Settler States in Conversation: Intergovernmental Policy Exchanges, Settler-Colonial Urbanism, and the Politics of Comparison.

This article examines the October 1963 meetings between officials from the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Indian Affairs Branch (IAB) of Canada's Department of Citizenship and Immigration, focusing on their shared federal policies promoting the urban relocation and integration of Indigenous peoples into the North American wage economy. It highlights the ideological and administrative commonalities between the two settler states in pursuing Indigenous urbanization as a strategy of "integration," while noting the limitations of these efforts in addressing underlying settler-colonial inequities. The article situates these meetings within broader debates on "settler-colonial urbanism," arguing that understanding urbanization processes requires attention not only to national policies but also to transnational interactions and mutual influences among settler states. By analyzing this bilateral exchange, the study contributes to a relational and comparative approach to settler-colonial studies, emphasizing the importance of cross-border dynamics in shaping Indigenous urban experiences and settler-colonial spatial politics.