This publication is the inaugural volume of the History of the Prairie West series. Each volume in the series focuses on a particular topic and is composed of articles previously published in160;"Prairie Forum"160;and written by experts in the field. The original articles are supplemented by additional photographs and other illustrative material.
"William Henry Jackson was born an Anglo-Saxon Methodist in Southern Ontario. Leaving behind that identity, he served as Louis Riel's secretary during the 1885 Resistance, narrowly avoiding lengthly imprisonment. Escaping an asylum for the insane, he went on to become a prominent labour leader in Chicago, finally trying his hand as a real estate developer in New York City. Along the way, he adopted the name Honore Jaxon, and assumed a prairie Metis identity." -- from publisher.
Through the last half of the nineteenth century, numbers of Canadians began to regard the West as a land of ideal opportuniy for large-scale agricultural settlement. This belief, in turn, led Canada to insist on ownership of the region and on immediate development. Underlying the expansionist movement was the assumption that the West was to be a hinterland to central Canada, both in its economic relationship and in its cultural development. But settlers who accepted the extravagant promises of expanionism found it increasingly difficult to reconcile the assumption of easstern dominance with their own perception of the needs of the West and of Canada. Doug Owram analyses the various phases of this development, examining in particular the writings - historical, scientific, journalistic, and promotional - that illuminate one of the most significant movements in the history of nineteenth-century Canada.
The author presents a biography of the nineteenth century prominent Plains Cree leader, Ahtahkakoop (Starblanket). Using documentary sources as well as oral tradition, the author details Cree culture, society and economics before and during an era of rapid change. The author portrays the leadership of Ahtahkakoop as he attempted to establish his people, who were working to adapt to the disappearance of the buffalo, illness and death, missionaries, treaties schools, the uprising of 1885, and reserve life. The book is noted for its use of Cree language, Cree genealogy, Cree names for northern plains landmarks, and the stories associated with these geographic features.
In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics--the politics of ethnocide--played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of aboriginal people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald's "National Dream." It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between First Nations and non-Native populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day. " Clearing the Plains is a tour de force that dismantles and destroys the view that Canada has a special claim to humanity in its treatment of indigenous peoples. Daschuk shows how infectious disease and state-supported starvation combined to create a creeping, relentless catastrophe that persists to the present day. The prose is gripping, the analysis is incisive, and the narrative is so chilling that it leaves its reader stunned and disturbed. For days after reading it, I was unable to shake a profound sense of sorrow. This is fearless, evidence-driven history at its finest." -Elizabeth A. Fenn, author of Pox Americana "Required reading for all Canadians." -Candace Savage, author of A Geography of Blood "Clearly written, deeply researched, and properly contextualized history...Essential reading for everyone interested in the history of indigenous North America." -J.R. McNeill, author of Mosquito Empires
