Tewatatha:wi: Aboriginal Nationalism in Taiaiake Alfred's Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto

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In recent years the idea of Aboriginal nationalism has been creeping into public language in Canada through the widespread use of the term First Nation. The idea that Aboriginal peoples are Nations, not just cultures, has also begun to influence the Canadian government, the courts, and the study of law and political science. The principle that Aboriginal peoples have the right and responsibility to determine their own paths is an ancient one, however. The Great Law of Peace of the Rotinohshonni, which is itself at least five hundred years old, claims the long history of this principle: By birthright, the Onkwehonweh (Original Beings) are the owners of the soil which they own and occupy and none other shall hold it. The same law has been held from the oldest times. 1 The idea of Aboriginal nationalism has not significantly impacted the study of Aboriginal literatures, however, particularly in the territory known as Canada.2 In the United States a few critics, such as Craig Womack and Robert Warrior, have begun to document tribal nationalism in Native American literature, but no such project has yet been attempted in Canada. Rather, Canadian critics of Aboriginal literature have tended to look through the lenses of culture and colonialism. This article examines some of the shortcomings of these widespread approaches and explores the idea of thinking about Aboriginal literature in terms of Aboriginal nationalism. As a test case, I will read Taiaiake Alfred's Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto in terms of its place within the Kanien'kehaka (more widely known as Mohawk) Nation and the Rotinohshonni (or Iroquois Confederacy).3 Criticism of Aboriginal literature in Canada has tended to divide the literature from concrete political issues of law, land ownership, and gov-