Clifford Atleo

Education

• BA, Political Science, University of Victoria
• MA, Indigenous Governance, University of Victoria
• PhD, University of Alberta

Biography

Cliff is a Tsimshian (Kitsumkalum/Kitselas) and Nuu-chah-nulth (Ahousaht) scholar who researches and teaches Indigenous governance, political economy, and resource management. He is interested in how Indigenous communities navigate/adopt/resist mainstream capitalism while working to sustain their unique cultural identities and worldviews. Cliff is particularly interested in how Indigenous communities and leaders continue to assert agency within the confines of settler colonial politics and economics. He has recently published on Indigenous water relations and Indigenous community responses to the Trans Mountain pipeline.

His current research focuses on:

• Exploring cleaner marine transport options for coastal Indigenous communities;
• Indigenous self-determination, health governance, and territorial integrity in the era of COVID-19;
• Fairy Creek, Indigenous forestry management, and settler solidarity and;
• Economic reconciliation and Indigenous economic alternatives to capitalism.

Selected Publications:

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles:

• Tammara Soma, Chelsey G. Armstrong, Cedar Welsh, Samantha Jung, Clifford G. Atleo (Niis Na’yaa/Kam’ayaam/Chachim’multhnii), Belinda Li & Tamara Shulman. “Indigenizing Food System Planning for Food System Resiliency.” Journal of the American Planning Association, (2023): DOI: 10.1080/01944363.2023.2269147
• Hoogeveen, Dawn, Clifford G. Atleo (Kam’ayaam/Chachim/multhnii), Lyana Patrick, Angel M. Kennedy, Maëve Leduc, Margot W. Parkes, Tim K. Takarao, and Maya K. Gislason. “On the possibility of decolonizing planetary health: exploring new geographies for collaboration” in The Lancet Planetary Health 7, 2, (2023): e179-e183. Read a short interview about the article here.
• Atleo, Clifford and Jonathan Boron. “Land Is Life: Indigenous Relationships to Territory and Navigating Settler Colonial Property Regimes in Canada” in Land 11, 5, 609, 2022.
• Silver, Jennifer, Daniel Okamoto, Derek Armitage, Steven Alexander, Clifford Atleo, Jenn Burt, Russ Jones, Lynn Lee, Ella-Kari Muhi, Anne Salomon, and Joshua Stoll. “Fish, people and systems of power: understanding and disrupting feedback between colonialism and fisheries science” The American Naturalist 200, no. 1 (July 2022).

Journal Commentaries:

• Schmitt, Michael T.  Scott D. Neufeld, Stephanie A. Fryberg, Glenn Adams, Jodi L. Viljoen, Lyana Patrick, Clifford Gordon Atleo, and Sheri Fabian. “‘Indigenous’ Nature Connection? A Response to Kurth, Narvaez, Kohn, and Bae (2020)” in Ecopsychology Vol. 13, No. 1, 2021.

Peer-reviewed Book Chapters:

• Atleo, Clifford Gordon. “Capitalism: Can it be Indigenized?” In Engraved on our Nations: Indigenous Economic Tenacity, edited by Wanda Wuttunee and Fred Wien. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2024.
• Krawchenko, Tamara, Megan Gordon, Clifford Gordon Atleo, and Kara Shaw. “What is a ‘just transition’? Perspectives, processes, policy.” In Canadian Environmental Policy and Politics: Moving the Green Transition Forward, 5th edition, edited by Debora VanNijnatten. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2024.
• Atleo, Clifford Gordon and Jonathan Boron. “Extractive Settler Colonialism: Navigating Extractive Bargains on Indigenous Territories in Canada,” in Extractive Bargains: Natural Resources and the State-Society Nexus, edited by Paul Bowles and Nathan Andrews. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
• Atleo, Cliff. “Asserting Indigenous Self-Determination in an Era of Decarbonization and Reconciliation in Canada” in Extractive Bargains: Natural Resources and the State-Society Nexus, edited by Paul Bowles and Nathan Andrews. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
• Atleo, Clifford Gordon (Niis Na’yaa/Kam’ayaam/Chachim’multhnii), Tyla Crowe, Tamara Krawchenko and Karena Shaw. “Indigenous Ambivalence? It’s not about the Pipeline: Indigenous Responses to Fossil Fuel Export in Western Canada,” in Public Responses to Fossil Fuel Export: Exporting Energy and Emissions in a Time of Transition, edited by Hilary Boudet and Shawn Hazboun. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2022. (peer-reviewed)
• Stefanovic, Ingrid and Clifford Atleo. “Valuing Water,” in Ethical Water Stewardship, edited by Zafar Adeel and Ingrid Stefanovic. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2021. (peer-reviewed)
• Atleo, Clifford. “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Canada’s Carbon Economy and Indigenous Ambivalence,” in Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy, edited by William Carroll, 2021.
• Coburn, Elaine and Cliff (Kam’ayaam/Chachim’multhnii) Atleo. "Not Just Another Social Movement: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence" in A World to Win: Contemporary Social Movements and Counter-hegemony. Edited by William K. Carroll and Kanchan Sarker. Winnipeg: ARP Books, 2016.
• Atleo, (Kam’ayaam/Chachim’multhnii) Clifford. “Aboriginal Economic Development and Living Nuu-chah-nulth-aht” in More Will Sing Their Way to Freedom: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence, Elaine Coburn, ed. Black Point: Fernwood Publishing, 2015.

Book Reviews:

• Atleo, Clifford G. “Nitinikiau Innusi: I Keep the Land Alive: A review,” in North American and Indigenous Studies Association Journal 9, no. 2 (2022): 127-128.
• Atleo, Jr., Cliff (Kam’ayaam/Chachim’multhnii). “Unsettling Canada: A review,” in Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 5, no.1 (2016): 71-78.
• Atleo, Jr., Cliff (Kam’ayaam/Chachim’multhnii). “Red skin, white masks: A review,” in Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3, no. 2 (2014): 187-194.