First Nations?

Dissects the prevailing orthodoxy determining public policy toward Canada's aboriginal peoples, an orthodoxy holding that aboriginals belong to "nations" entitled to specific rights. For example, Indians and Inuit now have rights to self-government, immunity from taxation, hunting and fishing rights beyond those of other citizens, free education, housing and medical care. Flanagan (political science, U. of Alberta) argues that such benefits are actually destructive to the people they are supposed to help and that the only people empowered by such entitlements are a small elite of aboriginal activists, politicians, administrators, middlemen, and well-connected entrepreneurs. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR