Indigenous self-government -- Canada, Indigenous peoples -- Canada -- Government relations, Indigenous peoples -- Canada -- Legal status laws etc, Indigenous self-government, Indigenous peoples -- Government relations, Indigenous peoples -- Legal status laws etc. 

"For Indian peoples across Canada, their governments exercise powers that have existed since time immemorial. So it is with the Shuswap people.

"In the before times, the Old One sent Coyote to travel over the land of the Indian and make it right." No one but Coyote, a supernatural power, a power beyond nature, the Shuswap people assert, gave them their land, laws, and powers. No other person or persons gave the Shuswap the authority to govern themselves. In the traditional Shuswap view of the world, "the earth was a place made good for them in which to live." They found order in the world and they governed themselves as part of this order. This authority was inherent in the way nature was made. It could not be changed except by a new act of creation.

In this important new book, Frank Cassidy and Robert L. Bish provide insights into the emerging nature of Indian government. While seeking a change in the basic design of Canadian federalism, Indian peoples and their governments have taken advantage of the possibilities in the current federal-provincial framework to realize and extend their vision of Indian government. Cassidy and Bish show how aboriginal rights to self-government can be integrated in a practical manner with the Canadian constitutional, federal system."--Back cover. 

xxvii, 186 pages ; 23 cm. 

Includes bibliographical references.