Glossary

This word has been replaced by the word "Indigenous" except for legal purposes. It has the same meaning.

Aboriginal title is the land ownership rights of Indigenous people due to the fact that they were there first and that they did not sign any treaties giving up their land. For details, see chapter 25.

The Indigenous language and cultural group with the greatest number of members in Canada, the Algonquins include subgroups Algonquin, Anishinaabe, Cree and Mi'qmaw. This group roughly coincides with woodland hunters of Eastern Canada.

The Anishinaabe belong to the Algonquin language group and form the largest cultural group on Turtle Island at the time of European contact, centered around the Great Lakes.  The Anishinaabe include the Ojibwe, the Odawa, the Potawatomi, Salteaux, Nipissing, and Mississauga as well as the Algonquins.

An annuity is an annual payment.

The Assembly of First Nations is an advocacy organization representing First Nations. Its leaders are elected by First Nations Chiefs.

The Auditor General of Canada serves to impartially evaluate the efficacy of the federal government's spending and the accuracy of its financial statements.

Backward linkages, or upstream linkages, refer to the impact of an economic activity on suppliers of inputs, workers, communities, and environments.

Bylaws are laws a community or corporation develops for itself. They are not imposed by a higher level of government.

The Canadian census is a comprehensive survey of the entire population within Canada's borders. It takes place every five years. The most recent census at the time of this book's publication was 2021.

engagement with the mainstream economy as a group rather than as individuals

As described in Chapter 2, the CWB is an index number that scores communities on their housing quality, educational achievement, employment, and income.

A comprehensive land claims agreement is an agreement with the federal government giving a significant chunk of traditional territory back to the First Nation and making clear what the economic arrangements -for example, tax collection exemptions - will be between the First Nation and the federal and provincial governments.

The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples represents Métis and First Nations people without Registered or Treaty Indian Status. Regional leaders form its Board of Directors while regional delegates vote on who will take on Executive roles.

The founding document of Canada. The first edition, dated 1867, was revised in 1982.

The term "Crown" refers to the British monarch and later, after Canada became a nation rather than a British colony, to the Canadian government or to the government of one of Canada's provinces, whichever has responsibility over the matter at hand. The federal government, not the provincial governments, has responsibility for Indigenous concerns according to the Canadian Constitution.

The Supreme Court of Canada, in its ruling Haida Nation v. British Columbia (1984), found that Canada has a fiduciary duty to ensure that Indigenous preferences and priorities are taken into consideration when projects are proposed for lands claimed by Indigenous people.

A legal process to replace Indian Status with Canadian citizenship. Could be entered into voluntarily, or imposed on a person.

An equilibrium is a steady state from which there is no tendency to deviate. If disrupted, things naturally return to their equilibrium state, if there is one.

We use the word expropriation to mean taking someone's land without their permission, with the amount of compensation - if any - being determined by the expropriator's government, if that government is able and willing to enforce compensation.

The word federal refers to the government of the nation of Canada.

Fee simple is the property right normally associated with home or property ownership in Canada. People living on reserves do not own land in fee simple. For details, see Chapter 24.

A fiduciary duty is the legal obligation to act in the best interest of someone over whose affairs you have control. From the Latin word fides, meaning faith or trust.

Original inhabitants of Canada who lived south of the the Arctic region. See chapter 1 for details.

The term "fiscal" is used to discuss the government's spending or tax revenue, the two key components of a government's budget.

Forward linkages, or downstream linkages, refer to the usefulness of an economic activity in providing materials, skills, and services for new products and economic activities.

Governance refers not to the system of government but to the legal, procedural, and cultural infrastructure built around it to make sure it works as it should and that it cannot be perverted by powerful individuals or interest groups.

Impact Benefit Agreement are confidential agreements between Indigenous groups and businesses that specify the compensation and consideration Indigenous groups receive in exchange for permitting projects on lands they claim as their traditional territories. If the Indigenous group's Aboriginal Title to the territory has not yet been decided by the Court, then IBAs arise out of the Duty to Consult.

After the Indian Act of 1876 was imposed, each reserve was overseen by an Indian Agent acting for the federal government.  This lasted almost a century, ending in the early 1970s.

A legal status identifying someone as being descended from First Nations who made a treaty or some other agreement with the government of Canada.

Something is indigenous to a place if it has always been there. The Indigenous peoples of Canada lived on Turtle Island before Europeans arrived.

Intergenerational trauma is harm that is experienced by the descendants of someone who has been harmed, as a consequence of that first harm.

Inuit, meaning "the people" in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit, lived in the Arctic region of Turtle Island prior to European contact.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is an advocacy organization representing the Inuit of Canada. Its leaders are elected by regional delegates.

Iroquois is a language and cultural group whose members include the Petun, the Neutral, the Wendat (Huron), and the member nations of the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy. The Iroquois practiced agriculture.

See "Mohawk"

Métis are people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry. The legal definition of Métis is more precise, as outlined in Chapter 1.

The Métis National Council is the advocacy organization for Métis peoples in Canada. The Council is elected by heads of the Métis provincial organizations.

Métis settlements are similar to reserves. They have been set aside by the government of Alberta for Métis communities in Alberta.

Modern treaties are treaties negotiated in or after 1975. They were negotiated with proper legal representation of Indigenous peoples and give Indigenous peoples some self-government powers. Other features of modern treaties are discussed in Chapter 15.

The Mohawk or Kanien’kehá:ka (People of the Flint) are a member nation of the Haudenosaunee. Before 1600 they lived in what is now the United States.

A loan for the purpose of buying a house or condominium.

A mortgage is a loan issued to help someone buy a house or condominium.

The Northwest Resistance, formerly known as the Northwest Rebellion, occurred in present-day Saskatchewan in 1885. For details, see Chapter 9.

Money earned by the Band, for example from Band-owned businesses, from taxation, from leasing land to non-Band members, and from Impact Benefit Agreements.

Traditionally practiced most completely among the First Nations of the Pacific Coast, the potlatch is a community feast where status and privilege are correlated with the value of gifts given. See Chapter 3 for details.

The present value of an amount received long ago is much higher than its nominal dollar value years ago because the money would have grown at a compound rate of interest. It would amount to a lot more in the present after having earned interest all that time.

Public goods are goods which are accessible to all and where one person's use doesn't interfere with another person's use.  When one person's use does interfere with another person's use, the good in question is no longer a public good in the economic sense.

The public goods problem is one reason that markets don't always work efficiently. Public goods, for example public television broadcasts, are things that anyone can access and enjoy. One more person using a public good doesn't make a difference to the cost of providing the public good. People are unlikely to voluntarily pay what public television is worth to them, as they feel that they are not making any difference and other people probably value public television more. Thus public television cannot be fully funded by donations. Governments and philanthropists have to step up if public television stations are to survive.

Formerly known as the Red River Rebellion, this event took place in 1870 in present-day Manitoba. It is described in Chapter 9.

A reserve is the land designated for the exclusive use of a First Nation.  The community occupying and managing one or more reserves is known as a Band and is made up largely of people sharing common ancestry and having legal Indian Status.

Provincial governments tax resource extracting companies doing business in the provinces, and the federal government taxes resource-extracting companies doing business on Crown land in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, or Nunavut. RRS occurs when these non-Indigenous governments share resource tax revenues with the Indigenous groups claiming the land on which the extraction is taking place.

The Royal Proclamation of King George III, made in 1763, declared all lands west of the Appalachian mountains the domain of Indigenous people and specified that any settler wanting to acquire this land should do so from the Crown once the Crown made a treaty with Indigenous people to acquire rights to the land.  For details, see Chapter 6.

In this text, the word "treaties" will refer to written agreements, regarding land rights and other matters, between the government of Britain or Canada on the one hand, and Indigenous peoples on the other hand.  Provinces may also be signatories of treaties.

A name for North America used by many Indigenous people in Canada and the United States.

A utility function computes how much pleasure a person derives from any combination of various goods or activities under consideration.

The value of the marginal product of a worker is how much they produce in an hour multiplied by the price of what they have produced. In an efficient market, workers should be paid a wage that is equal to the value of their marginal product.

Ceremonial belts of woven shell beads, in purple and white. The pattern woven may symbolize a treaty.