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The Haida Gwaii Lesson: A Strategic Playbook for Indigenous Sovereignty
In The Haida Gwaii Lesson , former University of California journalism professor and Mother Jones editor Mark Dowie shares the story of the Haida people, relating their struggle for sovereignty and title over their ancient homeland as a strategic playbook for other indigenous peoples.
For over 10,000 years, the Haida people thrived on a rugged and fecund archipelago south of Alaska, which they called Haida Gwaii. Nicknamed "the Galapagos of the North," the islands are blessed with a diversity of species unmatched in the northern hemisphere. As western Canada was settled by Europeans, the pressure on natural resources spread with the growing population and its demand for fur, fish, minerals and lumber. Industries found their way to the coastal islands, where they ignored native tribes and commenced what has become one the Pacific coast's most monstrous natural resource extraction campaigns.
After almost a century of non-stop exploitation, the Haida people said "enough" and began to resist. Their audacious four-decade struggle involving the courts, human blockades, public testimony and the media became a living object lesson for communities in the same situation the world over.
For over 10,000 years, the Haida people thrived on a rugged and fecund archipelago south of Alaska, which they called Haida Gwaii. Nicknamed "the Galapagos of the North," the islands are blessed with a diversity of species unmatched in the northern hemisphere. As western Canada was settled by Europeans, the pressure on natural resources spread with the growing population and its demand for fur, fish, minerals and lumber. Industries found their way to the coastal islands, where they ignored native tribes and commenced what has become one the Pacific coast's most monstrous natural resource extraction campaigns.
After almost a century of non-stop exploitation, the Haida people said "enough" and began to resist. Their audacious four-decade struggle involving the courts, human blockades, public testimony and the media became a living object lesson for communities in the same situation the world over.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
249 pages, Paperback
Published August 15, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 6, 2017
"Every surviving tribe in the world seems to excel at something - hunting, fishing, foraging, cultivating honey, weaving, architecture, carving, singing, dancing, jewelry, tattooing, on and on. The Haida excel at just about everything."
DO NOT let the title put you off reading this fantastic book. Yes it's academic, to some degree, but it's written in a manner that is clear and compelling. Even if your interest in human rights and indigenous sovereignty is casual, Dowie will draw you in. He has a talent for clarifying complicated issues and inspiring his audience with uncommon common-sense.
"It has always been rather difficult for the Euro-colonial mind to understand native peoples' relationship to land, or grasp the difference between living ON and living WITH the land. That tiny one-word difference has been the hardest thing for the Haida to get across, in all their struggles, communications, and litigations with government and extractive industry. For the Haida, living WITH the land is not only right living, it is the only way to survive. Living ON the land is seeing it as a platform, a substrate upon which life and economics proceed, without much concern about what's underfoot. Living with the land is the aboriginal way. And individual ownership of it is, to most aboriginal communities of the world, a mistake. In the Haida worldview, land does not belong to people; people belong to the land."
Whether your interest is First Nations, forestry, anthropology (like me!), environmental science, modern colonialism, wildlife, law, conservation, activism, sociology, Canadian history, or maybe you just like reading about underdogs who prevail ~ this is a must read.
DO NOT let the title put you off reading this fantastic book. Yes it's academic, to some degree, but it's written in a manner that is clear and compelling. Even if your interest in human rights and indigenous sovereignty is casual, Dowie will draw you in. He has a talent for clarifying complicated issues and inspiring his audience with uncommon common-sense.
"It has always been rather difficult for the Euro-colonial mind to understand native peoples' relationship to land, or grasp the difference between living ON and living WITH the land. That tiny one-word difference has been the hardest thing for the Haida to get across, in all their struggles, communications, and litigations with government and extractive industry. For the Haida, living WITH the land is not only right living, it is the only way to survive. Living ON the land is seeing it as a platform, a substrate upon which life and economics proceed, without much concern about what's underfoot. Living with the land is the aboriginal way. And individual ownership of it is, to most aboriginal communities of the world, a mistake. In the Haida worldview, land does not belong to people; people belong to the land."
Whether your interest is First Nations, forestry, anthropology (like me!), environmental science, modern colonialism, wildlife, law, conservation, activism, sociology, Canadian history, or maybe you just like reading about underdogs who prevail ~ this is a must read.
January 18, 2018
OK. This is, granted not a book that is going to appeal to everyone. While it is not something that often shows up on the blog I have long had a passion for anthropological issues and Native American history so this book certainly piqued my interest. It’s been a bit since I sat in my college classes (ah-hem) and I am no scholar but that does not mean a title can’t be accessible to some schlub sitting in a yurt in Montana.
If you have the slightest interest in Native sovereignty or Native issues do not be afraid that this book will be written like a textbook. It is not. Mr. Dowie presents the material in a remarkably down to earth manner. I actually found myself turning the pages as if I were reading a fiction book anxious to reach the ending. He breaks down complicated issues into eminently readable chapters about how the Haida Gwaii started, thrived, were decimated by smallpox, recovered and then one day were told they were citizens of Canada whether they liked it or not.
There are chapters at the front of the book and at the end of the book that deal solely with the history of the Haida Gwaii peoples and then how they fought for their sovereignty. In the middle of those chapters is a primer on the European conquest of well, the world and how they treated the Native populations they encountered. I was particularly fond (not) of the tale of the Spanish landing in what is now South America, loudly proclaiming their intentions to those they met and then killing them for not immediately answering back in a language they neither understood nor spoke.
Greed is good?
The book certainly makes you want to go back and revisit what you learned in high school because if you are like me you will come out after reading this book feeling a little bit disgusted with well, let’s just call it Manifest Destiny. None of this can effectively be righted but we can at the least read our history with a little more honesty.
OK – off of the soapbox and back to the book. It certainly left me with feelings of hope for other First Peoples. The Haida Gwaii are willing share their efforts to achieve what some of them never really thought they had lost in the first place. But when a nation tells you that your land is now under its dominion and you must now do things a certain way, issues are going to arise. The people who worked tirelessly for years to allow for a level of sovereignty, if not independence do not want acclaim, in fact they didn’t want personal notoriety, only to be part of a whole nation – sovereign.
It’s a very interesting book. I read it over the course of three evenings. It has given me a lot to think about. It’s well footnoted, lots of appendices and there are several other books I’ll be looking to acquire for later reading.
If you have the slightest interest in Native sovereignty or Native issues do not be afraid that this book will be written like a textbook. It is not. Mr. Dowie presents the material in a remarkably down to earth manner. I actually found myself turning the pages as if I were reading a fiction book anxious to reach the ending. He breaks down complicated issues into eminently readable chapters about how the Haida Gwaii started, thrived, were decimated by smallpox, recovered and then one day were told they were citizens of Canada whether they liked it or not.
There are chapters at the front of the book and at the end of the book that deal solely with the history of the Haida Gwaii peoples and then how they fought for their sovereignty. In the middle of those chapters is a primer on the European conquest of well, the world and how they treated the Native populations they encountered. I was particularly fond (not) of the tale of the Spanish landing in what is now South America, loudly proclaiming their intentions to those they met and then killing them for not immediately answering back in a language they neither understood nor spoke.
Greed is good?
The book certainly makes you want to go back and revisit what you learned in high school because if you are like me you will come out after reading this book feeling a little bit disgusted with well, let’s just call it Manifest Destiny. None of this can effectively be righted but we can at the least read our history with a little more honesty.
OK – off of the soapbox and back to the book. It certainly left me with feelings of hope for other First Peoples. The Haida Gwaii are willing share their efforts to achieve what some of them never really thought they had lost in the first place. But when a nation tells you that your land is now under its dominion and you must now do things a certain way, issues are going to arise. The people who worked tirelessly for years to allow for a level of sovereignty, if not independence do not want acclaim, in fact they didn’t want personal notoriety, only to be part of a whole nation – sovereign.
It’s a very interesting book. I read it over the course of three evenings. It has given me a lot to think about. It’s well footnoted, lots of appendices and there are several other books I’ll be looking to acquire for later reading.
October 7, 2017
I loved this book. Highly recommended
September 27, 2018
Part of this book provides instructive material for indigenous peoples world-wide in how to achieve their goals after centuries of persecution. The islands, temporarily known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, have been described as the "Galapagos of the North" for their unique and diversified collection of flora and fauna. These resources drew in foreigners from Asia and Europe interested in cashing in on what they considered to be theirs. The Haida people and their 10,000 yr. old culture were ignored. Sidebars offer explanatory details about this culture. Serious attempts are now being made to preserve what is left and to build upon that. The population, decimated by smallpox in the 19th century, and officially denied their practices and language, has been rebounding and re-energized by recent developments of repatriation and anti-clear cutting movements. Two quotes from Chapter headings: "This people has no belief in God that amounts to anything." Jacques Cartier; "There is nowhere more beguiling, more hypnotic, more intoxicating and infuriating and enigmatic, more ineffable, that Haida Gwaii." Ian Gill It
would be good to hear from the Haida themselves now.
would be good to hear from the Haida themselves now.
September 21, 2024
Not a long book but a good one, about how the Haida nation managed to stop Canada and the lumber companies from totally clear-cutting their island, and worked with the BC government and the Canada Parks department to preserve their remaining land with limited (but meaningful) public access. I read it while on a National Geographic tour in Alaska and Haida Gwaii, then donated it to the ship's library for future travelers.
October 4, 2025
so, took me a while to get through this nonfiction mostly because I personally find the legal aspect tedious BUT I plodded through because I found the culture and plight of the Haida indigenous tribe fascinating and frustrating. their thoughtful persistence to gain back what had always been theirs gave me hope during a time when US residents are slowly loosing their rights
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August 1, 2019333.7313 D746 2017
April 10, 2023
Really fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews