No comments about Simon Fraser: In Search of Modern British Columbia.

No comments about Micmac by Choice: Elsie Sark--An Island Legend.

No comments about The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters.

No comments about The Man Who Ran Faster Than Everyone: The Story of Tom Longboat.

No comments about Bill Reid: Beyond the Essential Form (Museum Note, No 19).

1 comments about From the Land of Shadows.

1. "The life and history of Grey OWL, without Donald B. Smith, is only conjecture." Donald, without a beat takes the reader, from the get go, into a detailed , informative , and throughly documented decription of the life of Archibald Stansfeld Belaney. Like a bible to a preacher, this work is replete with fascinating and delightful insights into a most remarkable character who did, in fact, realize a fantacy. The story of Grey Owl is complex, full of adventure, and quite exciting. Like most men he had some peculiar behavior traits; however, Donald Smith does a sensitive and objective analysis which offers the reader the opportunity to make up his or her mind as to the motives and desires of Grey Owl's heart, mind and inner spirit. The book is so well documented it brings to mind the thought that this work is a masterpiece, and if one has the opportunity to experience the Canada that Grey Owl describes, he or she will come to appreciate, the effort put forth by the author is a work, couched in love; e.g., every question I have raised in the pursuit of the Grey Owl Saga, can be found directly or by implication in this book. I was so moved by it I contacted the author personally. If one desires, especially if he or she has read any or all of Grey Owl's books, to know the facts concerning any and all aspects of his life (G.O.), simply read, and have handy Donald's book, as it will guide you to a deeper appreciation of Grey Owl and his marvelous accomplishments. I am a better person for having read 'From the Land of Shadows' five times. Rich Gralewski, Pres. Jelly Roll Enterprises Santa Barbara, Ca. USA

2 comments about Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School.

1. Canadians are not known for hubris, but one thing most Canadians will show some pride about is the belief that Canada is the good guy of the world; an identity that is exhibited in everything from peacekeeping and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to politeness. However, Canada has an ugly not-too-distant past in the treatment of First Nations Peoples that is not commonly acknowledged.
   
   In her book Resistance and Renewal, Celia Haig-Brown compiles first-hand accounts from members of the Shuswap Nation of the west coast, who were forced to attend the Kamloops Indian Residential School. As children, these individuals were taken from their family homes to a giant brick institution operated by nuns and missionaries, where they were subject to all manner of abuse, and punished if they spoke their own language. The mission of these schools was to integrate Native children into white society, or in other words, cultural genocide.
   
   Resistance and Renewal is a cultural and historical study, but Haig-Brown's intentions for the book are to reach beyond the academic world. There is "richness and insight" in the stories her informants tell, and she seeks to reveal to a wide audience the skeletons in Canada's closet. The stories of her informants are organized by common themes and experiences, and lay out a clear portrait of suffering and subversion, the infliction and consequences of deep wounds. Her analysis of the school system elaborates how these injustices originated in the racist notions of Canadian government policy makers who referred to their work as "aggressive civilization."
   
   For the non-Native audience, Haig-Brown gives faces and lives to a particular segment of First Nations people, and attempts to show something of the origins of the social problems those people face today. White Canadian society can easily ignore this tiny percentage of our nation's population, but in ignoring the history of Canada's treatment of indigenous people our national identity as the good guys of human rights becomes a lie.
   
   It is important for all Canadians to bring these issues into their national historical knowledge, and to recognize that they are not in the past, but in contemporary society. The last residential school was only closed in the nineties, and the children of the system are now adults and leaders of their communities.
   
   Since its first publication in 1988, Resistance and Renewal has found a place in the popular realm. Non-Native Canadian readers continue to be educated about the state of the third world within our borders, and Native readers have found their own experiences reflected in its pages, leading to the healing of old wounds suffered by individuals and communities and to the continued fight with the Canadian government for apology and recompense.



2. This short book regarding Indian Boarding School experiences in Canada reads like a masters thesis. It was fairly dry and I had to force myself to finish it. However, it did have a "saving grace". The forward to this book was written by Randy Fred, who wrote about his life prior, during and after entering Kamloops Indian Residential School. Ms. Haig-Brown is a professional educator and tried to reinforce that tribes are taking control of the educational systems involving their children now. She did not address the cultural values involved in the meaning and goals of education, which continue to conflict between the mainstream and traditional cultures.

1 comments about Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga Indians (Kahkewaquonaby & the Mississauga Indians).

1. This is the story of the Reverend Peter Jones,(1802-1856) (Kahkewaquonaby), a Methodist missionary and a Chief of the Mississauga.

   Doanld B Smith, a History Professor at the University of Calgary, writes an important story of the conflict between the First Peoples and the Europeans in the first years of settlement of south-Central Ontario. We see this interesting man in the context of the British settlement in Canada at a time when the new nation to the south (the USA)were forcibly moving the Cherokees and other eastern tribes to west of the Mississippi. That this did not happen in Upper Canada is to an important extent due to the leadership of this one man who could interpret the Europeans and Native Peoples to each other.

No comments about Arctic Odyssey: The Diary of Diamond Jenness, Ethnologist With the Canadian Arctic Expedition in Northern Alaska and Canada, 1913-1916.

No comments about Gabriel Dumont Speaks.