"Several years back, the Canadian Senate provided a useful example on how “elephants in the room” are studiously avoided, including why many First Nations are dirt-poor. Back then, the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples produced a study on Aboriginal economic development with the hopeful title,” “Sharing Canada’s Prosperity – A Hand up, not a Handout.” While the report recognized Indian Act barriers, the study avoided the long-standing economic elephant: enforceable property rights on-reserve, due in part to antiquated Indian Act provisions.

Despite the centrality of private property within the modern economy, the Senate report devoted a scant one and half pages to the issue out of an 80-page report. Instead of examining the issue in-depth, scare tactics were used by invoking memories of the 19th century Dawes Act where the U.S. Congress forcefully divided up reserve lands among various tribes.

Unlike the Senate Committee, a recent book by two professors, Tom Flanagan and Christopher Alcantara, and economist André LeDressay, argues that property rights can be introduced incrementally and voluntarily, unlike the obvious negative examples of forced relocations in ages past.

In this bold new book, Beyond the Indian Act: Restoring Aboriginal Property Rights , the authors look at existing property rights regimes on reserves and propose a voluntary regime for First Nations to gain title over their own lands.

The chief strength of this work is its brevity. Many topics covered could fill volumes, but this book distils the essence of each subject: Flanagan looks at property rights in general and reveals individual and family property rights among indigenous peoples prior to European contact; Alcantara explains how existing property title on reserves are inadequate; and Le Dressay shows how property rights and land titles could be implemented now."

Get the Story:
Joseph Quesnel: Discussing the elephant in the room: Indian property rights (Troy Media 4/12)

Related Stories:
Opinion: Native people should join mainstream (9/29)
Opinion: Playing politics with Native women's lives (6/1)