A Survey of Indigenous Rights in Alaska, Australia, and Canada
Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Social Sciences
First Advisor
Fitzgerald, Keith
Keywords
Indigenous Rights, Citizenship, Colonization
Area of Concentration
Political Science
Abstract
The overarching topic of this project is indigenous rights; that is, the rights of peoples whose ancestors were dispossessed of their land by the colonizing activities of European countries, and who today often suffer from political, economic, and social inequality as a result of this past marginalization. Indigenous groups today argue that they have a historical right to receive land, monetary compensation, and protection of their cultural heritage from the countries they live in as reparations for the mistreatment they encountered during colonization. The body of this portfolio opens with a discussion about whether the views on wealth expressed in Hobbes' Leviathan and More's Utopia could be reconciled. This essay has particular relevance to the topic of indigenous rights because Hobbes and More were writing at the time that Europeans began establishing colonies, and their ideas heavily influenced the colonizing activities of the British. The second paper discusses how the Alaska Native Claims Settlement affected the status of citizenship for Alaska Natives, determining that it did not achieve its overall goal of incorporating Native society into mainstream U.S. society. The third paper discusses the differences between the rights Australia and Canada have granted to their respective indigenous populations from the 1970s to the present, and proposes a few explanations for the variation that exists. The conclusion explains that Canada has found the most advantageous method for granting indigenous groups some measure of autonomy while still giving them equal rights of citizenship within the dominant society.
Recommended Citation
Iverson, Melanie, "A Survey of Indigenous Rights in Alaska, Australia, and Canada" (2004). Theses & ETDs. 3397.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/3397
Rights
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