Relatively little attention has been paid to Indigenous men’s health and wellbeing in the urban landscape and even less attention has been given to urban experiential land-based health and wellbeing activities for Indigenous men as they connect to masculinities. This paper is built out of findings from an experiential land-based research project that the authors developed to address needs pertaining to Indigenous masculinities and men’s wellbeing in Ontario, Canada. In collaboration with knowledge keepers and adhering to Anishinaabe, Nehiyaw, and Haudenosaunee cultural protocols, the authors organized bi-weekly sacred fire gatherings to bring men together in community. Once a month the participants received “teachings” about the fire, Indigenous masculinities, and Indigenous men’s wellbeing from Indigenous traditional knowledge carriers. The research team conducted semi-structured interviews with seven participants, with the facilitator and with the four knowledge carriers. One of the participants was a transgender man, and the rest were cisgender men. The themes that emerged from the interviews reveal the sacred fire as the heart of the health practice and possibilities the research team set out to explore. The sacred fires were literally and physically at the centre of the gatherings, and act as the central organizing theme of the results presented. From the experiences of the participants, the sacred fire is an example of way to create a space and an activity for men to gather a place to talk about Indigenous masculinities and wellness for Indigenous men in the urban setting.

Indigenous planning is an emergent paradigm to reclaim historic, contemporary, and future-oriented planning approaches of Indigenous communities across western settler states. This article examines a community planning pilot project in eleven First Nation reserves in Saskatchewan, Canada. Qualitative analysis of interviews undertaken with thirty-six participants found that the pilot project cultivated the terrain for advancing Indigenous planning by First Nations, but also reproduced settler planning processes, authority, and control. Results point to the value of visioning Indigenous futures, Indigenous leadership and authority, and the need for institutional development.

Reviewed by: Mohawk Interruptus: Life across the borders of settler states by Audra Simpson Robert Alexander Innes Mohawk Interruptus: Life across the borders of settler states By Audra Simpson. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2014. As a graduate student in the 1980s, Nesha Haniff became aware of how the anthropological literature had characterized Third World women as oppressed and uneducated victims who served their men without question. As an insider to a community of women to whom these characterizations applied, Haniff did not agree with these assessments: I could not accept this picture. It was not that these things were untrue; they were simply incomplete. To me, women were not oppressed, they were powerful; they were not weak, they were strong; and they were not abject, they were assertive. Why was it that a science aimed at discovering the truth was not discovering what I and others felt and saw when it was writing about us? The literature subliminally correlated low status with low self-concept.1 Haniff’s own experiences led her to pose new research questions for the study of Third World women. Insider researchers have a much different relationship with and perspective on the research group than outsider researchers. With the number of Indigenous researchers increasing in the past decade, it is not surprising many are conducting research into their home communities and that they find a disconnect between the academic literature and the lived experiences of people in their communities. The insights insider researchers possess allow them to develop unique research questions “that challenge preconceived notions of the group and expand scholarly understanding of the subject.”2 As an insider researcher, Audra Simpson, in her book Mohawk Interruptus: Life across the borders of settler states, asks the kinds of questions that provide a new perspective of the Kahnawá:ke Mohawks to demonstrates the extent to which they are engaged in the politics of refusal, while simultaneously shining light on how anthropological research has been complicit in state-sanctioned settler colonialism. Simpson’s main contention is that the Haudenosaunee in general, and Kahnawá:ke specifically, have engaged in a prolonged and continued process of refusing various colonial impositions from the Canadian and American governments and that these refusals underscore Haudenosaunee assertion of nationhood. Simpson encapsulates the “politics of refusal” by outlining how the people of Kahnawá:ke continue to express their sense of a nation by identifying themselves as Mohawk rather than Canadian, by resisting encroachments onto their lands and imposed external governing structures. However, the main focus of Simpson’s book is centred on the politics of refusal involving Kahnawá:ke’s ongoing and controversial issue of defining membership based on a 50 per cent blood quantum. How does a citizen and member of Kahnawá:ke conduct research into an issue that has garnered much publicity and has caused much tension within her community? How does she do this in way that is respectful to people in her community that are on either side of the debate, while at the same time maintaining scholarly rigor? She does this by placing the issue within the proper context of settler colonialism. For Simpson the academic literature of Mohawks is linked to not only the way in which non-Indigenous people view them, and other Indigenous people, which in turns informs policy, but also to the way in which Mohawks have responded to these ideas in attempts to preserve their sense of themselves as a distinct people. Simpson provides a careful analysis of how, from the inception of Henry Lewis Morgan and Ely Parker’s friendship, the anthropological imagination has influenced the study and perceptions of the Haudenosaunee. Simpson shows that the recording of the anthropologically “pure” Haudenosaunee culture was the basis for the creation of the state conceptions of “jurisdictional authority and legitimacy” over the Haudenosaunee. The anthropologists’ “inventive process” to reinterpret Haudenosaunee cultural traditions, as Simpson states, is “the textual inheritance of the Iroquois, and the dominant space for perceiving their actions and… Iroquois engagement with each other and with the state” (92). Simpson describes the Haudenosaunee of the anthropological imagination as reflecting and continuing to reflect settler notions of Indigenous difference that are then further...

At a time when there has been increasing pressure on the federal government to launch a national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women, a number of editorials and commentaries have appeared in various media outlets and blogs discussing Indigenous men's attitudes toward Indigenous women.For example, Bernard Valcourt, currently Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC), stated that "if we're honest here, " it is obvious that "there's a lack of respect for women and girls on reserves . . .So, you know, if the guys grow up [on the reserve] believing that women have no rights, that's how they are treated." 1 The following day, Ojibwe lawyer Joan Jack, who strongly supports a national inquiry, stated that "Aboriginal men kill aboriginal women and girls, rape aboriginal women and girls, beat aboriginal women and girls, and no one is really talking about the moose in our living room." 2 The Globe and Mail noted Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde, a strong advocate for a national inquiry, as asserting that, "Aboriginal men must address deep-seated issues stemming from the Indian Residential School system, including addiction and cycles of violence, " implying a link between violence against Indigenous women and Indigenous men. 3 These types of comments point to Indigenous men as the cause of the violence that Indigenous women face, and stress that if Indigenous men acknowledge and address the physical and sexual harm they inflict on Indigenous women, then the level of violence those women endure will decrease greatly.The assertion, made explicitly by Valcourt and others, is that since Indigenous men are implicated as the main perpetrators of gender-based violence against Indigenous women, there is no need for a national inquiry.Although Valcourt's and Jack's comments are not necessarily inconsistent with the data that suggest the majority and perhaps even the overwhelming majority of acts of violence against Indigenous women are committed by Indigenous men, they fail to acknowledge 1 Mark Kennedy, "Valcourt urges First Nations, Provinces to Take Action on Murdered Aboriginal Women, " Ottawa Citizen Online, December 12, 2014, accessed December, 12. 2014, http://ottawacitizen.com/news/ politics/bernard-valcourt-rejects-inquiry-on-murdered-aboriginal-women

Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Robert Innes; Introduction: Native Studies and Native Cultural Preservation, Revitalization, and Persistence. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 1 January 2010; 34 (2): 1–9. doi: https://doi.org/10.17953/aicr.34.2.y13028v6060344w9 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest Search

Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Robert Innes; Elder Brother, the Law of the People, and Contemporary Kinship Practices of Cowessess First Nation Members: Reconceptualizing Kinship in American Indian Studies Research. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 1 January 2010; 34 (2): 27–46. doi: https://doi.org/10.17953/aicr.34.2.y0x7k043337k7w03 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest Search

"Wait a Second. Who Are You Anyways?"The Insider/Outsider Debate and American Indian Studies Robert Alexander Innes (bio) Insider research—women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, gays, youth, university administrators, and others conducting research in their home communities—has flourished since the 1970s. The increase in insider researcher has sparked a debate about its scholarly validity. The critics of insider research have asserted that insiders' closeness to their research community clouds their views and leads to biased research findings. Insiders counter that their positioning provides a contextual understanding of the community that outsiders do not possess. As such, insiders pose questions that challenge preconceived notions of their communities and expand scholarly knowledge. Insiders' discussions about their research have contributed greatly to our understanding of the complex issues involved in undertaking research in home communities. Their research experiences—both the obstacles and the benefits—provide a blueprint for researching from home and challenge the view that insider research lacks scholarly merit. While not a new phenomenon, the number of Native North Americans researching their home communities has increased dramatically in the last two decades.1 However, Indigenous researchers have not joined the insider/outsider debate to any significant extent. Indigenous researchers have much to gain from the experiences of other insider researchers in both conducting research and addressing criticisms that attempt to undermine the validity of their research. An examination of how insider researchers have tackled these concerns illustrates how these concerns are relevant to Aboriginal insider researchers and can assist them in conducting research in their home communities. American Indian studies is interdisciplinary, which allows American Indian studies scholars the flexibility to incorporate methods, theories, [End Page 440] and approaches to research from many different disciplines that are conducive to the Indigenous research context. Participating in the insider/outsider debate gives American Indian studies scholars the opportunity to exert influence on an issue important to our discipline to a wider academic audience, demonstrating that our research has significance not only to Indigenous communities but also to the broader scholarly community. In this article I situate my dissertation research within both the insider/outsider debate and American Indian studies and thereby highlight the interplay of both. I am a Plains Cree member of Cowessess First Nation, which is located in southeastern Saskatchewan, and I conducted my doctoral research on the importance of family ties to contemporary Cowessess band members.2 However, as an urban band member and a person who gained federal recognition of my Indian status after the 1985 amendment to the Indian Act, I am both an insider and outsider to Cowessess. My research experience in many respects was similar to other insider researchers. My findings presented new understandings of the ways in which contemporary Cowessess members put into practice their belief in the importance of family ties. My insider status enabled me to develop research questions that provided a new view of contemporary kinship relations, but my outsider status as a researcher meant that I still had to negotiate with the participants to gain their trust. This article is divided into four sections. First, I present a discussion of the dominant issues in the insider/outsider debate, specifically, those issues concerning the nature of insider research, who conducts it, and the validity of the approach. Second, I provide a brief overview of my dissertation research. Third, I describe my position as an insider and outsider and assert that this position allowed me to pose new questions and present new understandings about the kinship roles and responsibilities of Cowessess First Nation members. In the last section I demonstrate that while my "insiderness" was somewhat tenuous, my "outsiderness" was tempered by the fact that I am a Cowessess member and related to many of the research participants. Yet like all insider researchers I still had to navigate the research relationship with community members. Insiders/Outsiders Debate Insider scholars, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, challenge the research conducted by outsiders for its colonial nature, which ignores, silences, [End Page 441] and/or diminishes insider perspectives.3 This critique originated with African American scholars in the 1960s and led to an emergence of what Robert Merton describes as the "Insider doctrine...

In 1945 the Saskatchewan Aboriginal veterans from World War II returned to a rapidly changing world. The economy was improving dramatically as expanding industries encouraged unprecedented consumerism. In addition, new social values reflected an optimism for the elimination of the social inequality epitomized by Nazi Germany. The new social consciousness culminated with the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. In Canada the postwar years saw the federal government begin to investigate Indian policy reforms. In Saskatchewan the postwar years ushered in a new optimism epitomized by a new provincial government. In 1944 the people of the province of Saskatchewan elected the first socialist government in North America, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). The CCF, elected on the slogan "humanity first," began examining the possibility of implementing an Aboriginal policy. The change of economic, social, and political environment in Canada immediately after the war added to the excitement brought on by the ending of hostilities. Saskatchewan Aboriginal veterans' active participation in the immediate postwar changes was minimal. It has been accepted in the historical literature that a direct link existed between the participation of Aboriginal people in the Second World War and the emergence of a new political consciousness among Aboriginal people. The assumption is that Indian political organizations that came into existence in Canada generally, and in Saskatchewan specifically, during and after the war were due to the returning Aboriginal veterans. For example, Janet Davison states "during or immediately after the war there was a tremendous upsurge in Indian political activity, resulting in [End Page 685] the formation of many new or reorganized associations. The years 1940–1949 saw 14 new Indian organizations recorded; of these 5 were in Saskatchewan alone."1 The claim that the Indian leaderships emerged after the war ignores their efforts to advance Aboriginal rights prior to the war. Upon closer consideration, it is evident that very few of these organizations owe their formation to returning Aboriginal veterans. Rather, Aboriginal veterans had no direct influence in the creation of the new Indian organizations in Saskatchewan. Between 1945 and 1960 Saskatchewan Aboriginal veterans' social and political activism was in a transitional phase. Aboriginal veterans in the immediate postwar years can be characterized as passive participants in the social and political changes. Passive participation means that the veterans did not guide the changes that occurred but were a powerful image of the "progressive Indian" portrayed by the media. The image of the "Indian warrior" popular before and during the war was transformed into "progressive Indians" after the war. Although in the immediate postwar years Aboriginal veterans concentrated their efforts on readjusting to civilian life, their symbolic stature as "progressive Indians" brought public awareness about Indian rights, which in turn helped to shift the public's attitude about Indians. The existing Indian leadership took advantage of the shifting attitudes to build support for their agenda of Indian rights, which they had been pursuing for a number of years. As a result, even though the veterans were passive in the social and political arena, their existence as a group was crucial in the social and political change of Aboriginal people in Canada in the immediate postwar years.2 This article is divided into four sections. The first section provides an overview of the Aboriginal participation in the Second World War. The number of and reasons for Aboriginal enlistment and Aboriginal protest to compulsory conscription will be discussed briefly. An analysis of Aboriginal veterans' experiences in the immediate postwar period in Saskatchewan will be conducted in the second section. Employment opportunities in the postwar period are contrasted with those in the prewar period, and the impacts of CCF Aboriginal policies on Aboriginal veterans and community response to Aboriginal veterans are all included in this section. The next section will scrutinize how the image...