ABSTRACT
Based on interviews with prisoners and correctional staff as part of the University of Alberta Prison Project (UAPP) this chapter provides an overview of the history and emergence of Indigenous gangs in Western Canada and their contemporary state in prisons and on the streets. Any understanding of this situation must start with an appreciation for the lingering consequences of Canada’s settler colonial history, which has produced profound intergenerational trauma and suffering for Canada’s Indigenous people, culminating in a litany of negative social, economic, and cultural consequences. The emergence of Indigenous gangs has itself been attributed to living conditions often characterized by inequality, racism, dislocation, and spiritual alienation. These gangs draw upon a hybrid mixture of American ghetto and Indigenous cultural referents to appeal to potential recruits, who often are seeking a sense of belonging. The gangs tend to be involved in the drug trade, with prisons and young offender faculties having played a key role in both their development and spread. While these groups share similarities with stereotypical American street gangs, they can differ in several respects, including the fact that many of these groups do not strictly require that new recruits be Indigenous and that individual members have often changed gang affiliations over the years.
