Both the use of and jurisdiction over fisheries resources is an important issue for many First Nations in British Columbia. Historically, fish played an important spiritual, social and economic role in numerous Aboriginal societies. These societies had various methods of managing the resource and, although they had the technological capacity to over-exploit the fisheries, they were able to maintain sustainable levels of fish. Following contact with European settlers, Aboriginal fishers were initially able to continue their traditional methods of fishing as well as expand their use of the fisheries through trade with non- Aboriginals. However, with the opening of the canneries on the coast the fisheries grew in economic importance to non-Aboriginal fishers and management of the resource was gradually but systematically taken over by the state, with various ideologies being used to justify the take-over. Aboriginal fishers lost not only their control over management of the resource, but also their ability to use it as extensively as they once had. Over the years, Aboriginal participation in both the food and commercial fisheries has declined although various government-sponsored programs have been initiated to attempt, with only partial success, to remedy this problem. In the meantime, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been battling other problems in the commercial fisheries, including over-capitalization of the fleet and depletion of fish stocks. Management of salmon in particular, because it is an anadromous species which travels through several different jurisdictions, has become extremely complex. It is in this context that much litigation over Aboriginal fishing has been launched. Only a few of the issues have been clarified by the judgments which have resulted and certain myths and ideologies have surfaced repeatedly in many of the decisions. It is likely that the recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada on Aboriginal commercial and management rights will result in increased complexity and political controversy. However, problems of fisheries management, including the accommodation of Aboriginal interests, is not unique to British Columbia or even Canada. Similar problems have been experienced elsewhere in the world and various types of co-management regimes have been established in various jurisdictions in an attempt to deal with some of these issues and to recognize a greater role for Aboriginal fishers and communities in fisheries management. It is not clear whether, and to what extent, comanagement will be adopted in British Columbia, or what the role of Aboriginal fishers might be in such a regime. Even if co-management is established, it is highly probable that the state's underlying regulatory regime will remain intact. However, co-management may result in increased Aboriginal participation in both the use and management of the resource.

Indian water rights regarding irrigation agriculture and the construction o f storage and hydroelectric dams took shape from the 1870s to the 1930s and largely determined economic activities on and near reserves and reservations in Western Canada and the American West respectively. Although historians recently have provided extensive studies of American cases, Indian water rights issues in Western Canada have gained scant attention. The present study focuses on this neglected part of the history placing particular emphasis on the interactive roles Native peoples, government officials, agricultural businesses, hydroelectric developers and homesteaders played in "reclaiming" aboriginal landscapes for irrigation and water storage or hydroelectric dam projects. I explore the jurisdictional debates over water rights that these projects generated. Recognizing the importance of inter-provincial and international contexts, the thesis examines the extent to which American reclamation laws and practices influenced Canadian policymakers, bureaucrats, and technocrats. It also focuses particular attention on the development of water laws and policies in British Columbia and Alberta to identify similarities and differences that subsequently affected Native peoples. I accomplish this by providing four case studies. I note that the differences between these two provinces with respect to the development of Indian water rights were particularly significant before 1930. A key reason was that the federal government held title to Crown lands in Alberta until the latter date, whereas British Columbia entered confederation holding that title. My dissertation demonstrates that the idea of Indian water rights emerged in the late-nineteenth-century from political and legal philosophies and practices of colonialism that attempted to transform the "primitive" Native populations into the mold of yeoman farmers. It was also shaped by modifications of the common law that sought to address the needs of industrialists, miners, and settlers who developed the semi-arid and arid North American west. The water rights regime that emerged was based on a perception o f this resource that was very different from the holistic one held by indigenous populations. I note that as the Native peoples increasingly relied on the agricultural economy in the early twentieth century, and as the competition with neighboring settlers for water intensified, the question o f the extent to which the Native peoples were entitled to water became the subject of serious political and legal wrangling. Native peoples demonstrated that they had a strong desire to maintain control over water at a local level by actively carrying out irrigation projects, protecting their own reclamation works from the obstruction of settlers, fighting against the construction of storage dams by neighboring ranchers, and by successfully negotiating the terms of agreements for surrendering reserve lands to facilitate on-reserve hydro-electric projects. My thesis closes with a reflection about how these historical events help us understand contemporary Indian water claims.

This study examines the conditions that contribute to the success of indigenous minority students in higher education by focusing on the experiences of 50 Alaska Native teacher education students who graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) between 1989 and 1993. Although the number of Alaska Native students enrolled at UAF has increased in the past 10 years, the percentage of graduates continues to be significantly lower than their percentage of the student and state population. The study addresses the question: what factors have contributed to the academic success Of Alaska Native teacher education graduates at UAF? It includes three components: a brief history of schooling for Alaska Native people; a description of the programs, student services and academic coursework at UAF designed to respond to the interests and needs of Alaska Native students; and a review and analysis of the experiences of 50 Alaska Native teacher education students based on data obtained through interviews, reviews of student records and participant observation. The study identifies multiple factors that have contributed to the academic success of Alaska Native students, including the following: a teaching and learning environment responsive to the interests and needs of culturally diverse students; student support services respectful of the interests and needs of culturally diverse students; strong family and community support; supportive prior school and life experiences; and exceptional individual efforts. Accommodations and adaptations by both the students and the institution were essential. Recommendations are made for institutions, faculty, students and communities who are interested in developing campus environments where Alaska Native, and other cultural minority students, can be fully represented, respected, involved and successful.

Limited research has been conducted into First Nations' healing, particularly in the area of First Nations' spiritual connection. First Nations' spiritual connection is perceived to be important from a counselling perspective. The intent of this study was to construct a fairly comprehensive guide of what helps and what hinders spiritual connection among members of British Columbia's (BC's) First Nations, through a First Nations' voice. Eleven adult members of First Nations living in BC were interviewed to obtain information in the form of critical incidents regarding what helps or what hinders spiritual connection. From these interviews, 29 categories were described as what helped or hindered spiritual connection. These are: ceremonial activities, Elder's teachings/guidance, establishing a connection with nature, prayer, family connection, changing thinking, spiritual beliefs, supernatural experiences, residential school, helping others, seeking help, dreams, role model, spiritual practices, self awareness/self acceptance, receiving your name, cultural preservation/ reclamation, sacred object, First Nations' traditional beliefs, alcoholism and drug recovery, visions, establishing social connection, creative activity, philosophy of life, joining organized religion, teachings/guidance, cultural connection/cultural awareness, relationship to the Creator, speaking a traditional First Nations' language. The findings of this study contribute to the field of counselling psychology by providing a reasonably comprehensive scheme of categories and themes that describe, from a First Nations' perspective what facilitates spiritual connection.

The Canadian urban cultural mosaic is made up of many different ethnic groups. These groups came to Canadian cities over time and used different means to help themselves in the adaptation process, to a new way of life. These groups included not only those from around the world, but those who migrated within the borders of Canada, seeking new and better lives in urban locales. This paper will explore the issue of urban migration in the years following the Second World War and the concomitant means used in the adaptation process. Although the experience of overseas immigrants will be examined for issues of contrast and comparison, this paper will specifically explore the experience of Canadian Aboriginal people. As natives moved to Canadian cities in the decades after 1945, Aboriginal friendship centres sprung up across Canada to assist them in adapting to, what was to them, a totally alien culture. This paper will explore the friendship centre phenomenon, particularly the role of the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre - the largest of its kind in North America. How and when the friendship centre grew, who was involved in its formation and growth, and what import it had on incoming native people to Vancouver, will be the main issues considered in this work. Although some primary and secondary sources were used in research, the lack of such sources has led me to rely on oral interviews for information for this project. Since the interviews were conducted with surviving founders of the Vancouver Friendship Centre, the use of such first hand information has proved most valuable and insightful. The Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre played a key role in the adaptation of the native to big city life. The centre started small, grew, changed with the times, and provided much valuable assistance to natives seeking help at a time when they often had no place else to go.

The Sto:lo people face many challenges and issues as they create a government and justice system based on prior ways of governance and justice. Some of these challenges and issues include the documenting and synthesizing of current understanding of judicial practices, establishing principles of membership or citizenship, legitimizing their own institutions, and establishing the scope and mandate of the House of Justice. The Sto:lo people are deciding what they want their justice system to look like. They face a multitude of existing judicial models and the importation of legal practices from elsewhere. Members of the Sto:lo Nation negotiate their way through various levels of federal and provincial government bureaucracy as they form relationships with these government bodies and establish their place among them. Yet, Sto:lo members must also temper their own bureaucratic growth with the need to remain flexible and responsive to the needs of the community. Current understandings of Sto:lo justice practice frame the expectations the Sto:lo people have of their own justice system. Discursive features of previous justice practices and contemporary Sto:lo issues include the importance of elders in community decision making, the importance of community and cohesion, the strength of the family and the desire to settle problems internally without external interference, the importance of sharing resources, and the Sto:lo's connection to the spiritual world. In this paper I study the inception and growth of Sto:lo nationhood, and the creation of one of the Sto:lo Nation's emerging institutions, the House of Justice. I refer to the ethnonationalist literature of Benedict Anderson, Stanley J. Tambiah and John L. Comaroff Anderson's "imagined community" is the central metaphor for this paper.

This study explores the relationships between the Alaska Native leadership, its interests in and impacts on higher education in Alaska, and the ways in which the University of Alaska responded to Alaska Native educational needs and initiatives, especially during the period from 1972 and 1985. The major question explored is why and how the University of Alaska system failed to adequately address the educational needs of Alaska Natives, especially given the level of political acumen of the Alaska Native leadership, their awareness of the importance of higher education as a means to control the land base “acquired” through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the mission statements of the University concerning the education of Alaska Natives, and the abundance of petroleum dollars available to the University during that period. While the Alaska Native leadership was requesting that “appropriate” educational programs be designed and delivered to rural Alaska Native students, the University of Alaska’s response to these requests took the form of structural changes within the institution, rather than substantive change in the content of educational programs. The study demonstrates that the discrepancy between Alaska Native requests for substantive educational change and University of Alaska responses in the form of structural alterations is attributable, in large part, to the opposing world views of the two sets of actors, and thus to different perceptions of the nature and role of education in general.

Administration of nonverbal tests of intelligence to deaf or hard of hearing and Native Indian children has been problematic. Communication difficulties between examiner and examinee have resulted in modifications to the administration of the test. A standard method of test administration has not been reported in the literature. The current study investigated the use of pantomime instruction to administer performance scales of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Third Edition (WISC-IlI) and the Stanford Binet: Fourth Edition (SB:FE). Subjects included a group of otitis prone Native Indian children (n=87) and hearing peers (n=80). Subjects in the hearing peer group were randomly assigned to verbal (n=40) or pantomime instruction (n=40) to compare verbal and pantomime administration of the tests. T-test and ANOVAs were used to investigate comparisons between verbal administration method (hearing peer) and between groups receiving pantomime instruction (otitis prone and hearing peer). Multiple regression analyses were used to determine whether nonverbal tests of intelligence were predictors of academic achievement. Results demonstrated pantomime instruction gave subjects information required to complete test and subtest tasks of the WISC-lll and SB:FE. There was not a significant difference between verbal and pantomime instruction for the hearing peer group. When the otitis prone group and the hearing peer group were compared there was no significant differences between groups for the WISC-lll. Item analysis provided additional support to pantomime instruction giving adequate information to understand tasks. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that nonverbal measures of intelligence should not be used to predict math or reading achievement for this population. Language measures administered yielded very low scores across all three groups. Although this was expected for the otitis prone group, low scores were not expected for the hearing peer group. The short term memory subtests for the SB:FE were also very low indicating another area of weakness for all three groups which was not expected. Results of the present study provides evidence to indicate pantomime instruction is a viable method of administration when used with otitis prone and hearing Native children. Further research is necessary to determine if standard pantomime administration can be utilized to administer nonverbal measures of intelligence to other groups of children with delayed language skills or communication difficulties.

This examination looks at the contextual and cultural implications of learning, using sources from story-telling traditions. The thesis proposes that perceptions of reality are manipulable fictions. It uses the teachings of the American visionary writer, Lynn Andrews, to illustrate how a person's perceptions can be altered to his or her advantage, and how, when not properly attended to, perceptions can manipulate the person. Andrews' work is compared to that of Carlos Castaneda and other contemporary visionary writers, as well as to very old teachings from an oral tradition. I have set the study of Andrews' insights in the social, environmental and educational contexts of North America in the final years of the 20th century, as I experience those contexts in my private and professional academic life. I conclude that including knowledge such as that which Andrews offers, in the menu of teachings available to and tolerated by North Americans, is essential. / The thesis details a set of extra-ordinary teachings proffered by Lynn Andrews, purportedly of native origin. Attention is given both to the techniques used to teach and to the exceptional knowledge imparted. In Part I, I speak of the distinct culture of learning which I come from, and reply to detractors of cross-cultural teaching. I outline the general purposes which I believe these teachings can serve in any culture, and most particularly in the global culture of life on earth. Part II is a detailed exposition of the teachings in the first two books by Lynn Andrews. Part III addresses some of the challenges confronting those who wish to take her teachings to heart and pass them on to others. This section makes it clear that such teachings are not appropriate for everyone, and are not to be instituted in a systemic context.

The primary objective of this M. A. thesis is to correct some false assumptions found in both older and more recent secondary literature on North American Indian narratives. Many folklorists base their folktale criteria on terms of cultural differences instead of similarities which results in an ethnocentric point of view that holds the Grimms' Kinder- und Hausmarchen as a standard against which all other folktale collections falls short. If we want to strive for a world view that will embrace all types of literature, while respecting the individuality of each culture, then we must focus on the essential similarities among world literatures and not the differences. The purpose of using another culture as a comparison, such as that of the North American Indians, is to question the ethnocentric definitions of folktales and fairy tales which have often been too rigid. Perhaps those cultural values exhibited by North American Indian folktales could prove to be beneficial to the world's multi-cultural society, in that these values could enrich and rejuvenate some Western values, such as respect for animals and the environment. These values may offer solutions to urgent contemporary world problems. Through a comparative analysis of the animal suitor motif found in the Grimms' fairy tales and North American Indian folktales, I hope to call attention to the stark cross-cultural similarities in universal folklore and to bring to light the multiplicity of cultural values which are deeply rooted in fairy tales and folklores around the world.