ABSTRACT
Many Indigenous rights activists and scholars could profit from using Burke's ideas on colonialism and government to argue for a restoration of older traditions of Aboriginal governance. In the contemporary setting, many Aboriginal rights activists want the Crown and the Canadian federal government to live up to the treaties signed between the Crown and Native bands between 1871 and 1921. The Indian Act of 1876—still a part of Canadian federal law today—allowed the federal government to enact regulations stating that Indigenous people could live on Indigenous-only “reserves,” often based in northern or isolated areas of Canada. Ancient custom in most Indigenous tribes also allowed the children of mixed-blood relationships to become full members of a band. A similar situation prevailed with non-Indigenous people taken “captive” by different bands as a result of war. Clearly, Burke's “traditionalist localist,” anti-imperialist perspective could be used as a building block to grapple with Canada's colonial past.
