Books –
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Severing the Ties that Bind
Government Repression of Indigenous Religious Ceremonies on the Prairies
Religious ceremonies were an inseparable part of Aboriginal traditional life, reinforcing social, economic, and political values. However, missionaries and government officials with ethnocentric attitudes of cultural superiority decreed that Native dances and ceremonies were immoral or un-Christian and an impediment to the integration of the Native population into Canadian society. Katherine Pettipas presents a critical analysis of the administrative policies and considers the effects of government suppression of traditional religious activities on the whole spectrum of Aboriginal life, focussing on the experiences of the Plains Cree from the mid-1880s to 1951, when the regulations pertaining to religious practices were removed from the Indian Act.
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The Ojibwa of Western Canada, 1780-1870
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.
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As Long as the Rivers Run
Hydroelectric Development and Native Communities
Waldram examines the politics of hydroelectric dam construction in the Canadian northwest, focussing on the negotiations and agreements between the developers and the Native residents. He shows the parallels between the treatment of Natives by the government of Canada in these negotiations and the treaty process a century earlier.
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Wild Mother Dancing
Maternal Narrative in Canadian Literature
Wild Mother Dancing challenges the historical absence of the mother, who, as subject and character, has been repeatedly suppressed and edited out of the literary canon. In her search for sources for telling the new (or old, forbidden story) against a tradition of narrative absence, Brandt turns to Canadian fiction representing a varety of cultural traditions — Margaret Laurence, Daphne Marlatt, Jovette Marchessault, Joy Kogawa, Sky Lee — and a collection of oral interviews about childbirth told by Mennonite women.
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Western Icelandic Short Stories
This selection of Western Icelandic writings, the first of its kind in English, represents a wide collection of first and second generation Icelandic-Canadian authors. The stories, first published between 1895 and 1930, are set mainly in North America (especially Manitoba). They reflect a weath of literary activity, from the numerous Western Icelandic newspapers and journals, to the reading circles and cultural and literary societies that supported them.
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The Plains Cree
Trade, Diplomacy, and War, 1780 to 1870
The first economic, military, and diplomatic history of the Plains Cree from contact with the Europeans in the 1670s to the disappearance of the buffalo from Cree lands by the 1870s, focussing on military and trade relations between 1790 and 1870.
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The Orders of the Dreamed
George Nelson on Cree and Northern Ojibwa Religion and Myth, 1823
Among Anglo-Canadian fur traders of the early nineteenth century, George Nelson stands out for his interest in the life and ways of the native people he encountered. In 1823 Nelson was serving as a Hudson’s Bay Company clerk in charge of the post at Lac la Ronge, an outpost of Ile a la Crosse in northeastern Saskatchewan. During that time he kept a letter-journal, addressed to his father, in which he related his observations of Cree and Northern Ojibwa religion and myth. This document is reproduced here for the first time.
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Winnipeg School of Art
This volume is a history in words and illustration of the early years of the Winnipeg School of Art, its hopes and ideals and its struggles for survival. Its story is in large part a record of art and artists in Winnipeg during the period. The growth of the School is described through the terms of its first four principals: Alexander Musgrove, Frank Johnston, Keith Gebbhardt, and L. LeMoine Fitzgerald. Biographical sketches on artists involved with the School as teachers or students from 1913 to 1934 are also included.
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The New Peoples
Being and Becoming Métis
A path-breaking collection of original essays by twelve leading Canadian and American scholars, this volume is the first major work to explore, in a North American context, the dimension and meaning of the process fundamental to the European invasion and colonization of the western hemisphere: the intermingling of European and native American peoples.
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The Edda
A Collection of Essays
Twelve essays are presented by outstanding authorities in Nordic medieval studies and range from treatment of broad aspects of the Edda, to consideration of single poems, to analysis of parts of specific works. An attactive and important collection for every scholar of Old Scandinavian.
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