with Jeff Ganohalidoh Corntassel (Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Victoria, BIG Lab Co-Director) | Zoom and University of Victoria, BC | January 27, 2025

According to Anishinaabe scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (2017), Indigenous peoples are “inherently international.” Indigenous nations have long engaged with other nations and non-human kin by utilizing diplomatic protocols and treaty-making. Drawing on the extensive literature around treaty-making (Deloria & DeMallie, 1999; Lightfoot & McDonald, 2017; Starblanket, 2019), UVic Professor and BIG Lab Co-Director Dr. Jeff Ganohalidoh Corntassel will compare the Buffalo Treaty (2014) and the recent implementation of the Five Tribe Wildlife Management Reciprocity Agreement (2024) in Oklahoma in terms of the ways that they expressed solidarity and Indigenous international law. The Buffalo Treaty was first signed between eight Blackfoot Nations on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border to honor their sacred relationship to buffalo. Recently at the 10th Anniversary of the signing of the Buffalo Treaty, it was pointed out that over fifty Indigenous nations have become signatories to this important treaty, which is a powerful expression of Indigenous international law.

See below for a recording of Jeff’s talk.