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Volume 13, Issue 2 (2025)Read More
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25 January 2022
John Locke's Theory of Property, and the Dispossession of Indigenous Peoples in the Settler-Colony
This paper explores how John Locke’s theory of property, elaborated in chapter five of his Second Treatise of Government, provided a compelling conceptual and practical justification for the appropriation of Indigenous peoples’ territories in America by the early English settler-colonists of the 17th century. It examines how his property theory facilitated the nullification of Native American conceptions of land through the superimposition of European private property regimes in the settler colony. It further highlights briefly how indistinguishable dynamics also characterize the contemporary Israeli/Palestinian settler-colonial context, where the reverberations of Locke’s thought on property are pervasive. To do so, this paper examines two of the key components of Locke’s conceptualization of property (namely, human beings’ transition from a state of nature to political society, and the agricultural improvement argument) specifically in the context of their application in settler-colonial settings. Ultimately, this paper hopes to generate a more exhaustive appreciation of Locke’s theory of property by underlining its implications in settler-colonial enterprises and its function in abetting the expropriation of autochthonous lands.Article
23 December 2020
PEYOTE CRISIS CONFRONTING MODERN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: THE DECLINING PEYOTE POPULATION AND A DEMAND FOR CONSERVATION
Once abundant, the wild growing peyote cactus plants in Texas and Mexico are being drastically reduced and becoming scarce. Peyote, a slow growing cactus contains the hallucinogenic drug mescaline, is a sacred sacrament used in the Native Americans Church (NAC). It is also used religiously by various Indian tribes throughout the country of Mexico. Although peyote is classified as a controlled substance under federal and state laws, U.S. Congress granted NAC members a “peyote exemption” pursuant to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act to legally use peyote for religious purposes. In U.S. v. Boyll, the federal district court interpreted the peyote exemption law as extending its benefits and protection to non-Indians or anyone claiming to be a NAC member. However, the Boyll court failed to consider crucial federal Indian law analysis in reaching its decision. Subsequent federal and state court decisions have relied on the Boyll decision as precedents in reaching the same or similar conclusion. As a result of the Boyll decision, false NAC groups have emerged claiming to be official NAC chapters and who use illicit drugs, in addition to peyote, as their sacrament while using the federal peyote exemption law to shield their illicit activities. The Texas peyote gardens presently suffer from severe over-harvesting caused by an increasing demand for more peyote from a shrinking limited supply. Psychedelic tourism, criminal drug trade, massive land development projects, illegal poaching, global warming, worldwide internet sales of peyote, and other devastating human activities have significantly reduced the wild peyote population in its natural habitat. Indigenous tribes of Mexico have become alarmed at the diminishing peyote gardens in Mexico, which compelled the Mexican government to enact a conservation law, NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2002, classifying peyote as threaten and a protected species. NAC members are prohibited from transporting peyote from Mexico into the United States or Canada pursuant to this Mexican law. Greenhouse cultivation is considered an essential practice for Indigenous tribes to cultivate their own peyote supply locally. Significant measures must be taken to protect and conserve peyote for future generations or it too may become extinct like numerous other plant and animal species have worldwide. This paper examines the historical use of peyote by Native Americans, the development of NAC, and an evolving peyote crisis. Lastly, this paper offers recommendations for indigenous Native Americans to address these issues.Article
15 December 2017
The Sioux's Suits: Global Law and the Dakota Access Pipeline
The Sioux Tribe’s lawsuits and protests against the Dakota Access Pipelines (DAPL) received an incredible amount of international attention in ways that many Indigenous peoples’ protests have not. This article argues that attention exists because the Sioux Tribe has been at the epicenter of the Indigenous peoples’ rights movement in international law. Accordingly, they have invoked or claimed international human rights—particularly free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC)— to complicate, and perhaps destabilize, the DAPL’s development. However, the importance of their activism is not merely in claiming human rights. Based upon a global map of law that involves multiple and overlapping legalities, this article tracks the Sioux Tribe’s activism according to the problem-solving approach. Accordingly, the Sioux Tribe is advancing a different model of legality, one that is not based on a top-down command and control authority. This article reveals a complex, global network of intercommunal Indigenous peoples and nonstate actors by tracing the historical trajectory of the Sioux Tribe, its opposition to the DAPL, its role in the Indigenous peoples’ rights movement, and the novel extra-national legalities the Sioux Tribe is helping to formalize.Article
1 July 2017