Natives and Justice - A Topic Requiring Research Priority? (From Explorations in Prairie Justice Research, P 55-76, 1979, Dorothy Hepworth, ed. - See NCJ-83546)

• NCJ Number: 83549
• Author(s): M Lautt
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: University of Regina
• Publication Type: Bibliography
• Language: English
• Country: Canada

Annotation

Following consideration of the basic factors in the social setting of Native Canadians (Indians and Metis), the available literature on the relationships between the Natives and the criminal justice system in the prairie Provinces is reviewed.

Abstract

The term native designates any person at least a one-quarter blood descendant of the indigenous peoples of the area encompassed by Canada. 'Status' natives are called Indians and are legally designated as such, because they or their direct ancestors signed legal agreements with the Crown or the government of Canada, or who because of their aboriginal position, maintain a distinct position under the Canadian Indian Act (1876). 'Nonstatus' natives are those of mixed blood who owned their own land, engaged in farming and trading, and lived intermixed with white settlers, so they were afforded no special legal status. The urbanization of natives is outpacing the provision of housing and employment, such that natives in cities generally live together in low-income areas in temporary housing. Native culture has been denigrated in interaction with dominant white culture, and natives have not yet become assimilated into white culture, often due to discrimination and lack of opportunity. The literature review covers historical information, commentaries on modern conditions of natives in general, and a wide but underdeveloped range of material specifying the relationship between natives and police, courts, and corrections. The review shows a paucity of systematically available data. Problems surrounding valid and relevant research on this subject are outlined, and priorities for future research are suggested. The appendixes discuss the Canadian Indian Act, categorization of native peoples, linguistic and cultural affiliations of Indian bands in the three prairie Provinces, Metis population dispersion in Canada, statement of the Indian philosophy of education, and 1971 Saskatchewan statistics on welfare dependency and average wage for registered nonurban Indians and others. Graphic data, 20 footnotes, and a selected bibliography of about 220 listings are provided.