Geographic Variation in Forest Trees is the first book to examine this subject from a world-wide perspective. The author discusses population genetic theory and genetic systems of native North American tree species as they interact with environments in the major climatic regions in the world. He then demonstrates how this knowledge is used to guide …

This book represents the archeological evidence for the first 5,500 years of prehistory in British Columbia, from about 10,500 to 5,000 years ago. As this period is poorly known, even to specialists, Early Human Occupation in British Columbia is a vital contribution to current knowledge about an enigmatic time in a critically important area of west …

Written mainly by First Nations and Metis people, this book examines current issues in First Nations education.

Taking Control is a critical ethnography of the Native Education Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. It presents an intimate view of the centre, focusing on the ways that people who work there – First Nations students, board members, teachers, and non-Native teachers – talk about and put into practice their beliefs about First Nations contro …

In Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837-1867, Ged Martin offers a sceptical review of claims that Confederation answered all the problems facing the provinces, and examines in detail British perceptions of Canada and ideas about its future. The major British contribution to the coming of Confederation is to be found not in the af …

Federalism is at once a set of institutions -- the division of public authority between two or more constitutionally defined orders of government -- and a set of ideas which underpin such institutions. As an idea, federalism points us to issues such as shared and divided sovereignty, multiple loyalties and identities, and governance through multi-l …

The heyday of anthropological collecting on the Northwest Coast took place between 1875 and the Great Depression. The scramble for skulls and skeletons, poles, canoes, baskets, feast bowls, and masks went on until it seemed that almost everything not nailed down or hidden was gone. The period of most intense collecting on the coast coincided with t …

The aboriginal people of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand became minorities in their own countries in the nineteenth century. The expanding British Empire had its own vision for the future of these peoples, which was expressed in 1837 by the Select Committee on Aborigines of the House of Commons. It was a vision of the steps necessary for them to …

Through an examination of the roles of relief and relocation in response to welfare and other perceived problems and the federal government's overall goal of assimilating the Inuit into the dominant Canadian culture, this book questions the seeming benevolence of the post-Second World War Canadian welfare state. The authors have made extensive use …

Eagle Down Is Our Law is about the struggle of the Witsuwit'en peoples to establish the meaning of aboriginal rights. With the neighbouring Gitksan, the Witsuwit'en launched a major land claims court case asking for the ownership and jurisdiction of 55,000 square kilometers of land in north-central British Columbia that they claim to have held sinc …

Over much of this century, Canada has played only a minor role in hemispheric affairs. In recent years, dramatic changes have occurred which have catapulted Canada to the role of full partner in the Americas. These include Canada's decision to enter the Organization of American States as a full member, its involvement in the NAFTA negotiations, its …

How did Pizarro subjugate the Inca Empire with less than 500 men? How did debates in 16th century Spain between de Sepulveda and de Las Casas lay the basis for the legal concept of Aboriginal title? Providing a broad comparison of historical, social, and cultural aspects of Indigenous groups around the world, this slim volume answers these question …

This innovative interdisciplinary study offers a comprehensive analysis of the French, Dutch and English colonization of northeastern North America during the early and middle decades of the seventeenth century. It is the first book to pay serious attention to the European economic and political factors which promoted colonization, and it argues th …

The Twana speech community of Coast Salish Indians lived, before 1860, in nine villages in western Washington. Twana Narratives presents first-person, insider accounts of Twana history, society, and religion, as told by natives Frank and Henry Allen to anthropologist William Elmendorf between 1934 and 1940. The Allens were born in the Hood Canal ar …

Julia Averkieva's study represents the most comprehensive Native American string collection ever assembled from a single tribe. In addition to characterizing the social conditions that prompted string figure making among the Kwakiutl during the time of her field study, Averkieva noted step-by-step instructions for each figure and transcribed tradi …

In Thomas Crobsy and the Tsimshian: Small Shoes for Feet Too Large, Clarence Bolt demonstrates that the Indians were conscious participants in the acculturation and conversion process – as long as this met their goals – and not merely passive receivers of the blessings as typically reported by the missionaries. In order to understand the comple …

This collection of essays deals with the development of Native American art history as a discipline rather than with particular art works or artists. It focuses on the early anthropologists, museum curators, dealers, and collectors, and on the multiple levels of understanding and misunderstanding, appropriation and reappropriation which characteriz …

Originally published in 1977, Contact and Conflict has remained an important book, which has inspired numerous scholars to examine further the relationships between the Indians and the Europeans – fur traders as well as settlers. For this edition, Robin Fisher has written a new introduction in which he surveys the literature since 1977 and commen …

In Our Chiefs and Elders, David Neel presents us with a magnificent series of images of Native chiefs and elders which sharply contrasts with earlier depictions of Natives as “noble savages” or representatives of a “vanishing race.” Neel’s photographs of, and conversations with, his own people introduce us to individuals who know who they …

The Brooklyn Museum has played a major role in presenting and interpreting North American Native art. Its commitment to this field began in 1903, when R. Stewart Culin was appointed to head its new Department of Ethnology. During three trips to the Northwest in 1905, 1908, and 1911, Culin collaborated with Dr. Charles F. Newcombe and bought several …

Storytelling is a universal activity and may well be the oldest of the arts. It has always provided a vehicle for the expression of ideas, particularly in societies relying on oral tradition. Yet investigation of what contemporary storytellers actually communicate to their listeners occupies a restricted place in anthropology. The growing literatur …

Pacific salmon are an important biological and economic resource of countries of the North Pacific rim. They are also a unique group of fish possessing unusually complex life histories. There are seven species of Pacific salmon, five occurring on both the North American and Asian continents (sockeye, pink, chum, chinook, and coho) and two (masu and …

Native Writers and Canadian Writing is a co-publication with Canadian Literature – Canada’s foremost literary journal – of a special double issue which focuses on literature by and about Canada’s Native peoples and contains original articles and poems by both Native and non-Native writers. These not only reflect the growing prominence of co …

This book is drawn from Haida Monumental Art, the most important work yet published on Haida culture. Chiefs of the Sea and Sky presents an overview of extensive research carried out by archeologist George MacDonald in the 1960s and 1970s to document the history of the Haida villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands.

In this abridgement, MacDonald re …

Patricia E. Roy is the winner of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award, Canadian Historical Association.

A White Man’s Province examines how British Columbians changed their attitudes towards Asian immigrants from one of toleration in colonial times to vigorous hostility by the turn of the century and describes how politicians responded to popular …

In May 1914, 400 Sikhs left for British Columbia by chartered ship, resolved to claim their right to equal treatment with white citizens of the British Empire and force entry into Canada. They were anchored off Vancouver for over two months, enduring extreme physical privation and harrassment by immigration officials, but defying federal deportatio …

The two volumes comprising Indian Education in Canada present the first full-length discussion of this important subject since the adoption in 1972 of a new federal policy moving toward Indian control of Indian education. Volume 1 analyzes the education of Indian children by whites since the arrival of the first Europeans in Canada. Volume 2 is con …

Jack Shadbolt was inspired in his formative years by his contact with Emily Carr and with her brooding works portraying the remnants of Indian villages against the overwhelming wilderness. He made sketches of Indian artefacts and the Cowichan Reserve in the 1930s, but it was only after World War II that elements of Indian art began to show up in hi …

Challenging standard dependency theory, William Carroll argues from empirical evidence that Canada's financial-industrial elite have maintained and consolidated their competitive position at the centre of an inter-corporate network. Corporate Power and Canadian Capitalism thus acknowledges the unusually high degree to which capital is concentrated …

In A Narrow Vision, Brian Titley chronicles Scott's career in the Department of Indian Affairs and evaluates developments in Native health, education, and welfare between 1880 and 1932. He shows how Scott's response to challenges such as the making of treaties in northern Ontario, land claims in British Columbia, and the status of the Six Nations c …

The button blanket is eye-catching, prestigious and treasured -- one of the most spectacular embellishments to the Indian culture of the Northwest Coast and a unique form of graphic and narrative art. The traditional crest-style robe is the sister of the totem pole and, like the pole, proclaims hereditary rights, obligations and powers. Unlike the …

The two volumes comprising Indian Education in Canada present the first full-length discussion of this important subject since the adoption in 1972 of a new federal policy moving toward Indian control of Indian education. Volume 1 analyzes the education of Indian children by whites since the arrival of the first Europeans in Canada. Volume 2 is con …

The papers in this book focus on themes which have been near the centre of fur trade scholarship: the identification of Indian motivations; the degree to which Indians were discriminating consumers and creative participants; and the extent of Native dependency on the trade. Spanning the period from the seventeenth century up to and including the tw …

Likely to become one of the classic works in Amerindian linguistics, this book presents a comprehensive grammar of Sarcee, an Athapaskan language spoken in southern Alberta. Based on the voluminous notes collected by Edward Sapir in 1922 and supplemented by extensive data from Cook's own work with the few remaining speakers of Sarcee, the book not …

Ninstints, located on Anthony Island, one of the smallest and most southerly of the Queen Charlotte chain, contains the vestiges of the great wooden structures and houses of the Kunghit Haida people who abandoned the village in the late 1800s. George MacDonald combines archival material and scientific and photographic evidence to record what is kno …

During the last quarter of the nineteenth-century, images of the Haida’s immense cedar houses and soaring totem poles were captured by photographers who travelled to then-remote villages such as Masset and Skidegate to marvel at, and record, what they saw there. Haida Monumental Art includes a large number of these remarkable photographs. They de …

This collection of papers focuses on Canadian Native history since 1763 and presents an overview of official Canadian Indian policy and its effects on the Indian, Inuit, and Metis. Issues and themes covered include colonial Indian policy, constitutional developments, Indian treaties and policy, government decision-making and Native responses reflec …

The massive wood carvings unique to the Indian peoples of the Northwest Coast arouse a sense of wonder in all who see them. This guide helps the reader to understand and enjoy the form and meaning of totem poles and other sculptures. The author describes the origin and place of totem poles in Indian culture – as ancestral emblems, as expressions …

For two centuries (1670-1870), English, Scottish, and Canadian fur traders voyages the myriad waterways of Rupert’s Land, the vast territory charted to the Hudson’s Bay Company and later splintered among five Canadian provinces and four American states. The knowledge and support of northern Native peoples were critical to the newcomer’s survi …