Steven Newcomb: First Nations subjected to another power

I read with interest Anna Maria Tremonti’s “Could First Nations still stop the Northern Gateway pipeline?” It was the text version of Ms. Tremonti’s radio program “The Current Review” that aired on December 20, 2013, on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio One.

The subject matter of Ms. Tremonti’s article demonstrates the DOMINATION and SUBORDINATION patterning which best defines what it means to be defined as “indigenous.” Domination is accurately defined as “one nation or people exercising arbitrary control over another nation or people, and thereby making them subject to the will of those dominating them.”

The following sentence illustrates the pattern I am referring to: “An indigenous population, even when it constitutes the majority in a country, possesses all the characteristics of a national minority subjugated by a dominant society.” (Sadruddin Aga Khan and Hassan bin Talal, Indigenous Peoples: A Global Quest for Justice, A Report for the Independent Commission On International Humanitarian Issues, 1987, p. 9)

The key terms in that sentence—“indigenous,” “population,” “country,” “national,” “minority,” “subjugated by,” and “dominant society”—are drawn from the DOMINATION PARADIGM consistently used against nations and peoples termed “indigenous” (i.e., “dominated.”)