From Talking Chiefs to a Native Corporate Elite: The Birth of Class and Nationalism Among Canadian Inuit

David Mardiros is an anthropological consultant in Kars, Ontario.

This book is both a historical study of the changes that have taken
place in the Canadian Arctic since the arrival of Europeans and a
theoretical analysis of the political and economic relationship that has
developed between the indigenous people of the Arctic and the global
economy. The author’s contention that the rise in ethnic consciousness
among the Inuit is strongly linked to their increasing participation in
the worldwide capitalist economy into they have been increasingly drawn
is well supported by reference to documentary sources. The book also
presents a reasonably comprehensive treatment of the divergent views
held by Inuit on development, social change, and the emerging political
entity known as Nunavut. Although Mitchell’s focus is on the Inuit in
the Eastern Arctic, he provides some discussion of land-claims policy,
which serves to place the Nunavut claim in its historical context.

As an edited version of a doctoral dissertation, this book demands from
its readers considerable familiarity with the academic sociological
literature. Providing a wider context for the discussion of theoretical
issues would have made the book more useful to a general audience.