Disinherited Generations

Our Struggle to Reclaim Treaty Rights for First Nations Women and their Descendants

Nellie Carlson, Kathleen Steinhauer

• Publisher: The University of Alberta Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780888646422
• eBook ISBN: 9780888646903
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: History

Two Cree women tell the story of how they took on the Canadian government and helped change the lives of thousands. This oral autobiography of two remarkable Cree women tells their life stories against a backdrop of government discrimination, First Nations activism, and the resurgence of First Nations communities. Nellie Carlson and Kathleen Steinhauer, who helped to organize the Indian Rights for Indian Women movement in western Canada in the 1960s, fought the Canadian government's interpretation of treaty and Aboriginal rights, the Indian Act, and the male power structure in their own communities in pursuit of equal rights for Aboriginal women and children. After decades of activism and court battles, First Nations women succeeded in changing these oppressive regulations, thus benefitting thousands of their descendants. Those interested in human rights, activism, history, and Native Studies will find that these personal stories, enriched by detailed notes and photographs, form a passionate record of an important, continuing struggle.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Two Strong Women Begin to Tell a Story
• 1 Daughters of Saddle Lake
• 2 Surviving Residential School
• 3 Love, Matrimony, and the Indian Act
• 4 Indian Rights for Indian Women
• 5 A Tribute to Jenny Shirt Margetts
• 6 How We Worked Together
• 7 Fighting for Our Birthright
• 8 This Is Our Land
• Closing Words
• Family Tree
• Timeline
• Honour Roll
• Notes
• Glossary
• Further Reading
• About the Authors