Synopses & Reviews
British traders and Ojibwe hunters. Cree women and their metis
daughters. Explorers and anthropologists and Aboriginal guides and
informants. These people, their relationships, and their complex
identities and worldviews were not featured in histories of North
America until the 1970s, when scholars from multiple disciplines began
to bring new perspectives and approaches to bear on the past.
Gathering Places presents some of the most innovative and
interdisciplinary approaches to metis, fur trade, and First Nations
history being practised today. Whether they are discussing dietary
practices on the Plateau, trees as cultural and geographical markers in
the trade, the meanings of totemic signatures, issues of representation
in public history, or the writings of Aboriginal anthropologists and
historians, the authors link archival, archaeological, material, oral,
and ethnographic evidence to offer novel explorations that extend
beyond earlier scholarship centred on the archive. They draw on
Aboriginal perspectives, material forms of evidence, and personal
approaches to history to illuminate cross-cultural encounters and
challenge older approaches to the past.
These fascinating essays on aspects of the history of Rupert's
Land mark a significant departure from the old paradigm of history
writing and will serve as models for recovering and communicating
Aboriginal and cross-cultural experiences and perspectives.
Review
The originality and scholarly depth of its chapters make
Gathering Places: Aboriginal and Fur Trade Histories a fitting tribute to the scholar it honours and a likely future staple in the fields of Native studies and Native history.
- J.R. Miller, Canada Research Chair in Native-Newcomer Relations, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan
Synopsis
Scholars from multiple disciplines draw on unique and innovative sources - archaeological and material evidence, personal experience and oral history - to recover Aboriginal and cross-cultural histories and explore new approaches to the past.
Synopsis
British traders and Ojibwe hunters. Cree women and their metis daughters. These people and their complex identities were not featured in history writing until the 1970s, when scholars from multiple disciplines began to bring new perspectives to bear on the past. Gathering Places presents some of the most innovative approaches to metis, fur trade, and First Nations history being practised today. By drawing on archaeological, material, oral, and ethnographic evidence and exploring personal approaches to history and scholarship, the authors depart from the old paradigm of history writing and offer new models for recovering Aboriginal and cross-cultural experiences and perspectives.
Table of Contents
Preface
1
Introduction: Complex Subjectivities, Multiple Ways of Knowing
/ Laura Peers and Carolyn Podruchny
Part 1: Using Material Culture
2 Putting Up
Poles: Power, Navigation, and Cultural Mixing in the Fur Trade /
Carolyn Podruchny, Frederic W. Gleach, and Roger Roulette
3 Dressing for
the Homeward Journey: Western Anishinaabe Leadership Roles Viewed
through Two Nineteenth-Century Burials / Cory Willmott and
Kevin Brownlee
Part 2: Using Documents
4 Anishinaabe
Toodaims: Contexts for Politics, Kinship, and Identity in the Eastern
Great Lakes / Heidi Bohaker
5 The Contours
of Everyday Life: Food and Identity in the Plateau Fur Trade
/ Elizabeth Vibert
6 "Make
it last forever as it is": John McDonald of Garth's Vision
of a Native Kingdom in the Northwest / Germaine
Warkentin
Part 3: Ways of Knowing
7 Being
and Becoming Métis: A Personal Reflection / Heather
Devine
8 Historical
Research and the Place of Oral History: Conversations from Berens River
/ Susan Elaine Gray
Part 4: Ways of Representing
9 Border
Identities: Métis, Halfbreed, and Mixed-Blood / Theresa
Schenck
10 Edward
Ahenakew's Tutelage by Paul Wallace: Reluctant Scholarship,
Inadvertent Preservation / David R. Miller
11 Aboriginal
History and Historic Sites: The Shifting Ground / Laura Peers
and Robert Coutts
Afterword: Aaniskotaapaan -- Generations and Successions /
Jennifer S.H. Brown
Contributors
Index