Canadian Indigenous law
Indigenous law in Canada refers to the legal traditions, customs, and practices of Indigenous peoples and groups. Canadian aboriginal law is different from Indigenous Law. Canadian Aboriginal law provides certain constitutionally recognized rights to land and traditional practices.
Canada contains over 900 different Indigenous groups, each using different Indigenous legal traditions. Cree, Blackfoot, Mi'kmaq and numerous other First Nations; Inuit; and Métis will apply their own legal traditions in daily life, creating contracts, working with governmental and corporate entities, ecological management and criminal proceedings and family law. Most maintain their laws through traditional governance alongside the elected officials and federal laws. The legal precedents set millennia ago are known through stories and derived from the actions and past responses as well as through continuous interpretation by elders and law-keepers—the same process by which nearly all legal traditions, from common laws and civil codes, are formed.
While the many legal traditions appear similar in that none were codified, each has quite different sets of laws. Many laws stem from stories which in turn may stem from writings or markings, such as geographic features, petroglyphs, pictographs, wiigwaasabakoon and more. Inuit Nunangat's governance differs quite markedly from its many-nationed neighbour Denendeh, as Denendeh's diverse Dene Laws differ quite markedly from laws governing Lingít Aaní, Gitx̱san Lax̱yip or Wet'suwet'en Yin'tah; and, as those differ from Haudenosaunee's, Eeyou-Istchee's or Mi'kma'ki's. One thing most Indigenous legal and governance traditions have in common is their use of clans such as Anishinaabek's doodeman.
Terminology
Versus Aboriginal law
Indigenous law refers to Indigenous peoples' own legal systems. This includes the laws and legal processes developed by Indigenous groups to govern their relationships, manage their natural resources, and manage conflicts. Indigenous law is developed from a variety of sources and institutions which differ across legal traditions. Canadian aboriginal law is the area of law related to the Canadian Government's relationship with its Indigenous peoples. Section 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867 gives the federal parliament exclusive power to legislate in matters related to Aboriginals, which includes groups governed by the Indian Act, different Numbered Treaties and outside of those Acts. Aboriginal peoples as a collective noun is a specific term of art used in legal documents, including the Constitution Act, 1982.Self-government
Traditions
Anishinaabe
laws stem from a large corpus of stories that create a narrative structure from which laws or ways of being were interpreted. These histories include tales of Nanabozho and a wide spectrum of other beings and peoples, and the moral implications and practical applications gleaned from them. Anishinaabe Law historically has interacted with the legal systems of other nations in examples like with the Gdoo-naaganinaa Treaty made with the Haudenosaunee. The Atikameksheng Anishinawbek translate "law" as Naaknigewin.Atikamekw
Arising from their homeland, Nitaskinan, the Atikamekw Nation maintains a strong connection to their language and to their traditional legal system, called either irakonikewin or orakonikewin. Many differences arise between the English common law, the French civil code, and the Atikamekw irakonikewin, notably that of adoption, or opikihawasowin. As of 2016, the governments of Québec and the Atikamekw Nation are resolving differences in legal standings with regard to adoption procedures, which exists as a part of a larger scale effort at harmonizing the laws of and reconciling the Canadian State with Indigenous Nations.Blackfoot
The Blackfoot term Akak′stiman can be translated as "law-making".Dene
law describes the numerous legal traditions across the Dene homelands, collectively called Denendeh, whose territories include nations like the Gwich'in, Hän, Kaska, Tutchone, Sahtu, Dane-zaa, Dene Thá, Tłı̨chǫ, and Dënësųłı̨né, amongst others. Across Dene nations, it is understood that Dene laws were enacted by the cultural hero or heroes: Yamoria and Yamozha, often called the Great Lawmaker.Dene legal principles generally rest on the three foundations of equality, sharing, and reciprocity, as well as an interdependence on human and nonhuman life forces. Legally and conceptually, Dene do not distinguish between human and nonhuman beings such as ravens, caribous, trees, lakes, and mountains. Interpreted stories often see Dene and nonhuman animals working together to find mutually beneficial solutions. Indeed, there exists an almost treaty-like relationship between humans and many other beings, creating obligations on nonhuman animals and other beings to share their gifts with humans as humans are obligated to show respect through conservation and gratitude. For example, Dene law stipulates that humans travelling across country must pay for their passage in the form of gifting things to waterways, landforms, and other beings such as ancestors. Further, conceptions of care differ between Dene and English legal and social systems, particularly with children maturing in different social and environmental situations such as through apprenticeships and dutiful listening to storytellers.
The differences between English law and Dene law have created significant friction between the Dene Nations and the Canadian State. One example is the rupturing of intergenerational transmission of law due to residential schools separated children from their social frameworks. Another is the difference in conservation understandings: Under common law, the Northwest Territories Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources sometimes promotes single-sex hunting activities, with posters detailing how to distinguish male from female caribou, directing hunters to target the males. English law, concerning the reproductive abilities of the herds, considers sex-selected hunting to be more sustainable whereas Dene law sees the potential in a rupture of knowledge transferral similar to killing off all the elder men of a community. In contrast with the paternalistic English legal system wherein humans must oversee and conserve other species, the Dene worldview stresses the agency of nonhuman beings. This results in situations where beings hunted or fished which, under English territorial law, must be left alone or thrown back clashes with the Dene legal institution of beings giving themselves to the hunters.
As there exist many languages and cultures across Denendeh, so too are Dene legal systems called differently from one territory to the next. For example, Tłı̨chǫ refer to Dene law as Dǫ Nàowoòdeè, Dena ÁʼNezen refers to Kaska law, Dene Zhatıé law and stories are called Mek’ı̨́ı̨́ Dene Ts’elı̨ and Megǫndıé.
Eeyou/Eenou
The modern legal system of Eeyou Istchee has developed out of contact with the Canadian State, the province of Québec, and from the historical, traditional Eeyou ᐄᔨᔨᐤ or Eenou Eedouwin ᐄᓅ ᐃᐦᑐᐎᓐ.Gitanyow
The legal system of the Gitanyow is called Gitanyow Ayookxw.Gitx̱san
The Gitx̱san set of laws is known as Ayokim Gitx̱san, Ayookim Gitx̱san, Ayookw, or Ayook.Forming the most fundamental core of Gitx̱san society are the matrilineal "Houses" or wilphl Gitx̱san, also called "Huwilp", which are each associated with one of the four P'deeḵ, or clans: Lax̱gibuu, Lax Seel or Lax Ganeda, Giskaast, and Lax Skiik. Gitx̱san authority and jurisdiction, or Dax̱gyat, manifests through the wilphl Gitx̱san and their relationships with the Lax̱yip, their territories. Gix̱san Lax̱yip, or Gitx̱san Country, maintains clear and distinct territorial jurisdictions associated with specific Huwilp, which are known and affirmed through what can be translated as treasures or inheritances, the gwalax̱ yee’nst. The gwalax̱ yee'nst essentially define a Wilp, as these include not only the tangible, like one's wilnaatahl and lax yiphl wilp, but also the intangible, such as potlatch seat names and the adaawx, including "associated animal crests, symbols, limx oo’y, limx sinaahl and limx nox nok ".
The whole of Gitx̱san society is woven together through the Ayookim Gitx̱san which dictate "the conduct of the Gitx̱san Huwilp around inheritance, marriage, adoption, access to property, trespass, injury, redress of injury", as well as citizenship, use of resources and conduct at potlatches. The backbone of the Ayookw are the adaawx which sustain evidence for land ownership and social organization. And, much like other coastal Cascadian First Nations, the central core political institution is the potlatch, or liligit. The Wilp Li’iliget is the Feast House, also called the "Gitx̱san Parliament Building". The li’iliget take on different formats pending the type of Gitx̱san business or obligation to be fulfilled.
Contemporarily, the Gitx̱san Nation has dealt with a fracturing political structure where the Indian Act band councils exists in contention with traditional governance structures. As such, and following the momentous 1997 Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa case, the wilphl Gitx̱san have coalesced into the Gitx̱san Huwilp Government. Although the adaawk were not accepted as testimonial evidence during the Delgamuukw-Gisday'wa case, the precedence was set such that the "admissibility must be determined on a case-by-case basis". Rather than rendering inadmissible adaawx and other oral histories, there are now more defined structures by which such lines of evidence are accepted in Euro-Canadian courthouses. The current restructuring of the Canadian legal environment is resulting in a relative re-empowerment of Gitx̱san Ayookim and governance, alongside other Indigenous legal structures.