“Extinction” isn’t what it used to be

The Caribbean is often treated in commonly cited literature as a zone of aboriginal extinction, a place where indigenous peoples are absent except as a memory or in the form of a museum piece. Just as often, what is ignored is the history of unequal power relations that allow some, a ruling colonial minority, to pronounce the death of others, to proclaim them to be gone. This process, unfortunately, was never limited to the Caribbean alone. There also are zones of “extinction” in places such as Canada. Extinction, however, isn’t what it used to be. In the article below, from CBC Canada, an allegedly extinct First Nation has come forward to reclaim the remains of ancestors.

CBC News: ‘Extinct’ First Nation gets ancestral bones back

This “extinct” First Nation also has a website, which if read closely, bears some remarkable parallels with discourses and histories to be found in the Caribbean. See The Sinixt Nation of British Columbia.