Who Are Indigenes? A Comparative Study of Canadian and American Practices

Abstract

There are currently hundreds of groups in the United States and Canada that clamor for state-to-state recognition by the federal governments as bona fide Indigenous peoples. This comparative study of American and Canadian policy and practice toward these nonrecognized communities is set in a historical perspective, focusing on legislation, administrative policy, and legal judgments that affect conceptualizations of Indigenes. This article argues that differences in these policies arise from divergences in national understandings regarding who Indigenous peoples are and how they can be administered and costs suppressed. The author contrasts the ways in which a formal and elaborate U.S. bureaucracy assesses candidate communities for recognition by applying flawed legal tests with a Canadian practice that largely overlooks the issue of nonrecognized communities.