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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Human rights > Land rights
In the late 1950s the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced its
intention to construct a dam along the Allegheny River in Warren,
Pennsylvania. The building of the Kinzua Dam was highly
controversial because it flooded one-third of the Allegany
Reservation of the Seneca Nation of Indians. Nearly six hundred
Senecas were forced to abandon their homes and relocate, despite a
1794 treaty that had guaranteed them those lands in perpetuity.
The late nineteenth century was a period of tremendous upheaval in American race relations. But while studies abound documenting the changes in relations between whites and African Americans in the northern and southern states during this time, few historians have tackled this topic in the lands of the frontier West or sought to understand how Native Americans figured into the nation's complex racial mix. In Contested Territory, Murray R. Wickett offers the first complete history of the interaction between whites, Native Americans, and African Americans in the Indian and Oklahoma Territories from the end of the Civil War until Oklahoma statehood in 1907, addressing questions about the nature of American race relations, the answers to which far transcend the territorial boundaries of the region. By the late 1800s, the Indian and Oklahoma Territories were the only place where the three "founding" cultures of American society coexisted in significant numbers, and the area provides an excellent case study in the contrasting racial policies aimed at separate ethnic groups. Against a backdrop of erratic treatment by Indian tribes and the ongoing trauma of war and Reconstruction, freedmen sought a true promised land in Oklahoma. Many blacks pressed westward, but their exodus was met with resistance from white settlers and mixed-blood Native Americans who tried to enact laws to curtail the civil rights of blacks. As Wickett shows, racial separation versus integration sparked a bitter debate that factionalized both blacks and Indians. While white government officials and humanitarian reformers sought -- and often forced -- the assimilation of Native peoples into Anglo-American society, theystrove, at the same time, to secure the strict segregation of African Americans. As African Americans desperately fought a losing battle to maintain their civil rights, Native Americans, for the most part, rejected the benefits white society encouraged them to accept. Wickett tells his fascinating and complex story with a mix of sources that includes poems, anecdotes, and particularly well-chosen pictures. Through government records, newspapers, diaries, and oral history interviews, he also allows those who experienced the temper of the times first hand to speak for themselves. Ironically, whites in the Indian and Oklahoma Territories discouraged in African Americans the very ideals and values they so ardently attempted to instill in Native Americans. As Wickett's groundbreaking study reveals, the battles over what role each of the three racial groups would play in the region truly made it a "contested territory".
Are the world's oldest democracies failing? For most of the past fifty years democratic governments made determined and successful efforts at overcoming the significant inequalities that are the by-product of a capitalist economy. During this period a new concept of democratic citizenship that added social and economic rights to the liberal legacy of political and civil liberties established roots in most North Atlantic democracies. Since the 1980s this notion of democratic citizenship has been challenged ideologically to such a degree that through either major modification or complete elimination of programs, equality as a fundamental democratic goal is disappearing in many nations - particularly in the Anglo-American democracies. In this extraordinary collection, top scholars in political science, sociology, philosophy and economics, discuss this radical shift towards inequality in an age of mass capital globalization. Wide ranging in topic yet coherent in approach, Inequality and the Modern Democratic State comprises thirteen essays, including Ed Broadbent's "Ten Propositions about Equality and Democracy," Robert Hackett's "Watch Dogs, Mad Dogs, or Lap Dogs?: News Media and Civic Equality" and Barbara Ehrenreich's "Inequality in the Clinton Era." Many European democracies, argue the contributors, have adapted to new circumstance in the global economy without resorting to policies that actively promote inequality. While differing in some important details on solutions, they all contend that the political decision-making process is of critical importance in entrenching, or battling, an escalating inequality that is neither necessary nor desirable.
In struggles over access to land, Aboriginal women's concerns have often remained unacknowledged. Their words - and silences - have been frequently misheard, misunderstood, misrepresented, misused.The controversy about 'secret women's business' in the Hindmarsh Island Bridge conflict has brought this issue to the attention of the general public. How can Aboriginal women assert their claims while protecting, by remaining silent, their culturally sensitive knowledge? How can they prevent their words and silences being misrepresented?Words and Silences explores the barriers confronting Aboriginal women trying to defend their land rights. The contributors to this volume provide insights into the intricacies of Aboriginal social and cultural knowledge, and introduce the reader to different understandings of how the gendered nature of Aboriginal land ownership adds complexity to the cross-cultural encounter. In lively and engaging prose they document the ongoing struggles of Aboriginal women across Australia, who are fighting to ensure they receive due recognition of their rights in land.
In 1993, amira hass, a young Israeli reporter, drove to Gaza to cover a story-and stayed, the first journalist to live in the grim Palestinian enclave so feared and despised by most Israelis that, in the local idiom, "Go to Gaza" is another way to say "Go to hell." Now, in a work of calm power and painful clarity, Hass reflects on what she has seen in Gaza's gutted streets and destitute refugee camps.
Was the relationship between English settlers and Native Americans in the New World destined to turn tragic? This book investigates how the newcomers interacted with Algonquian groups in the Chesapeake Bay area and New England, describing the role that original Americans occupied in England's empire during the critical first century of contact. Michael Leroy Oberg considers the history of Anglo-Indian relations in transatlantic context while viewing the frontier as a zone where neither party had the upper hand. He tells how the English pursued three sets of policies in America securing profit for their sponsors, making lands safe from both European and native enemies, and "civilizing" the Indians and explains why the British settlers found it impossible to achieve all of these goals. Oberg places the history of Anglo-Indian relations in the early Chesapeake and New England in a broad transatlantic context while drawing parallels with subsequent efforts by England as well as its imperial rivals the French, Dutch, and Spanish to plant colonies in America. Dominion and Civility promises to broaden our understanding of the exchange between Europeans and Indians and makes an important contribution to the emerging history of the English Atlantic world."
Today, whichever party is in power, Aboriginal issues are very much part of the national agenda. No account of the nature of Australian politics, or discussion of the future of Australian society, can be complete without consideration of the Aboriginal interest. Citizens, whatever their political preferences, are learning that the Aboriginal demand for a full role in society has a profound impact on public life. In White Politics and Black Australians Scott Bennett coolly and dispassionately describes how the aspirations of Aboriginal Australians are expressed through a political system designed, first and foremost, for the white majority. Mabo, Wik, Native Title, Stolen Generation - these are just some of the issues discussed here. In a field so often characterised by rhetoric rather than analysis, here is an account which acknowledges the day-to-day reality of political contest.
A small, poverty-stricken California Indian Tribe, the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, successfully fought a long legal battle for the right to operate the business of their choice on their barren reservation--a gambling casino. This is their story, the authorized history of their epic struggle, climaxing with their victory in a 1987 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, the now-famous Cabazon Decision. Their defeated opponents included California's City of Indio and County of Riverside (called one of the most racist in the U.S. by a non-Indian resident) as well as California and 29 other states that joined California's appeal. This is also the fascinating story of the role played by a white family and its radical, socialist patriarch that helped create one of the world's most capital-intensive industries and triggered today's Indian Gaming Explosion throughout America. Hundreds of hours of taped interviews and years of documents, meeting records, and official correspondence are analyzed to give the reader a clear picture of the impact of this new massive capital on tribal life and the development of a possible future without gambling--as officials in league with Nevada and Atlantic City gambling interests continue their efforts to destroy Indian gaming. The Buffalo, literal and symbolic figure of earlier Indian financial independence, has returned in a new form--cash cow casinos.
In 1979 the Nevada state legislature passed a bill providing for state control of certain lands within the state boundaries under the administration of the Bureau of Land Management. Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming immediately followed suit. Public land users reacted swiftly and the Sagebrush Rebellion was on. Westerners, driven by the sheer size of the federal estate (99 percent of BLM lands are located in twelve western states) and angered by what they perceived as undue influence by the environmental movement on federal policies, sought to protect and control the resource and recreational use of public lands that they deemed essential to their state economies. In this book, R. McGreggor Cawley objectively investigates the Rebellion, looking at the driving force behind the movement, the strategies used by the Rebels, and the consequences of the controversy. He examines how the definitions of key federal land management concepts, such as conservation, influenced policymaking and explores tensions that pitted the West against other regions and the federal government. In the process, he analyzes James Watt's beleaguered tenure as secretary of the interior and the Reagan administration's proposal to sell federal lands and shows how the conflict created an unexpected division within the environmental movement. Going beyond the Rebellion, Cawley offers provocative interpretation of events in federal land policy from the 1960s to the 1990s and establishes a framework for assessing future developments in federal land policy.
This work provides a selection of underground documents (never before translated) of the two leading bodies of the Intifada: the United National Command and the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas. Communiques or leaflets were an essential element of Palestinian political life and served as a vehicle of expression and a way to direct behaviour and organise the people. Shaul Mishal carefully analyses these documents in an effort to understand the forces that turned the wheels of the Palestinian uprising: their goals; methods of operation; and their success in obtaining the willing cooperation of all segments of the Palestinian population. Since the Israeli conquest of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, there had been minor eruptions of violence by Palestinians against Israelis. But for the 20 years before December 1987 and the uprising, there had never been such an intense and prolonged demonstration against the occupation. The Intifada inspired a new generation of Palestinian radicals who conducted their protests through petrol bombs and street violence and relayed their messages through underground propaganda. In place of any official and prominent leadership, communiques became the voice of the rebels. The book should be of interest to scholars and students of Middle East studies, particularly of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
...a local bestseller...(the authors) describe a pervasive way of conducting private and public affairs in which state and local office holders throughout Hawaii took their personal financial interests into account in their actions as public officials years ago.'--The New York Times
In The Mountain People, Colin M. Turnbull describes the dehumanization of the Ik, African tribesmen who in less than three generations have deteriorated from being once-prosperous hunters to scattered bands of hostile, starving people whose only goal is individual survival. Sad, disturbing, and eloquently written, The Mountain People is a moving meditation on human nature, our capacity for goodness, and the fragility of human society.
There are approximately 640 million surface acres of federally owned land in the United States. This book introduces some of the broad themes and issues Congress has considered with addressing federal land policy and resource management, including questions about the extent and location of the federal estate. Additionally, most federal lands and waters are open to hunting and/or fishing. The second chapter provides an overview of issues related to hunting and fishing on federal lands. Congress addresses these issues through oversight, legislation and appropriations, which target issues such as access to federal lands and waters for sportperson activities, and striking the right balance among hunting and fishing and other recreational, commercial, scientific and conversation uses. The third and fourth chapters examine the controversies regarding management of existing wilderness areas which have also been the subject of legislation. Congress has also directed that the federal government is responsible for managing wildfires that begin on federal lands, such as national parks or national forests. States are responsible for managing wildfires that originate on all other lands. Wildlife spending is currently subject to procedural and budgetary control which the 115th Congress addresses in this book. The last chapter is a report on the variety of national monument issues that Congress continues to face. From 1906 to date, Presidents have established 157 monuments and also enlarged, diminished or otherwise modified previously proclaimed monuments through a total of 259 proclamations. Congress continues to face a variety of national monument issues, many of which are explored within this book.
The coast of East Africa was considered a strategically invaluable region for the establishment of trading ports, both for Arab and Persian merchants, long prior to invasion and conquest by Europeans. In the initial stages of the scramble for Africa in the 18th century, control of the area was an aspiration for every colonial nation in Europe - but it was not until 1895 that it was finally dominated by a sole power and proclaimed The Protectorate of British East Africa. In the early 20th century, the coast was brimming with vitality as immigrants, colonisers and missionaries from Arabia, India and Europe poured in to take advantage of growing commercial opportunities - including the prospect of enslaving millions of native Africans. The development of Kenya is an exceptional tale within the history of British rule - in perhaps no other colony did nationalistic feeling evolve in conditions of such extensive social and political change. In 1911, S.H. Fazan sailed to what later became the Republic of Kenya to work for the colonial government. Immersing himself in knowledge of traditional language and law, he recorded the vast changes to local culture that he encountered after decades of working with both the British administration and the Kenyan people. This work charts the sweeping tide of social change that occurred through his career with the clarity and insight that comes with a total intimacy of a country. His memoirs examine the fascinating complexity of interaction between the colonial and native courts, commercial land reform and the revolutionised dynamic of labour relations. By further unearthing the political tensions that climaxed with the Mau Mau Revolt of 1952-1960, this invaluable work on the European colonial period paints a comprehensive and revealing firsthand account for anyone with an interest in British and African history. Fazan's story provides a quite unparalleled view of colonial Africa and the conduct of Empire across half a century.
Documenting how the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug's traditional territory was threatened by mining exploration in 2006, this chronicle reveals how the people followed their customary duty to protect the land, asking the mining exploration company to leave. The company left--and then sued the remote First Nation for $10 billion, and the ensuing legal dispute lasted two years only to result in the jailing of community leaders. This book argues that, although this imprisonment was extraordinarily punitive and is indicative of continuing colonialism within the legal system, some aspects of the case demonstrate the potential of Canadian law to understand, include, and reflect Aboriginal perspectives. Connecting scholarship in Aboriginal rights, Canadian law, traditional Aboriginal law, social change, and community activism, this history explores the twists and turns of this legal dispute in order to gain a deeper understanding of the law's contributions to and detractions from the process of reconciliation.
Dialogue about Land Justice provides a solid understanding for readers of the key issues around native title from the minds of leading thinkers, commentators and senior jurists. It consolidates sixteen papers presented to the national Native Title Conference since the historic Mabo judgment. Taken together, these commentators tie native title to the fundamental issue of the place of Indigenous peoples' within the Australian political and legal framework, and national identity. With contributions about New Zealand, the USA and development in the UN, it also provides a comparative understanding of international Indigenous land rights and interests.
From 1967 to 1973, a period that culminated in the socialist
project of Salvador Allende, nearly 400,000 low-income Chileans
illegally seized parcels of land on the outskirts of Santiago.
Remarkably, today almost all of these individuals live in homes
with property titles. As Edward Murphy shows, this transformation
came at a steep price, through an often-violent political and
social struggle that continues to this day.
Examines the new challenges facing Africa's pastoral drylands from large-scale investments and how this might affect the economic and political landscape for the regions affected and their peoples. More than ever before, the gaze of global investment has been directed to the drylands of Africa, but what does this mean for these regions' pastoralists and other livestock-keepers and their livelihoods? Will those who have occupied drylands over generations benefit from the developments, as claimed, or is this a new type of territorialisation, exacerbating social inequality? This book's detailed local studies of investments at various stages of development - from Kenya, Tanzania, Somaliland, Ethiopia - explore, for the first time, how large land, resource and infrastructure projects shape local politics and livelihoods. Land and resources use, based on ancestral precedenceand communal practices, and embedded regional systems of trade, are unique to these areas, yet these lands are now seen as the new frontier for development of national wealth. By examining the ways in which large-scale investmentsenmesh with local political and social relations, the chapters show how even the most elaborate plans of financiers, contractors and national governments come unstuck and are re-made in the guise of not only states' grand modernist visions, but also those of herders and small-town entrepreneurs in the pastoral drylands. The contributors also demonstrate how and why large-scale investments have advanced in a more piecemeal way as the challenges of implementation have mounted. JEREMY LIND is Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex. DORIS OKENWA holds a PhD in Anthropology from the London School of Economics. IAN SCOONES is a Professorial Fellow at the IDS, University of Sussex and co-director of the ESRC STEPS Centre.
From the Foreword: I am inclined to think that when Creator lowered Lynn to Mother Earth it was for her to complete this difficult task of bravery. Indeed we can all learn from her, as she has fulfilled her responsibility. - Heather Majaury In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Treaty at Niagara, The Truth that Wampum Tells offers readers a first-ever insider analysis of the contemporary land claims and self-government process in Canada. Incorporating an analysis of traditional symbolic literacy known as wampum diplomacy, Lynn Gehl argues that despite Canada's constitutional beginnings, first codified in the 1763 Royal Proclamation and ratified during the 1764 Treaty at Niagara, Canada continues to deny the Algonquin Anishinaabeg their right to land and resources, their right to live as a sovereign nation and consequently their ability to live mino-pimadiziwin (the good life). Gehl moves beyond Western scholarly approaches rooted in historical archives, academic literature and the interview method. She also moves beyond discussions of Indigenous methodologies, offering an analysis through Debwewin Journey: a wholistic Anishinaabeg way of knowing that incorporates both mind knowledge and heart knowledge and that produces one's debwewin (personal truth).
The modern Middle East often seems like a web of problems none of which has proven more intractable over the last half century than the Israeli-Arab conflict. One of the core issues is the Israeli claim to ownership of modern-day real estate based on ancient stories that have been enshrined in scripture, promoted by politicians, and buttressed by Hollywood. In this book two revisionist thinkers expose what they argue are the tenuous underpinnings of these claims. Was the Exodus of scripture actually a Hebrew exodus. Was the Moses depicted by Charlton Heston actually a Hebrew leader? Or were they echoes of a much earlier exodus of Hyksos, the invasive people to first conquer and reign over Egyptians? The authors argue that neither Moses nor the Hebrews were in Egypt until around 1000 BCE -- 500 years after the earlier Exodus is known to have taken place. They go on to sift through research of an Hyksos evacuation of Egypt led by an Eastern leader who is far different than the Moses with whom we are familiar.
The coasts of today's American South feature luxury condominiums,resorts, and gated communities, yet just a century ago, a surprising amountof beachfront property in the Chesapeake, along the Carolina shores, andaround the Gulf of Mexico was owned and populated by African Americans.Blending social and environmental history, Andrew W. Kahrl tells the storyof African American-owned beaches in the twentieth century. By reconstructingAfrican American life along the coast, Kahrl demonstrates just howimportant these properties were for African American communities andleisure, as well as for economic empowerment, especially during the era ofthe Jim Crow South. However, in the wake of the civil rights movement andamid the growing prosperity of the Sunbelt, many African Americans fellvictim to effective campaigns to dispossess black landowners of their propertiesand beaches. Kahrl makes a signal contribution to our understanding of AfricanAmerican landowners and real-estate developers, as well as the developmentof coastal capitalism along the southern seaboard, tying the creation of overdeveloped,unsustainable coastlines to the unmaking of black communitiesand cultures along the shore. The result is a skillful appraisal of the ambiguouslegacy of racial progress in the Sunbelt.
Property as a human rights concern is manifested through its incorporation in international instruments and as a subject of the law through property-related cases considered by international human rights organs. Yet, for the most part, the relationship between property and human rights has been discussed in rather superficial terms, lacking a clear substantive connection or common language. That said, the currents of globalisation have witnessed a new era of interrelation between these two areas of the law, including the emergence of international intellectual property law and the recognition of indigenous claims, which, in fundamental ways, speak to an engagement with human rights law. This collection starts the conversation between human rights lawyers and property lawyers and explores analytical approaches to the increasing relationship between property and human rights in a global context. The chapters engage with key theoretical and policy debates and range across three main themes: The re-evaluation of the public/private divide in the law; the tensions between the market and social justice in development and the balance between the rights of individuals and those of communities. The chapters adopt a global, comparative perspective and engage in case studies from countries including India, Philippines, Brazil, the United States, the United Kingdom and includes various regions of Africa and Europe.
PAPERBACK FOR SALE IN AFRICA ONLY Reveals the impact on women of post-1990s land reforms in Eastern Africa and the ways in which these are overridden in spite of law. Recent decades have seen a wave of land law reforms across Africa, in the context of a "land rush" and land-grabbing. But how has this been enacted on the ground and, in particular, how have women experienced this? This book seeksto re-orientate current debates on women's land rights towards a focus on the law in action. Drawing on the author's ethnographic research in the Arusha region of Tanzania, it explores how the country's land law reforms have impacted on women's legal claims to land. Centring on cases involving women litigants, the book considers the extent to which women are realising their interests in land through land courts and follows the progression of women's claims to land - from their social origins through processes of dispute resolution to judgment. Dancer's work explores three central issues. First, it considers the nature of women's claims to land in Tanzanian family contexts,the value of land in an era of land reform and the 'land rush' across Africa, and the extent to which the social issues raised are addressed by Tanzania's current laws and legal system. Secondly, it examines how agency and power relations between social and legal actors engaged in legal processes affect women's access to justice and the progression of claims. Thirdly, it explores Tanzanian concepts of justice and rights and how women's claims have been judged by land courts in practice. Helen Dancer is a lecturer in Law at the University of Brighton. She practised as a barrister in England specialising in family legal aid cases prior to training as a legal anthropologist. She is also a consultant for Future Agricultures at IDS, University of Sussex. Her areas of research interest include law and development, gender and land, and human rights and legal pluralism.
Over the past few years, large-scale land acquisitions in Africa have stoked controversy, making headlines in media reports across the world. Land that only a short time ago seemed of little outside interest is now being sought by international investors to the tune of hundreds of thousands of hectares. Private-sector expectations of higher world food and commodity prices and government concerns about longer-term national food and energy security have both made land a more attractive asset. Dubbed 'land grabs' in the media, large-scale land acquisitions have become one of the most talked about and contentious topics amongst those studying, working in or writing about Africa. Some commentators have welcomed this trend as a bearer of new livelihood opportunities. Others have countered by pointing to negative social impacts, including loss of local land rights, threats to local food security and the risk that large-scale investments may marginalize family farming. Lorenzo Cotula, a leading expert in the field, casts a critical eye over the most reliable evidence on this hotly contested topic, examining the implications of land deals in Africa both for its people and for world agriculture and food security.
Feeding Frenzy traces the history of the global food system and reveals the underlying causes of recent turmoil in food markets. Supplies are running short, prices keep spiking and the media is full of talk of a 'world food crisis'. Food-producing countries are banning exports even if this means starving their neighbours. Governments and corporations are scrambling to secure control over food supply chains. Powerful groups from the Middle East and Asia are grabbing farmland in poor countries to grow food for export. This raises some big questions. Can we feed a population that will grow to nine billion by 2050? Are we running out of land and water? Can we rely on free markets to provide? This book reveals trends that could lead to more hunger and conflict. But Paul McMahon also outlines actions that can be taken to shape a sustainable and just food system. |
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