The Lubicon Lake Nation: Indigenous Knowledge and Power

Many argue that the Lubicon, a small Cree nation in northern Alberta, have been denied their unalienable right to self-determination by the Canadian government. In a country such as Canada, some see the plight of the Lubicon people as an enduring reminder that certain democratic principles and basic freedoms are still kept from minorities, indigenous groups in particular.

The Lubicon Lake Nation strives, through a critique of historically-constructed colonial images, to analyze the Canadian government’s actions vis-a-vis the rights of the Lubicon people. Dawn Martin-Hill illustrates the power of indigenous knowledge by contrasting the words, ideas, and self-conceptualizations of the Lubicon with official versions of Lubicon history as documented by the state. In doing so, she offers a genuine sense of the gravity of their lived experiences. By giving voice to the Lubicon, this study seeks to develop an exclusively indigenist framework in which the circumstances facing the people can be described and analyzed more accurately than they can using popular conceptions of native rights as put forth by the government.

The Lubicon Lake Nation is a story of one culture and the pursuit of indigenous rights in Canada as told from the perspective of those who know the situation best, the Lubicon themselves.