gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

Restricting Research Access is a Self-Government Right
Expanding the previous section’s discussion, an email from Stoney Nakoda First Nation
representatives indicated that our research was of limited interest to the community. Implicit
to these remarks and the above discussion is the First Nation belief in the existence of a selfgovernment
right to restrict researcher access to First Nations communities. The relationship
between academic researcher and Aboriginal community is well documented and very
dynamic. Many of the same issues that have appeared in the press underlie Alberta First
Nation gaming communities reasons for refusing to participate:
The Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) and the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First
Nation, which operates the Blue Heron Charity Casino (in Ontario), for instance, have cited their
self-governing authority to (unsuccessfully) implement localized labour codes in contravention
of provincial legislation (Belanger 2011b, 2011c). Denying researcher access to First Nations
communities reflects the American Indian experience, whereby sovereign tribes are
empowered to restrict non-Indian access to reservations. Similarly, several First Nations in
Canada have banned non-Native researcher access. Still others attempt to establish working
relations, acknowledging that important and otherwise unaffordable local research can be
accomplished as additions to larger academic research agendas. In doing so communities
demand control over budgeting; others over research design. In Nunavut, researchers are
required to first obtain a Scientific Research Licence prior to being granted access to work in the
territory (see Nickels, Shirley & Laidler, 2006).
Denying researcher access took on two dimensions in this project. First, as a self-governing
entity empowered to establish its own by-laws concerning the access of non-band members the
First Nation has the right to ban researcher access to the community. Second, First Nations and
their American operators regularly make the claim that the data being sought is proprietary.
In the first instance, Aboriginal self-government has evolved from a concept of local municipal
government models rooted in the Indian Act to a constitutionally protected inherent right,
finding its most recent expression in the idea of ‘Aboriginal national government’ as a distinct
order of government within the Canadian federation. Self-government’s scope, authority and
jurisdiction have expanded beyond municipalities, to include federal, provincial, and municipal
jurisdictions and some unique Aboriginal authorities (Belanger & Newhouse, 2008).
As the community government, band council operations are guided by the Indian Act, which
provides a legal framework for governing reserve lands, dictating election procedures, and
setting the terms of office for chiefs and councillors. The Act also empowers the chief and
council under S. 81 to establish local by-laws over reserve lands for a host of issues. First
Nations communities in certain cases have openly considered using various Indian Act sections
to restrict researcher access to reserve communities including s. 81(p), which provides for “the
removal and punishment of persons trespassing on the reserve” (non-band members without
permission to be in the community); or those “frequenting the reserve for prohibited purposes”
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