Le leadership interstitiel, le champ d'action des Amérindiens ou le pouvoir dans la marge :
l'exemple de la communauté algonquine de Kitigan Zibi (Québec)

What is the scope of Indian participation in Canadian politics? Despite the Canadian governments’ attempts to break traditional Indigenous' political structures by introducing the Band Council system, First Peoples are far from passive victims. The study of interstitial leadership is the theoretical framework of this thesis because it is the key to political practices that take place "in the cracks", thereby conferring marginal power to Indigenous Peoples. By examining the historical and social conditions for the development of the political arena in reserves, it is possible to understand the everyday and contemporaneity of the exercise of power within a highly politicized minority population.  The present ethnographic research focuses on the local politics of the Algonquin community of Kitigan Zibi (Quebec). Anishnabeg stakeholder analysis showed a variability of Algonquin political leadership and the existence of different types of leaders in spite of the imposition of a single chief through the Indian Act. The control of the band’s official political affairs by colonial agents, that is to say the missionaries and the Indian agents, has not resulted in the complete control of internal political dynamics and members. The fieldwork revealed that the various political actions undertaken by the Anishnabeg prove to be power strategies from the margin, a form of everyday resistance to the new ways of doing politics established by the Canadian authorities. These actions were also tricks and tactics used to challenge the formal system and the Indian Affairs power. Opposition and resistance however are not the only instruments of Native leadership and politics. In fact, the Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg political leadership is also based on various representations (i.e. traditional, spiritual, and symbolic) that helped preserve Algonquin political identity despite some disruptions and changes introduced into their society by the colonizers. Ambiguities, contradictions and paradoxes found in everyday band politics are not only the result of the meeting of an Other political universe. They are also the culmination of the development and reconstruction of a traditional sociopolitical system and its internal dynamics related to power, a redefinition of the authority and political legitimacy, the rise of a new leaders genre to adequately respond to the demands of the reserve’s political life. Reserve politics are not a concrete ‘thing’ but rather a dynamic that exists within a particular time and in a given place. Additionally, overlapping different cultural and political traditions as well as various forms of authority, occur in various spaces (imposed or symbolic) and institutions (formal and informal). The Algonquin are continually renewing themselves politically within their system. This is not an effect of acculturation, hybridity, and modernity but of tradition. The joining of traditional functions and dynamics to the formal structure represents the beginning of a governance "from below". The latter renews from within, through the establishment of a dialogue, the relationship between Aboriginal leaders and representatives of the State, which provides room for manoeuvre to local protagonists. The Algonquins seized upon the incompatibilities between the two systems - Settler and Aboriginal - to define a new territory "in the cracks" which became their field of action. The analysis of the flexibility of Algonquin leadership, the Euro-Canadien vision of the Native leadership, the instrumental use of State requirements, the contemporary elections and candidates, Algonquin women's empowerment and female leadership within reserve have showed that the interstitial leadership is a political force for the Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg.  By wearing a critical eye on local politics in daily band life and  by including Indigenous voices, it is possible to observe the process of decolonization as well as the embryonic forms of postcolonial practices within reserves. This research has shown that the chief and other leaders are at the heart of this political dynamic in the margins and the political development and empowerment of their band.

Keyphrases: leadership, empowerment, Kitigan Zibi, anthropology, ethnology, Algonquian, politics in the cracks, leadership, band Chief, band politic, empowerment