Description
Book SynopsisCombining socio-legal and ethnohistorical studies, this book presents the history of doodem, or clan identification markings, left by Anishinaabe on treaties and other legal documents from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. These doodems reflected fundamental principles behind Anishinaabe governance that were often ignored by Europeans, who referred to Indigenous polities in terms of tribe, nation, band, or village classifications that failed to fully encompass longstanding cultural traditions of political authority within Anishinaabe society.
Making creative use of natural history, treaty pictographs, and the Ojibwe language as an analytical tool, Doodem and Council Fire delivers groundbreaking insights into Anishinaabe law. The author asks not only what these doodem markings indicate, but what they may also reveal through their exclusions. The book also outlines the continuities, changes, and innovations in Anishinaabe governance through the concept o
Trade Review
"Bohaker develops each of her five chapters—Doodem Tradition, Family in All Four Directions, Anishinaabe Constitutionalism, Governance in Action, and Doodem in the Era of Settler Colonialism—with great care, excellent writing, and in an authentic voice. Her insights are contextualized and supported by detailed maps and illustrations." -- Honours and Awards Committee, OHS Joseph Brant Award
Table of Contents
Preface Introduction 1. The Doodem Tradition 2. Family in All Four Directions 3. Anishinaabe Constitutionalism 4. Governance in Action 5. Doodem in the Era of Settler Colonialism Conclusion Bibliography
