The Pleasure of the Crown: Anthropology, Law and First Nations

The Pleasure of the Crown: Anthropology, Law and First Nations by Dara Culhane (Talonbooks) is the book for anyone who wants to understand the Delga-muukw decision—how it happened, what it means and why the Supreme Court ruling last December has freaked out the powers that be in business, banks and politics, and everyone else who has a stake in B.C.'s physical resources, or who has reasons for believing aboriginal title has no place in modern economics. The Pleasure of the Crown describes the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en land claim trial, the longest and most costly in Canadian history. It analyzes the infamous "nasty, brutish and short" judgement of Chief Justice Allan McEachem (which dismissed the oral evidence of the Native elders in its entirety and rejected the plaintiffs claim) and sets these contemporary events against a 130-year history of Native resistance to the appropriation of their lands, and white resistance to Native claims. Culhane's lucid and unsentimental account focusses on the use of anthropological expertise by both sides in court, and in so doing reveals not only how deeply flawed die Crown's case was, but how profoundly ignorant McEachern's judgement was. With the Delgamuukw decision the Founding Myth of white British Columbians stands naked against the landscape.