This summary of a public inquiry into Royal Canadian Mounted Police action in dealing with members of the Blood Indian tribe in southern Alberta, lists the mandate of the inquiry, outlines its conclusions regarding desirable changes in the current administration of justice and makes recommendations.

The television spectacles of Oka and the Rodney King affair served to focus public disaffection with the police, a disaffection that has been growing for several years. In Canada, confidence in the police is at an all-time low. At the same time crime rates continue to rise. Canada now has the dubious distinction of having the second highest crime rate in the Western world. How did this state of affairs come about? What do we want from our police? How do we achieve policing that is consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? The essays in this volume set out to explore these questions. In their introduction, the editors point out that constitutional order is tied to the exercise of power by law enforcement agencies, and that if relations between the police and civil society continue to erode, the exercise of force will rise - a dangerous prospect for democratic societies.

Drawing on reflective personal narrative, experiential research, and critical theoretical engagement, this collection connects localized experiences with broader structural and systemic forms of intersectional racism. These detailed examinations of the various forms of racism faced by immigrants and Indigenous people living and working in Southern Alberta reveal how institutional racism continues to saturate modern Canadian culture and practice.

"There was a widespread view among participants at the Round Table that the current justice system, especially the criminal justice system, is too centralized, too legalistic, too formal and too removed from the (Aboriginal) communities it is supposed to serve."--

This book explores the foundations and characteristics of public policy discourse on Aboriginal affairs between publication of H.B. Hawthorn's Survey of the contemporary Indians of Canada in 1966-67 and the establishment of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in 1991. The primary sources are 222 documents prepared by Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal organizations and governments over this period. The focus in analyzing these documents is to trace the evolution of policy discussions and debates in four key areas: lands and resources, governance, criminal justice, and education. The analysis considers three basic questions: who was involved in policy discussions; how did policy discussions occur; and what was said about key issues in the domain of Aboriginal affairs. Building on the analysis, the book examines the documentary evidence in light of the role of international influences, the dominant preoccupations of Aboriginal peoples and Canadian governments in the evolution of their relationship, and the extent to which the relationship has been accompanied by clarity of Canadian government policy and genuine consultation.

Toward Peace, Harmony, and Well-Being: Policing in Indigenous Communities builds on the CCA’s 2014 policing report, Policing Canada in the 21st Century: New Policing for New Challenges by incorporating the latest research findings and related information available on policing in Indigenous communities. The findings emphasize the diverse considerations that inform Indigenous policing. The approaches to policing considered in this report have broader implications related to well-being in Indigenous communities, and the ways in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities can form relationships based on mutual respect. The report aims to provide Indigenous community leaders, policy-makers, and service providers with the foundation to build effective and appropriate models for the future of policing in Indigenous communities.

Journalist Leroy Victor Kelly's "The Range Men" chronicles the early days of ranching in southwestern Alberta, from the arrival of the first large herds in 1876 through to 1913. Kelly gathered material from the records of the North-West Mounted Police, William Pearce's government reports, "the Calgary Herald," "the Macleod Gazette" and other publications, and collected anecdotes from old-time stockmen such as George Lane and John Ware. A window into the period after the buffalo but before extensive settlement, "The Range Men" paints a vivid, engrossing and sometimes unflattering picture of colonial life and attitudes. Kelly's unvarnished account of the relentless march of 'progress, ' as settlements were built and big ranches like the Cochrane, the Medicine Hat and the Bar U were born, notes the impact of farming on the wild prairie ecology and documents treaty betrayals and efforts to reduce and 'subdue' First Nations through smallpox and rum. More than a story of cattle trades and the hard beginnings of the Alberta cowboy, "The Range Men" is an authentic and important slice of history.

This book spans a century in the history of the Blackfoot First Nations of present-day Montana and Alberta. It maps out specific ways in which Blackfoot culture persisted amid the drastic transformations of colonisation, with its concomitant forced assimilation in both Canada and the United States. It portrays the strategies and tactics adopted by the Blackfoot in order to navigate political, cultural and social change during the hard transition from traditional life-ways to life on reserves and reservations. Cultural continuity is the thread that binds the four case studies presented, encompassing Blackfoot sacred beliefs and ritual; dress practices; the transmission of knowledge; and the relationship between oral stories and contemporary fiction. Blackfoot voices emerge forcefully from the extensive array of primary and secondary sources consulted, resulting in an inclusive history wherein Blackfoot and non-Blackfoot scholarship enter into dialogue. Blanca Tovias combines historical research with literary criticism, a strategy that is justified by the interrelationship between Blackfoot history and the stories from their oral tradition. Chapters devoted to examining cultural continuity discuss the ways in which oral stories continue to inspire contemporary Native American fiction. This interdisciplinary study is a celebration of Blackfoot culture and knowledge that seeks to revalourise the past by documenting Blackfoot resistance and persistence across a wide spectrum of cultural practice. The volume is essential reading for all scholars working in the fields of Native American studies, colonial and postcolonial history, ethnology and literature.

When the Blackfoot Indians were confined to reservations in the late nineteenth century, their pictographic representations of warfare kept alive the rituals associated with war, which were essential facets of Blackfoot culture. Their war ethic served as a unifying force among the four tribes of the Blackfoot nation—Siksika, Blood, and North and South Piegan. In this visually stunning survey, L. James Dempsey, a member of the Blood tribe, plumbs the breadth and depth of warrior representational art. He has mined archival resources and museum collections and interviewed many tribal members to provide a uniquely Native perspective on the importance of warrior art in Blackfoot history and culture. Filled with 160 images of startling beauty and power, Blackfoot War Art tells how pictographs served as a record of both tribal and personal accomplishment. This singular historical record of all available information on Blackfoot warrior pictography depicts painted robes; war tepee covers, liners, and doors; and painted panels. Dempsey provides descriptions and a great deal of other information about the pieces included here. His survey focuses especially on recent paintings that scholars have overlooked. In revealing changing trends in the representation of war, Dempsey skillfully weaves together pictures, people, and histories to convey a fascinating view of this warrior art from a Blood perspective.

This collection of essays presents a variety of scholarly explorations of the nature and role of the Mounties in the Prairie Provinces from the formation of the North West Mounted Police in 1873-74 to its transformation into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1919-20. The essays are grouped into five broad themes: relations with First Nations; law enforcement; social issues, including relations with minority groups and labour movements; characteristics of the police force; and crisis and change (police-immigrant relations, response to labour unrest, and the origins of domestic intelligence and counter-subversion). An epilogue presents the case for the dramatic change of the force after 1919-20 and the new force's use of the positive image created by the old force.