Review of \u3ci\u3e Native Americans and Wage Labor: Ethnohistorical Perspectives\u3c/i\u3e Edited by Alice Littlefield and Martha C. Knack

The ten essays in Native Americans and Wage Labor provide an excellent source for information regarding the participation of Native Americans in labor markets in the United States from colonial times to the present. The editors\u27 introductory essay reviews the literature showing that wage labor by Native Americans is not a recent phenomenon. It was crucial to the survival of some Native groups when other means of sustenance were removed. At particular times and places, Native labor was also crucial to settlers who needed to harvest crops, construct railroads, or build mines. Many of these examples are furnished by essays in the book, starting with Harold Prins\u27s documentation of the role of Mi\u27kmaq Indians in providing seasonal labor for the Maine potato harvest prior to mechanization. James McClurken describes how the taking of land and property by settlers forced Indians in Michigan to join the labor market. Alice Littlefield\u27s study of the graduates of the Mt. Pleasant Indian School in Michigan shows how the school attempted to and succeeded in recruiting Indians to the non-Indian world of work. In an effort to complement the view that the taking of Indian land contributed to the wealth of the expanding settlers, John Moore provides estimates of the surplus value appropriated from Cheyennes who sold buffalo robes or moccasins and worked as seasonal farm laborers

Incentive Systems That Support Sustainability: A First Nations Example

Prior to contact with European settlers, the incentive and governance systems used by First Nations peoples of the Northwest coast of North America provided more sustainable use of the fisheries and other resources of that region than did subsequent systems. This paper explores the major reason for that success: the requirements of the potlatch system that chiefs share their income with each other. Because chiefs controlled well-defined territories and subjected each other to review, the potlatch governance system embodied the characteristics of negative feedback, coordination, resiliency, and robustness that political scientist John Dryzek identifies as means to support ecological rationality in the management of ecosystems. This ecological rationality occurs because the sharing of income made chiefs aware of the effects that their actions had on the income of other chiefs. In addition, public discussions that occurred at feasts would allow chiefs to coordinate their actions as needed. The paper concludes with proposals for application of the potlatch system to modern circumstances. Such application means changing the rules for the distribution of income from using ecosystem resources so that all entities share their surplus income with each other. The potlatch system can be applied to modern organizations by noting that chief executive officers are like chiefs, that profit is like surplus income, and that corporations can be viewed as similar to the houses of the traditional Northwest systems. One major change is that profit is no longer privately owned, and must be shared with other organizations that use an ecosystem. Although controls on behavior mandated by state power would be reduced, a modernized potlatch system would still need to operate within a context provided by governments and international agreements

Traditional American Indian Economic Policy

Many have observed that Indian and mainstream values differ, but few have spelled out the implications of these differences for economic development policy. This paper presents a characterization of Indian values, derives some implications for traditional Indian economic policy, and provides two examples of Indian communities that have adopted policies consistent with its analysis. As tribes continue to assert their sovereign powers to control their own communities, a consideration of the connections between traditional American Indian worldviews and economic development policy can assist tribes and others in examining and selecting among current development alternatives. Those studying economic policy in Indian communities recognize that Indians have different goals from those of the dominant society. What are these goals and do they help explain why economic policy has been different in Indian communities?This paper begins by listing a set of assumptions that many Indian communities share. It then proceeds to explore the implications of these assumptions for economic development activities and institutions. Not surprisingly, the implications describe rules profoundly different from what economic development usually means. For example, traditional Indian economic policy would place an upper limit on consumption

Traditional Forest-Related KnowledgeSustaining Communities, Ecosystems and Biocultural Diversity /

XXVI, 622 p.online resource

Aboriginal Peoples and Forest Certification: a Review of the Canadian Situation

We assess how different certification standards address Aboriginal issues in Canada, augmenting current legislation related to Aboriginal issues. The benefits from forest certification and the obstacles to its adoption by the Aboriginal community are also reviewed. We conclude that it would take significant effort, time, and resources to achieve widespread Aboriginal adoption of forest certification