessee.” That was the breathless announcement made today in Knoxville by a spokesperson for the Search for True America Foundation. John Brenston, president of the Tennessee chapter of the SFTA Foundation, who was chosen […]
Photo Archive: First Nations at Worship
February 20, 2011
They came to worship on the beach. They knelt and bent their heads and prayed in front of the Catholic icons. They were converts, every one of them, to the European’s idea of divinity. Up north, among the Tsimshian, they loved the pomp and thump and blare of brass bands, and they welcomed the Salvation […]
The boy who cried wolf again & again
February 19, 2011
At the end of a terrible winter, a wolf came upon a boy herding sheep. The wolf knew that it usually was not good policy to steal the human’s sheep, but he was so hungry that he leapt on one regardless. He heard the shepherd boy crying, “Wolf! Wolf!” but he did not know that […]
Father Theo’s Bookshelf: Three Books About History
February 16, 2011
There are other books, of course. These three I offer because they were useful to me. I expect to make other recommendations in the future. (That’s fair warning.) Sven Lindqvist, “Exterminate All the Brutes”, The New Press, New York, 1996. A travel book. A meditation on colonialism. An examination of the same colonial Africa which […]
Did climate skeptic mislead Congress about industry ties?
February 15, 2011
Patrick Michaels, the subject of the following letter by Ranking Member Henry Waxman, was also one of the scientists dealt with in my recent blog post: 36 climate deniers in search of credibility. Fred Upton, Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, has agreed to investigate the issues brought up in this letter. See The […]
Mundus Novus – An apocryphal voyage, an historical forgery
February 13, 2011
The following narrative (which I have slightly edited for readability) was solemnly released as part of the Harvard Classics series in 1914, entitled Amerigo Vespucci’s Account of His First Voyage (1497). There is in fact no record outside of this document of any such voyage, and the document itself is a forgery. That […]
Grandpa Theo
With Malaika
Klick This Pic
An Informal Chronology of the Aboriginal Land Question in BC
Father Theo's Blog 
February 28, 2011
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