Lethal Legacy: Current Native Controversies in Canada

Kerry Abel is a professor of history at Carleton University. She is the author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History, co-editor of Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects, and co-editor of Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History.

Public policy and public debate in Canada might seem to revolve
endlessly around issues of health care, social policy, and deficits or
taxes, but always festering in the background is the “Indian
problem.” When a particular episode like Oka or a royal commission
breaks into the forefront, the media are perplexed and the public
outraged. Lethal Legacy is an attempt by one of Canada’s leading
scholars and historians to raise the level of public discourse and
provide badly needed background information and context. Without this
knowledge, Miller argues, we are doomed to adopt simplistic solutions
that invariably fail, breeding more anger and cynicism not only about
the problem but also about the political system more generally. The book
should be read by every Canadian, and most particularly by every
politician, journalist, civil servant, and journalism student in the
country.

In clear, concise, and readable form, Miller identifies four main
topics (identity, self-government, treaties, and assimilation policy)
that lie at the heart of contemporary debates on Native issues. For
each, he develops the historical explanations for the forms taken by
these issues today, and offers broad suggestions for ways in which to
deal with them. His intent is not to offer specific solutions, but his
general observations are nonetheless helpful, logical, and reasonable.
The book is illustrated with a section of appropriate archival
photographs, and contains a list for further reading, footnotes, and an
index. Perhaps its only shortcoming is the single map: more visual
depictions of the places discussed in the book would have been useful.
It also might have been appropriate to explain the development and
content of the Indian Act more thoroughly and explicitly. Nevertheless,
big, abstract concepts like identity and self-governance are explained
clearly and effectively, with helpful and specific examples drawn from
across the country.

Since I agree entirely with the author’s premise and strongly applaud
the aims of this book, I cannot recommend it any more highly than to say
simply, “read this book!”