The Laws and the Land: The Settler Colonial Invasion of Kahnawa Ke in Nineteenth-Century Canada

A history of Canada’s conquest of the Indigenous community of Kahnawa ke. Canadian settlers expropriated Indigenous lands through the combined might of force and law. Tracing settler efforts to dispossess the Kahnawa ke nation, The Laws and the Land emphasizes the violent ways settler law clashed with Indigenous law during a series of asymmetrical bouts over land use. Daniel Ruck describes the contested path from land-sharing to the colonial imposition of private property as nothing less than an invasion, spearheaded by bureaucrats, politicians, and entrepreneurs. This meticulously researched story of Canadian conquest is deeply connected to larger issues of membership in Indigenous nations, communal versus individual property rights, governance, and inequality.