North American Genocides

Laurelyn Whitt is Professor of Native Studies at Brandon University, Manitoba, Canada. The author of Science, Colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples (Cambridge, 2009), and co-author with Alan W. Clarke of The Bitter Fruit of American Justice: International and Domestic Resistance to the Death Penalty (2007), she has published widely in issues at the intersection of Indigenous Studies, Science Studies and Legal Studies. Alan W. Clarke is Professor of Integrated Studies at Utah Valley University, and was a fellow of the Nathanson Centre for Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security. He is co-author, with Laurelyn Whitt, of The Bitter Fruit of American Justice: International and Domestic Resistance to the Death Penalty (2007), and is the author of Rendition to Torture (2012).

• Introduction; 1. North American genocide denial; 2. The legal case for historical genocides: a retrospective methodology; 3. Settler colonialism and Indigenous nations; 4. A legal primer for settler colonial genocides; 5. The Beothuk (1500–1830); 6. The Powhatan Tsenacommacah (1607–1677); 7. The conventional account of genocide: from a restrictive to an expansive interpretation; 8. Toward an account of systemic genocide; Appendix A. Secretariat's draft convention; Appendix B. Ad hoc Committee Draft Convention; Appendix C. United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide; Index.

'For too long, the historical experience and lasting impact of settler colonialism on the indigenous peoples of the Americas has been neglected in international law scholarship. This thoughtful and provocative work helps bring this reality to the surface, particularly in respect of the controversial use of the term 'genocide' to describe colonial policies of physical and cultural destruction.' Payam Akhavan, McGill University, Montreal and former UN prosecutor