First Nations, Administrative Law, Civil Rights, Jurisprudence, Civil Rights & Liberties, Canada, Indigenous Peoples, 1800-1899 

Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History 

"In the nineteenth century many Canadians took pride in what they regarded as this country's liberal treatment of Indians. In this thorough reinvestigation of Canadian legal history, Sidney L. Harring sets the record straight, showing how Canada has continually denied aboriginal peoples even the most basic civil rights."--BOOK JACKET. "Drawing on scores of nineteenth-century legal cases, Harring reveals that colonial and early Canadian judges were largely ignorant of British policy concerning Indians and their lands. He also provides an account of the remarkable tenacity of First Nations in continuing their own legal traditions despite obstruction by the settler society that came to dominate them."--Jacket 

Content:
Introduction -- 1. 'The privilege of British justice' : colonialism and native rights -- 2. 'A condescension lost on those people' : the Six Nations' Grand River lands, 1784-1860 -- 3. 'The common law is not part savage and part civilived' : Chief Justice John Beverley Robinson and native rights -- 4. 'The migration of these simple people from equity to law' : native rights in Ontario courts -- 5. 'Entirely independent in their villages' : criminal law and Indians in Upper Canada -- 6. 'A more than usually degraded Indian type' : St Catherine's Milling and Indian title cases -- 7. 'Canadian courts are open to enforce their contracts' : Canadian law and the legal culture of Ontario Indians -- 8. 'The Indians are a perseverant race' : Indian law in Quebec and Atlantic Canada -- 9. 'Can we be free under the law of Queen Victoria on top of our law?' : Indians and the law in British Columbia -- 10. 'The enforcement of the extreme penalty' : Canadian law and the Ojibwa-Cree spirit world -- 11. 'No recognized law' : Canadian law and the Prairie Indians -- Conclusion. 

Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-410) and index.