The Fourth World
An Indian Reality
Originally published in 1974, The Fourth World is a critical work of Indigenous political activism that has long been out of print. George Manuel, a leader in the North American Indian movement at that time, with coauthor journalist Michael Posluns, presents a rich historical document that traces the struggle for Indigenous survival as a nation, a culture, and a reality.
At the time of writing The Fourth World it would have been difficult (although not impossible) to predict the degree to which the recognition of Indigenous rights would come to serve as the cunning medium through which dispossession would be facilitated, not reversed, by the colonial state and international legal apparatus. In spite of his lifelong struggle, however, George Manuel's vision of decolonization for the Fourth World has yet to come to fruition, both nationally and globally. The Fourth World is nevertheless one of those rare examples of a book that continues to be relevant after forty-two years since its original publication
Glen Sean Coulthard, from the Introduction
Originally published in 1974, The Fourth World is a critical work of Indigenous political activism that has long been out of print. George Manuel, a leader in the North American Indian movement at that time, with coauthor journalist Michael Posluns, presents a rich historical document that traces the struggle for Indigenous survival as a nation, a culture, and a reality. The authors shed light on alternatives for coexistence that would take place in the Fourth World—an alternative to the new world, the old world, and the Third World. Manuel was the first to develop this concept of the “fourth world” to describe the place occupied by Indigenous nations within colonial nation-states. Accompanied by a new Introduction and Afterword, this book is as poignant and provocative today as it was when first published.
At the time of writing The Fourth World it would have been difficult (although not impossible) to predict the degree to which the recognition of Indigenous rights would come to serve as the cunning medium through which dispossession would be facilitated, not reversed, by the colonial state and international legal apparatus. In spite of his lifelong struggle, however, George Manuel's vision of decolonization for the Fourth World has yet to come to fruition, both nationally and globally. The Fourth World is nevertheless one of those rare examples of a book that continues to be relevant after forty-two years since its original publication
Glen Sean Coulthard, from the Introduction
The scope of their vision is a Fourth World with a value system that, arguably, supported our species well for 99 percent of our existence and may once again be manifest. Unfortunately, what Manuel and Posluns wrote 36 years ago remains true today. The Indigenous world “is almost wholly dependent upon the good faith and morality of East and West within which it finds itself” (p. 6). And that is precisely the problem.
The Ormsby Review
Contents
Introduction
Glen Sean Coulthard
Foreword
Vine Deloria Jr
Authors’ Note
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Mutual Dependence
2. Strong Medicine
3. The Earth and My Grandmother
4. We Honour Our Grandfathers Who Kept Us Alive
5. Scratching for a Start
6. Becoming a Fisher of Men
7. The Decade of Consultation
8. The Daily Struggle Now
9. The Fourth World
Afterword
Doreen Manuel
Notes
Index
