The Ojibwa of Western Canada 1780-1870
- Publisher
- University of Manitoba Press
- Initial publish date
- Oct 1994
- Category
- Native American, Pre-Confederation (to 1867), Native American Studies
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780887556364
- Publish Date
- Oct 1994
- List Price
- $19.95
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780887551604
- Publish Date
- Oct 1994
- List Price
- $39.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780887552601
- Publish Date
- Sep 2009
- List Price
- $25.00
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Description
Among the most dynamic Aboriginal peoples in western Canada today are the Ojibwa, who have played an especially vital role in the development of an Aboriginal political voice at both levels of government. Yet, they are relative newcomers to the region, occupying the parkland and prairies only since the end of the 18th century. This work traces the origins of the western Ojibwa, their adaptations to the West, and the ways in which they have coped with the many challenges they faced in the first century of their history in that region, between 1780 and 1870.
The western Ojibwa are descendants of Ojibwa who migrated from around the Great Lakes in the late 18th century. This was an era of dramatic change. Between 1780 and 1870, they survived waves of epidemic disease, the rise and decline of the fur trade, the depletion of game, the founding of non-Native settlement, the loss of tribal lands, and the government's assertion of political control over them. As a people who emerged, adapted, and survived in a climate of change, the western Ojibwa demonstrate both the effects of historic forces that acted upon Native peoples, and the spirit, determination, and adaptive strategies that the Native people have used to cope with those forces. This study examines the emergence of the western Ojibwa within this context, seeing both the cultural changes that they chose to make and the continuity within their culture as responses to historical pressures.
The Ojibwa of Western Canada differs from earlier works by focussing closely on the details of western Ojibwa history in the crucial century of their emergence. It is based on documents to which pioneering scholars did not have access, including fur traders' and missionaries' journals, letters, and reminiscences. Ethnographic and archaeological data, and the evidence of material culture and photographic and art images, are also examined in this well-researched and clearly written history.
About the author
Laura Peers is interested in the meanings that heritage objects hold for Indigenous peoples today and in relationships between museums and Indigenous peoples. Her publications include Museums and Source Communities (with Alison K. Brown), “Ceremonies of Renewal: Visits, Relationships and Healing in the Museum Space,” and This Is Our Life: Haida Material Heritage and Changing Museum Practice (with Cara Krmpotich).
Awards
- Winner, Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title
Other titles by
Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America
Material Culture in Motion, c.1780 - 1980
Visiting With the Ancestors
Blackfoot Shirts in Museum Spaces
This Is Our Life
Haida Material Heritage and Changing Museum Practice
Gathering Places
Aboriginal and Fur Trade Histories
Pictures Bring Us Messages / Sinaakssiiksi aohtsimaahpihkookiyaawa
Photographs and Histories from the Kainai Nation
Pictures Bring Us Messages / Sinaakssiiksi aohtsimaahpihkookiyaawa
Photographs and Histories from the Kainai Nation