Aboriginal rights are the subject of significant public concern in Canada. In this collection of 18 articles, the contributors focus on Aboriginal rights to the use of resources. The examine the nature and extent of resource use by Aboriginal peoples before contact with Europeans, and the persistence of Indigenous economic systems during periods of intense interaction with Europeans. The fur trade changed some of the economic activiity of Aboriginal peoples, but other patterns have survived.

As Canada’s Aboriginal peoples move towards self-determination, the nature of Aboriginal rights has become a subject of major importance to all Canadians. This volume, drawing on the perspectives of history, law, political science, ethnohistory, archaeology and cultural geography, will help us to understand some of the important issues facing Canadians in the 1990s.