“Misunderstanding Self-Government: Laura Kellogg and the Corporation as a Self-Governing Community”

Presentation by Avigail Eisenberg (Professor of Political Science, University of Victoria)

Thursday, February 6, 2025, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Thomson House Ballroom. Open to everyone, reception will follow.

Registration is appreciated, by e-mail at the following address or via Facebook. One McGill student, chosen at random from among those registered for the event and who are currently students at McGill, will receive a copy of Avigail Eisenberg’s book Reasons of Identity: A Normative Guide to the Political and Legal Assessment of Identity Claims, Oxford University Press, 2009.

Organized by the Research Group on Constitutional Studies Lecture Series (RGCS), a unit of the Yan P. Lin Centre for the Study of Freedom and Global Orders in the Ancient and Modern Worlds.

Summary

In 1920, Laura Kellogg (Oneida) proposed to use the law of incorporation to shield Indigenous communities from hostile government policy and corrupt practices. Her plan was meant to secure “something in the order of self-government” at a time when genuine self-government was impossible and when many Indigenous leaders had turned away from their traditions. As a model for organizing Indigenous life, incorporation was a sustainable solution to community disintegration. However, it was (and is) neither an antidote to colonialism nor a template for Indigenous self-determination. As Kellogg’s efforts demonstrate, Indigenous communities adopt strategies, like incorporation, because there are no better choices before them. The risk is that, over time, strategy will become reality, and community members will come to prefer the position of compromise over more radical alternatives. But, in Kellogg’s case, to be silent in the face of the rule of another was not impotence but confidence in the resilience of her community and the unpredictable nature of plural political power.