Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2004. / Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale University in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliography. Preview available online at: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?did=765029031&Fmt=7&clientId%20=43258&RQT=309&VName=PQD.

Louise Erdrich's novel Love Medicine presents a variety of voices that depict thetruths of Chippewa life and how they as a group are victims of a society that authorizesoppression and domination. Studies show that Chippewa tribes have a close connectionto nature and with each other as people. Ecofeminist critics draw analogies between theexploitation of nature and the oppression of groups such as those based on race, class,and sexuality, which results in a distortion of Native people's identity and connection tonature. Since the characters and nature are both oppressed and exploited by the U.Sgovernment, it becomes relevant to draw parallels between Erdrich's characters andnature with ecofeminism. The analysis concludes that ecofeminism can be applied toErdrich's novel because they share some values such as the importance of striving forinterconnection between humans and nature to free both from the power structure. TheChippewa characters and the U.S government can be identified in ecofeminist discourseas a set of dualisms. However, there are also some differences between ecofeminismand the way in which Erdrich depicts her Chippewa characters and nature. Erdrich’sstory shows that both female and male characters of Chippewa origin possess a sacredrelationship to Mother Earth, not only women, as ecofeminists would suggest.

OBJECTIF: Chez les Autochtones, la relation entre le degré d'éloignement et les issues de naissance est inconnue. L’objectif de cette étude est d’évaluer cet impact parmi les Premières Nations du Québec. MÉTHODE : Nous avons utilisé les données vitales de Statistique Canada pour la province du Québec pour la période 1991-2000. L’ensemble des naissances géocodées parmi les communautés des Premières Nations groupées en quatre zones en se basant sur le degré d'éloignement a été analysé. Nous avons utilisé la régression logistique multi-niveaux pour obtenir des rapports de cotes ajustés pour les caractéristiques maternelles. RESULTATS : Le taux de naissances prématurées varie en fonction de l’éloignement de la zone d’habitation (8,2% dans la zone la moins éloignée et 5,2% dans la Zone la plus éloignée, P<0,01). En revanche, plus la zone est éloignée, plus le taux de mortalité infantile est élevé (6,9 pour 1000 pour la Zone 1 et 16,8 pour 1000 pour la Zone 4, P<0,01). Le taux élevé de mortalité infantile dans la zone la plus éloignée pourrait être partiellement expliqué par le fort taux de mortalité post-natale. Le taux de mort subite du nourrisson est 3 fois plus élevé dans la zone 4 par rapport à la zone 1. Cependant la mortalité prénatale ne présente pas de différences significatives en fonction de la zone malgré une fréquence élevée dans la zone 4. La morbidité périnatale était semblable en fonction de la zone après avoir ajusté pour l’âge, l’éducation, la parité et le statut civil. CONCLUSIONS : Malgré de plus faibles taux d’enfants à haut risque (accouchements prématurés), les Premières Nations vivant dans les communautés les plus éloignées ont un risque plus élevé de mortalité infantile et plus spécialement de mortalité post-néonatale par rapport aux Premières Nations vivant dans des communautés moins éloignées. Il y existe un grand besoin d’investissement en services de santé et en promotion de la santé dans les communautés les plus éloignées afin de réduire le taux de mortalité infantile et surtout post-néonatale. / OBJECTIVE: It is unknown whether Aboriginal birth outcomes may be affected by the degree of community remoteness. We assessed community remoteness and birth outcomes among Quebec First Nations. METHODS: We used Statistics Canada's vital data for the province of Quebec, 1991-2000. Postcode geo-coding linkage was used to identify all births in First Nations communities (reserves). Communities were grouped into four zones based on the degree of remoteness. Multilevel logistic regression was used to obtain the ORs adjusting for maternal characteristics. RESULTS: Preterm birth rates rose progressively from the most remote (5.2%) to the least remote (8.2%) zone (P<0.001). In contrast, infant mortality rose progressively from the least remote (6.9/1000) to the most remote (16.8/1000) zone (P<0.01). The excess infant mortality in the more remote zones could be largely explained by the high postneonatal mortality. Postnatal SIDS was 3 times higher in the most remote compared to the least remote zone. Perinatal mortality was highest in the most remote zone but the differences were not significant across the four zones. Similar patterns were observed after adjusting for maternal age, education, parity and marital status. CONCLUSIONS: Despite lower rates of preterm deliveries, First Nations living in more remote communities suffered a substantially higher risk of infant death, especially postneonatal death, compared to First Nations living in less remote communities. There is a greater need for improving maternal and infant health in more remote Aboriginal communities.

This dissertation examines Native-newcomer relations during the integrationist era in Canadian Indian affairs: the two and a half decades after World War Two during which the federal government introduced policies designed to integrate Indians into mainstream Canadian social, political, economic, and administrative life. Particular focus is given to developments in British Columbia, where some of the most concerted steps towards integration took place. Growing public and political demands for institutional desegregation and the granting of rights of citizenry to Aboriginal people recast Indian affairs into a matter of unprecedented intergovernmental importance.<p> Shifting between micro- and macro-historical perspectives, the following chapters consist of a series of comparative policy case studies. Individually, they examine the development, implementation, and effects of the four main areas of federal Indian integrationist planning after WWII: health, education, economic development, and welfare. Collectively, chapters demonstrate how integration was a mission essentially administrative in orientation: every policy undertaken in this period, whether directly or indirectly, sought to implicate the province and other federal line departments in Indian affairs. Not all attempts at administrative integration, however, were successful. While BC and the federal government reached joint agreements in the fields of education and health, other areas such as Indian economic development and welfare proved to be a source of significant intergovernmental conflict and impasse.<p> Aboriginal people were important participants when it came to integrated health, education, and social welfare. Incorporating ethnohistorical insights and Aboriginal perspectives throughout, this dissertation documents how Aboriginal agency in this periodexpressed in a range of innovative actions and wordsincluded important combinatory aspects of compliance, resistance, and accommodation. Many individuals, for instance, demanded access to provincial services as within their rights as Aboriginal people and provincial voting and taxpaying citizens. While post-war integrationist policies varied widely in terms of their local perception and impact, Indian assimilation remained an elusive goal throughout this period. Advances in provincial devolution of Indian administration rarely resulted in the type of social and economic integration envisioned by federal officials.<p> This study looks beyond unitary conceptions of the state towards questions of power and local agency. It engages Foucauldian and Weberian theories to show how a combination of intergovernmental politics, intrastate variables, and Aboriginal agency refashioned Native-newcomer relations in this period. Post-WWII administrative contexts served as theatres for the contestation of old, and formulation of new, power relationships. Developments in this era were to have a significant influence on Native-newcomer relations moving into the modern era.

This dissertation examines Native-newcomer relations during the integrationist era in Canadian Indian affairs: the two and a half decades after World War Two during which the federal government introduced policies designed to integrate Indians into mainstream Canadian social, political, economic, and administrative life. Particular focus is given to developments in British Columbia, where some of the most concerted steps towards integration took place. Growing public and political demands for institutional desegregation and the granting of rights of citizenry to Aboriginal people recast Indian affairs into a matter of unprecedented intergovernmental importance.<p> Shifting between micro- and macro-historical perspectives, the following chapters consist of a series of comparative policy case studies. Individually, they examine the development, implementation, and effects of the four main areas of federal Indian integrationist planning after WWII: health, education, economic development, and welfare. Collectively, chapters demonstrate how integration was a mission essentially administrative in orientation: every policy undertaken in this period, whether directly or indirectly, sought to implicate the province and other federal line departments in Indian affairs. Not all attempts at administrative integration, however, were successful. While BC and the federal government reached joint agreements in the fields of education and health, other areas such as Indian economic development and welfare proved to be a source of significant intergovernmental conflict and impasse.<p> Aboriginal people were important participants when it came to integrated health, education, and social welfare. Incorporating ethnohistorical insights and Aboriginal perspectives throughout, this dissertation documents how Aboriginal agency in this periodexpressed in a range of innovative actions and wordsincluded important combinatory aspects of compliance, resistance, and accommodation. Many individuals, for instance, demanded access to provincial services as within their rights as Aboriginal people and provincial voting and taxpaying citizens. While post-war integrationist policies varied widely in terms of their local perception and impact, Indian assimilation remained an elusive goal throughout this period. Advances in provincial devolution of Indian administration rarely resulted in the type of social and economic integration envisioned by federal officials.<p> This study looks beyond unitary conceptions of the state towards questions of power and local agency. It engages Foucauldian and Weberian theories to show how a combination of intergovernmental politics, intrastate variables, and Aboriginal agency refashioned Native-newcomer relations in this period. Post-WWII administrative contexts served as theatres for the contestation of old, and formulation of new, power relationships. Developments in this era were to have a significant influence on Native-newcomer relations moving into the modern era.

The imminent recognition of an inherent Aboriginal right to selfgovernment signals the beginning of the reversal of a colonization process which threatened the cultural survival of a people. The Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba , hereinafter referred to as the Inquiry, advocates an autonomous Aboriginal criminal justice system as a significant component of this cultural revitalization. This Aboriginal criminal justice system would differ markedly from the conventional system in giving priority to collective rights over conflicting individual rights. The Inquiry rejects the Charter as alien to Aboriginal values and advocates a “tailor-made” Aboriginal charter that would incorporate “only those fundamental freedoms and civil liberties that do not violate the beliefs and paramount collective rights of the Aboriginal peoples.” The conventional justice system’s paramount concern for individual rights is premised on the potential of punishment. The Inquiry’s starkly contrasting paramount emphasis on collective rights is premised on an Aboriginal view of justice which this thesis refers to as the “harmony ethos”: The underlying philosophy in Aboriginal societies in dealing with crime was the resolution of disputes, the healing of wounds and the restoration of social harmony… Atonement and restoration of harmony were the goals - not punishment. The tension between individual and collective rights apparent in the proposal of the Inquiry is the specific focus of this thesis. The colonization process may justify a separate Aboriginal justice system. However, the harmony ethos premise, while appropriate to the mediation-reconciliation communitarian model of justice advocated by the Inquiry, blinds the Inquiry to the additional, and crucially different, adjudicative-rights imperatives of the contemporary Aboriginal society. Actually existing Indianism reveals conflict-generating fault lines in the harmony premise which challenge the sufficiency of the Inquiry’s group-based justice paradigm and indicate a need and desire for an adjudication justice component and concomitant Charter values. This adjudication hiatus in the Inquiry position is a reflection of a similar void in historical Aboriginal justice which challenges the asserted rationale of cultural survival for the paramountcy of collective rights in the contemporary Aboriginal justice system. This historical adjudication hiatus does not preclude a separate Aboriginal justice system, but favours the inclusion of Charter values to strengthen an adjudication cultural foundation which is frail relative to its reconciliation-mediation strength. This thesis is a modest attempt to address the interface between two systems; one mature, but in need of change, the other, fledging and in need of assistance. The Charter provides a ready and flexible framework to join the Aboriginal community both to the larger society and to the unlanded Aboriginal diaspora by principled standards of justice. These fundamental indicia of fairness, recognized by all civilized self-governing units, constitute no significant threat to the cultural survival of the Aboriginal mediation justice heritage, while buttressing its inherent adjudication frailty.

OBJECTIF: Chez les Autochtones, la relation entre le degré d'éloignement et les issues de naissance est inconnue. L’objectif de cette étude est d’évaluer cet impact parmi les Premières Nations du Québec. MÉTHODE : Nous avons utilisé les données vitales de Statistique Canada pour la province du Québec pour la période 1991-2000. L’ensemble des naissances géocodées parmi les communautés des Premières Nations groupées en quatre zones en se basant sur le degré d'éloignement a été analysé. Nous avons utilisé la régression logistique multi-niveaux pour obtenir des rapports de cotes ajustés pour les caractéristiques maternelles. RESULTATS : Le taux de naissances prématurées varie en fonction de l’éloignement de la zone d’habitation (8,2% dans la zone la moins éloignée et 5,2% dans la Zone la plus éloignée, P<0,01). En revanche, plus la zone est éloignée, plus le taux de mortalité infantile est élevé (6,9 pour 1000 pour la Zone 1 et 16,8 pour 1000 pour la Zone 4, P<0,01). Le taux élevé de mortalité infantile dans la zone la plus éloignée pourrait être partiellement expliqué par le fort taux de mortalité post-natale. Le taux de mort subite du nourrisson est 3 fois plus élevé dans la zone 4 par rapport à la zone 1. Cependant la mortalité prénatale ne présente pas de différences significatives en fonction de la zone malgré une fréquence élevée dans la zone 4. La morbidité périnatale était semblable en fonction de la zone après avoir ajusté pour l’âge, l’éducation, la parité et le statut civil. CONCLUSIONS : Malgré de plus faibles taux d’enfants à haut risque (accouchements prématurés), les Premières Nations vivant dans les communautés les plus éloignées ont un risque plus élevé de mortalité infantile et plus spécialement de mortalité post-néonatale par rapport aux Premières Nations vivant dans des communautés moins éloignées. Il y existe un grand besoin d’investissement en services de santé et en promotion de la santé dans les communautés les plus éloignées afin de réduire le taux de mortalité infantile et surtout post-néonatale. / OBJECTIVE: It is unknown whether Aboriginal birth outcomes may be affected by the degree of community remoteness. We assessed community remoteness and birth outcomes among Quebec First Nations. METHODS: We used Statistics Canada's vital data for the province of Quebec, 1991-2000. Postcode geo-coding linkage was used to identify all births in First Nations communities (reserves). Communities were grouped into four zones based on the degree of remoteness. Multilevel logistic regression was used to obtain the ORs adjusting for maternal characteristics. RESULTS: Preterm birth rates rose progressively from the most remote (5.2%) to the least remote (8.2%) zone (P<0.001). In contrast, infant mortality rose progressively from the least remote (6.9/1000) to the most remote (16.8/1000) zone (P<0.01). The excess infant mortality in the more remote zones could be largely explained by the high postneonatal mortality. Postnatal SIDS was 3 times higher in the most remote compared to the least remote zone. Perinatal mortality was highest in the most remote zone but the differences were not significant across the four zones. Similar patterns were observed after adjusting for maternal age, education, parity and marital status. CONCLUSIONS: Despite lower rates of preterm deliveries, First Nations living in more remote communities suffered a substantially higher risk of infant death, especially postneonatal death, compared to First Nations living in less remote communities. There is a greater need for improving maternal and infant health in more remote Aboriginal communities.

No description available.

The imminent recognition of an inherent Aboriginal right to selfgovernment signals the beginning of the reversal of a colonization process which threatened the cultural survival of a people. The Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba , hereinafter referred to as the Inquiry, advocates an autonomous Aboriginal criminal justice system as a significant component of this cultural revitalization. This Aboriginal criminal justice system would differ markedly from the conventional system in giving priority to collective rights over conflicting individual rights. The Inquiry rejects the Charter as alien to Aboriginal values and advocates a “tailor-made” Aboriginal charter that would incorporate “only those fundamental freedoms and civil liberties that do not violate the beliefs and paramount collective rights of the Aboriginal peoples.” The conventional justice system’s paramount concern for individual rights is premised on the potential of punishment. The Inquiry’s starkly contrasting paramount emphasis on collective rights is premised on an Aboriginal view of justice which this thesis refers to as the “harmony ethos”: The underlying philosophy in Aboriginal societies in dealing with crime was the resolution of disputes, the healing of wounds and the restoration of social harmony… Atonement and restoration of harmony were the goals - not punishment. The tension between individual and collective rights apparent in the proposal of the Inquiry is the specific focus of this thesis. The colonization process may justify a separate Aboriginal justice system. However, the harmony ethos premise, while appropriate to the mediation-reconciliation communitarian model of justice advocated by the Inquiry, blinds the Inquiry to the additional, and crucially different, adjudicative-rights imperatives of the contemporary Aboriginal society. Actually existing Indianism reveals conflict-generating fault lines in the harmony premise which challenge the sufficiency of the Inquiry’s group-based justice paradigm and indicate a need and desire for an adjudication justice component and concomitant Charter values. This adjudication hiatus in the Inquiry position is a reflection of a similar void in historical Aboriginal justice which challenges the asserted rationale of cultural survival for the paramountcy of collective rights in the contemporary Aboriginal justice system. This historical adjudication hiatus does not preclude a separate Aboriginal justice system, but favours the inclusion of Charter values to strengthen an adjudication cultural foundation which is frail relative to its reconciliation-mediation strength. This thesis is a modest attempt to address the interface between two systems; one mature, but in need of change, the other, fledging and in need of assistance. The Charter provides a ready and flexible framework to join the Aboriginal community both to the larger society and to the unlanded Aboriginal diaspora by principled standards of justice. These fundamental indicia of fairness, recognized by all civilized self-governing units, constitute no significant threat to the cultural survival of the Aboriginal mediation justice heritage, while buttressing its inherent adjudication frailty. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

Les Inuits sont le plus petit groupe autochtone au Canada. Les femmes inuites présentent des risques beaucoup plus élevés d’issues de grossesse défavorables que leurs homologues non autochtones. Quelques études régionales font état d’une mortalité fœtale et infantile bien plus importante chez les Inuits canadiens par rapport aux populations non autochtones. Des facteurs de risque tant au niveau individuel que communautaire peuvent affecter les issues de grossesse inuites. Les relations entre les caractéristiques communautaires et les issues de grossesse inuites sont peu connues. La compréhension des effets des facteurs de risque au niveau communautaire peut être hautement importante pour le développement de programmes de promotion de la santé maternelle et infantile efficaces, destinés à améliorer les issues de grossesse dans les communautés inuites. Dans une étude de cohorte de naissance reposant sur les codes postaux et basée sur les fichiers jumelés des mortinaissances/naissances vivantes/mortalité infantile, pour toutes les naissances survenues au Québec de 1991 à 2000, nous avons évalué les effets des caractéristiques communautaires sur les issues de grossesse inuites. Lorsque cela est approprié et réalisable, des données sur les issues de grossesse d’un autre groupe autochtone majeur, les Premières Nations, sont aussi présentées. Nous avons tout d'abord évalué les disparités et les tendances temporelles dans les issues de grossesse et la mortalité infantile aux niveaux individuel et communautaire chez les Premières Nations et les Inuits par rapport à d'autres populations au Québec. Puis nous avons étudié les tendances temporelles dans les issues de grossesse pour les Inuits, les Premières Nations et les populations non autochtones dans les régions rurales et du nord du Québec. Les travaux concernant les différences entre milieu rural et urbain dans les issues de grossesse chez les peuples autochtones sont limités et contradictoires, c’est pourquoi nous avons examiné les issues de grossesse dans les groupes dont la langue maternelle des femmes est l’inuktitut, une langue les Premières Nations ou le français (langue majoritairement parlée au Québec), en fonction de la résidence rurale ou urbaine au Québec. Finalement, puisqu'il y avait un manque de données sur la sécurité des soins de maternité menés par des sages-femmes dans les communautés éloignées ou autochtones, nous avons examiné les issues de grossesse en fonction du principal type de fournisseur de soins au cours de l'accouchement dans deux groupes de communautés inuites éloignées. Nous avons trouvé d’importantes et persistantes disparités dans la mortalité fœtale et infantile parmi les Premières Nations et les Inuits comparativement à d'autres populations au Québec en se basant sur des évaluations au niveau individuel ou communautaire. Une hausse déconcertante de certains indicateurs de mortalité pour les naissances de femmes dont la langue maternelle est une langue des Premières Nations et l’inuktitut, et pour les femmes résidant dans des communautés peuplées principalement par des individus des Premières Nations et Inuits a été observée, ce qui contraste avec quelques améliorations pour les naissances de femmes dont la langue maternelle est une langue non autochtone et pour les femmes résidant dans des communautés principalement habitées par des personnes non autochtones en zone rurale ou dans le nord du Québec. La vie dans les régions urbaines n'est pas associée à de meilleures issues de grossesse pour les Inuits et les Premières Nations au Québec, malgré la couverture d'assurance maladie universelle. Les risques de mortalité périnatale étaient quelque peu, mais non significativement plus élevés dans les communautés de la Baie d'Hudson où les soins de maternité sont prodigués par des sages-femmes, en comparaison des communautés de la Baie d'Ungava où les soins de maternité sont dispensés par des médecins. Nos résultats sont peu concluants, bien que les résultats excluant les naissances extrêmement prématurées soient plus rassurants concernant la sécurité des soins de maternité dirigés par des sages-femmes dans les communautés autochtones éloignées. Nos résultats indiquent fortement le besoin d’améliorer les conditions socio-économiques, les soins périnataux et infantiles pour les Inuits et les peuples des Premières Nations, et ce quel que soit l’endroit où ils vivent (en zone éloignée au Nord, en milieu rural ou urbain). De nouvelles données de surveillance de routine sont nécessaires pour évaluer la sécurité et améliorer la qualité des soins de maternité fournis par les sages-femmes au Nunavik. / Inuit are the smallest Aboriginal group in Canada. Inuit women are at much higher risks of adverse birth outcomes than their non-indigenous counterparts. Both fetal and infant mortality has been reported to be much higher among Canadian Inuit vs. non-indigenous populations in some regional studies. Both individual and community-level risk factors may affect Inuit birth outcomes. Little is known about the relationships between community characteristics and Inuit birth outcomes. Understanding the effects of community-level risk factors may be critically important for developing effective maternal and infant health promotion programs to improve birth outcomes in Inuit communities. In a postal code linkage-based birth cohort study based on the already linked stillbirth/live birth/infant death data files for all births in Quebec, from 1991 to 2000, we assessed the effects of community characteristics on Inuit birth outcomes. While appropriate and feasible, birth outcomes data on another major Aboriginal group, First Nations, are also presented. We first assessed individual- and community-level disparities and trends in birth outcomes and infant mortality among First Nations and Inuit versus other populations in Quebec. Then we studied trends in Inuit, First Nations and non-Aboriginal birth outcomes in the rural and northern regions of Quebec. Because there is limited and inconsistent evidence concerning rural versus urban differences in birth and infant outcomes for Indigenous peoples, we investigated birth and infant outcomes among Inuit, First Nations and French (the majority in Quebec) mother tongue groups by rural versus urban residence in Quebec. Finally, since there was a lack of data on the safety of midwife-led maternity care in remote or Aboriginal communities, we examined birth outcomes by primary birthing attendant type in two sets of remote Inuit communities. We found large and persistent disparities in fetal and infant mortality among First Nations and Inuit versus other populations in Quebec based on individual- or community-level assessments. There was also a disconcerting rise of some mortality outcomes for births to First Nations and Inuit mother tongue women and to women in predominately First Nations and Inuit communities, in contrast to some improvements for births to non-Aboriginal mother tongue women and to women in predominately non-Aboriginal communities in rural or northern Quebec. Living in urban areas was not associated with better birth and infant outcomes for Inuit and First Nations in Quebec despite universal health insurance coverage. Risks of perinatal death were somewhat but not significantly higher in the Hudson Bay communities with midwife-led maternity care as compared to the Ungava Bay communities with physician-led maternity care. Our findings are inconclusive, although the results excluding extremely preterm births are more reassuring concerning the safety of midwife-led maternity care in remote Aboriginal communities. Our results strongly indicate a need for improved socioeconomic conditions, perinatal and infant care for First Nations and Inuit peoples, no matter where they live (remote northern, rural or urban areas). Further routine surveillance data are needed for assessing the safety and improving the quality of midwife-led maternity care in Nunavik.