Beyond the Indian Act

"You don't have to travel to Zambia or Peru to see dead capital. All you need to do is visit a reserve in Canada. First Nation people own assets, but not with the same instruments as other Canadians. They're frozen into an Indian Act of the 1870s so they can't easily trade their valuable resources. Beyond the Indian Act provides strategies to correct this so First Nation people can generate wealth in a manner that other Canadians take for granted." Hernando de Soto, President, Institute for Liberty and Democracy "Anyone who is concerned with the welfare of First Nations in Canada will be interested in this book. This coherent and in-depth work covers a wide array of issues and shows that full property rights for aboriginal peoples are long overdue." Moin A. Yahya, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta " This second edition of the book contains a postscript which reports on the reception given to the authors' proposal for a First Nations Property Act. Responses to a promotional tour by the authors in spring 2010 were, they report, predominantly favourable. Although the Assembly of First Nations passed a resolution at its annual general meeting in July 2010 which condemned the notion of a First Nations Property Act, positive responses from ten First Nations were elicited by spring 2011. Subsequent developments, in 2012, in western Canada, have revealed complex patterns of conflict about property ownership and economic development within and between First Nations. These recent developments, including Aboriginal peoples' property ownership in urban areas, are likely to sustain discussion of Aboriginal property rights." British Journal of Canadian Studies