Telling it to the judge : taking Native history to court /
Arthur J. Ray ; foreword by Jean Teillet ; introduction by Peter W. Hutchins.
- Montreal [Que. : McGill-Queen's University Press, (c)2011.
- 1 online resource (xli, 260 pages) : illustrations, facsimiles, maps, portraits, digital file.
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- McGill-Queen's native and northern series ; 65 .
Includes bibliographies and index.
Taking fur trade history to court -- Roles and reversals of the historical researcher -- Defending traditional fisheries and harvesting rights -- Interpretation of a treaty : share or surrender? -- Witnessing on behalf of a forgotten people -- Defining Metis communities and customs -- Defending the aboriginal right to hunt -- "To educate the court."
"In 1973, the Supreme Court's historic Calder decision on the Nisga'a community's title suit in British Columbia launched the Native rights litigation era in Canada. Legal claims have raised questions with significant historical implications, such as, "What treaty rights have survived in various parts of Canada? What is the scope of Aboriginal title? Who are the Meştis, where do they live, and what is the nature of their culture and their rights? "Arthur Ray's extensive knowledge in the history of the fur trade and Native economic history brought him into the courts as an expert witness in the mid-1980s. For over twenty-five years he has been a part of landmark litigation concerning treaty rights, Aboriginal title, and Meştis rights. In Telling It to the Judge, Ray recalls lengthy courtroom battles over lines of evidence, historical interpretation, and philosophies of history, reflecting on the problems inherent in teaching history in the adversarial courtroom setting."--Pub. desc.