Of the many atrocities committed against indigenous people in the U.S. and Canada, upending their land tenure systems is not the first that comes to mind.\nBut the legal quagmire it created in both countries contributes to poverty in many communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike their southern neighbors, the Canadian government has engaged in a reconciliation process with native peoples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To better understand Canada\u2019s approach, Jessica Shoemaker, associate professor of law, received a Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Legal and Resource Rights. She spent the 2018-2019 academic year at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law in Edmonton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve used property laws in indigenous communities throughout history as basically social engineering,\nand it\u2019s had a lot of negative effects,\u201d Shoemaker said.\n\u201cThe United States hasn\u2019t really confronted this history of mistreatment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, in the 19th century, the U.S. government sought to assimilate Native Americans into Western culture by allotting tribal lands to indigenous individuals in a restrictive federal trust and selling other reservation land to white settlers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Generations later, reservation land ownership and federal property laws restricting land use are a mess, Shoemaker said. The current property system is inflexible, cumbersome and expensive, often costing more in bureaucratic upkeep than the land is worth. Most problematic, indigenous people can\u2019t freely use restricted property to advance economically or to reflect community choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe history of property and indigenous people in the United States is one of dispossession and displacement of fundamental land governance rights,\u201d Shoemaker said. \u201cThere are living indigenous communities affected by this on a day-to-day basis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Canada, Shoemaker explored the country\u2019s \nreconciliation process, including ongoing land-claim litigation, treaty renegotiation and laws intended to improve relationships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She\u2019s using what she\u2019s learned to reimagine new pathways for tribal property systems in the United States that include greater flexibility and tribal authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis has been really fruitful for me to think more creatively about how this reimagining could happen \nin the U.S. as well,\u201d Shoemaker said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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