BOOK REVIEWS

Unmarked: childhood and young adulthood. Each Landscapes along Highway 16 of the sixteen chapters is a beautifully crafted essay, loosely connected with Sarah de Leeuw the others but able to stand alone, on the Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2004. complexities and sadness - there is little happiness in this book - of life in the 118 pp. $19.95 paper. settlements through which de Leeuw's JOCELYN SMITH journey pulls her. De Leeuw draws her University of British Columbia characters and their sorrow and anger with deft, economical strokes: "They auctioned orfjeskatla, piece by piece ... n 1982 SARAH DE LEEUW'S father put I remember clearly the look of Leaha's on a suit and tie - "a rare sight," (1) I father. Sportsmen Unfiltered cigarette de Leeuw writes - and then left for the cradled gently between fingers, sitting airport. He returned on the evening of legs apart, elbows on knees, on the the third day to tell his family that he hood of his gold Cadillac. A stunned had at last found a job. The journey to look of resignation, the same look this new job would take the family away I had always imagined might flash from Duncan, beyond Prince George across a faller's face the instant he and Burns Lake, beyond Terrace and cut into a widow maker, those terrible Prince Rupert, across the Hecate Strait trees who in such a long split second to Port Clements. For eight-year-old rip out to take a man down" (20). de Leeuw, this journey, "three days Writing of her years in Kitimat, she travel and two nights sleep away from sums up an entire adolescence with the people I have left behind," (9) is just a handful of well-chosen phrases: a journey to a place on the edge of "The steep corner around the bridge nothingness. where your brother had his first and Unmarked: Landscapes along Highway last car accident ... where you passed, 16 is de Leeuw's account of her life over and over, vowing each time was on that edge of nothingness and your last, each time to move away. Far her journey back along Highway 16, away. Far away from endless Friday through Juskatla, Kitimat, Kitwanga, nights of bootlegging booze from the Rosswood, the Nass Valley, through manager of the restaurant where you

BC STUDIES, no. 145, Spring 2005 IOJ so$ BC STUDIES worked, leaving after long shifts, hair Encyclopedia of Literature thick with the fatty scent of cheese and in Canada pizza dough, cheap wine and parents who take their children to the one and Edited by W.H.New only family restaurant, exhaling their Toronto: University of Toronto cigarette smoke over their kids' heads Press, 2002.1,347 pp. $75.00 cloth. and directly into your green and white uniform. Any goddamn place that isn't RICHARD J. LANE here, even if it's just over there, is far Malaspina University College enough for you. It's away" (48). But the main presence in Unmarked HE TASK APPEARS straightforward is the landscape of northern British T- in this case, to read W.H. New's Columbia, and de Leeuw's evocation monumental Encyclopedia ofLiterature in of that landscape is the greatest Canada for information on BC writing. achievement in this wonderful book. There is, usefully, an entry on British Whether she is describing "the Zoo" Columbia (unsigned, meaning "written at Cranberry Junction or the hills by New"): it gives pertinent historical, that surround Prince George or the political, and social information, and beaches of Tlell, de Leeuw writes then lists some significant writers. The with a compassion and insight that list does not claim to be exhaustive, reveal an extraordinary and subtle but there are seventy-one names in talent. She served recently as the the entry, and that is a great deal more research coordinator for the University than some people might expect to see. of Northern British Columbia's task Of course there are some names missing, force on the effects of substance abuse but - here goes, into the labyrinth - that on children, and is currently working does not mean that the names do not on a PhD in cultural geography at appear elsewhere. Queen's University. The question A minor popular fiction writer with that must be asked is whether she will whom I am familiar, Bertrand William continue to write creative nonfiction. Sinclair, does not appear in the list, but Unmarked: Landscapes along Highway he is in the encyclopedia: "Novelist; b 16 is a remarkable book, and to sustain Edinburgh 9 Jan 1881, d Pender Harbour, its momentum in future writings will BC, 20 Oct 1972" the entry (written by be a challenge. There is no reason to James Doyle) tells me; further: "His 12 think that de Leeuw cannot meet that novels are tales of adventure featuring challenge, but even if she never writes cowboys, prospectors, and fishermen, another word of creative nonfiction, she celebrating individualism while has already produced an outstanding criticizing monopoly capitalism. His best testament to lives lived in northern work is Poor Man s Rock (1920), an attack British Columbia. on the corporations controlling the Pacific salmon fishery, within a romantic plot of a war veteran who by his personal and commercial decency wins economic success and the heroine's love" (1,048). "Enough already," I can hear the reader of this review saying. By what criteria does Sinclair warrant so much space in Book Reviews sop the encyclopedia or in this review? But Deverell, Brian Fawcett, William there's the rub: by what criteria should Gibson, Allerdale Grainger, he (or any other "minor" author) be Stephen Guppy, Roderick Haig- either marginalized or left out? Sinclair Brown, Robert Harlow, Christie appears, for example, in some recent Harris, Robert Heidbreder, Jack critical work: Dagmar Novak's Dubious Hodgins, Mark Anthony Jarman, Glory: The Two World Wars and the John Jewitt, Pauline Johnson, Canadian Novel (2000), Laurie Ricou's Surjeet Kalsey, Lionel Kearns, The Arbutus/Madrone Files: Reading Joy Kogawa, Betty Lambert, Sky the Pacific Northwest (2002), and in an Lee, Sing Lim, Dorothy Livesay, important essay by Lindsey McMaster, Malcolm Lowry, Pat Lowther, Lee "The Urban Working Girl in Turn-of- Maracle, Daphne Marlatt, Bill the- Century Canadian Fiction" (2002; McConnell, George McWhirter, see Lane 2002 and 2004). Another BC Susan Musgrave, William New, writer not on the list is the Kwantlen Eric Nicol, Frederick Niven, Lucy First Nation dramatist and poet Joseph Ng, Howard O'Hagan, P.K. Page, A. Dandurand; however, he can be Morris Panych, Bill Reid, Harold tracked down, via the supplementary Rheinisch, Harry Robinson, index, to the entry on First Nations Carmen Rodriguez, Linda Rogers, literature (written by Lally Grauer): Jane Rule, Robin Skelton, Paul St. "The poems of Joseph A. Dandurand Pierre, Ron Smith, Sharon Thesen, (Kwantlen) in looking into the eyes of my Audrey Thomas, Peter Trower, forgotten dreams (1998) convey intense Michael Turner, Guillermo feeling in a spare, meditative form" Verdecchia, David Watmough, (373). Should these two authors - one Sheila Watson, Phyllis Webb, a popular fiction "genre" writer of the Howard White, Ethel Wilson, past, the other a vibrant, up-and-coming Carol Windley, Jim Wong-Chu, author of the present day - be on the George Woodcock, L.R. Wright, J. periphery of the Encyclopedia^ I need Michael Yates, and Paul Yee (155) another entry, on Region, Regionalism (written by Laurie Ricou) to answer In the Encyclopedia all of the above that question: "Differing typologies surnames are capitalized, indicating a of, and critical approaches to literary separate entry; one small oddity is that regionalism suggest some of the ways the entry for Vancouver poet Sharon place and identity interrelate" (948). Thesen appears to have gone astray. Four entries so far, to track down and Thesen, who was born in 1946, moved perhaps makes sense of the placement to British Columbia in 1952; winner of just two BC authors. of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award for A Pair of Scissors (2000), Thesen Perhaps it is time to turn to that list has published books of poetry and of seventy- one authors : anthologies, and edits the Capilano Caroline Adderson, Jeannette Review. Many of the authors in the Armstrong, Irene Baird, Nick list are discussed elsewhere in the Bantock, Robin Blaser, George Encyclopedia', for example, Christie Bowering, Robert Bringhurst, Harris is also mentioned in the lengthy Anne Cameron, Emily Carr, Awards and Literary Prizes entry George Clutesi, Douglas (written by R.G. Siemens), the Book Coupland, Jeff Derksen, Bill Design and Illustration entry (written iso BC STUDIES

by Richard Cavell), the Children's literature entry (mentioned above) is Literature in English entry (written by essential reading for anyone grappling Adrienne Kertzer), her author entry for the first time with the indigenous (Christie Harris, unsigned), and finally writers (and speakers) of British the Ireland entry (written by John Columbia and Canada. Moffatt). Not all of the BC authors get Inevitably, the question of which BC such extensive coverage, from so many authors got "left out" entirely becomes different critics, but the many different an issue; for some reviewers, this is contexts and perspectives work overall where the critical fun starts (i.e., the to form a rich palimpsest. critic can get nasty). For this reviewer, Other related entries are of use to considering that the Encyclopedia as a the BC researcher, for example the whole is a landmark achievement in entry on Archives, Manuscripts, and the criticism of Canadian literature, Special Collections (written by Joann listing some of these omitted authors is McCaig), which mentions the poetry simply a way of encouraging their future collection at the National Library of inclusion in a second or updated edition. Canada (George Bowering, Daphne An entry on Joseph A. Dandurand Marlatt, and Phyllis Webb), as well as listing all of his books of poetry and holdings on Jack Hodgins and Audrey plays would be an improvement on Thomas; the entry also mentions BC his current brief mention (see, for materials held at many Canadian example, his latest poetry collection universities as well as the extensive called Shake). An entry on Black BC collections at the University of British literature "and orature" (as Wayde Columbia (Roderick Haig-Brown, Compton puts it) would be wonderful. Malcolm Lowry, Eric Nicol, Spider Admittedly some of the authors in the Robinson, Jane Rule, Bertrand Sinclair, latter category are hard to track down, Ethel Wilson). Another key entry for but their writings play a significant scholars of BC writing is the short-but- role in BC literature, for example, to-the-point Ecocriticism (written by Truman Green's A Credit to Your Race Laurie Ricou), which defines this (1973)? which is British Columbia's first particular methodology as the attempt black novel (see Compton, 27). The "to integrate the examination of novel, one of a small print-run of 300 text and language with the science copies, is available at the University of of ecology" (324). Ricou argues that British Columbia's Special Collections "Canadian literary studies, with their Division; it has a cover illustration by long-standing interest in nature, BC artist and photographer Phyllis wilderness, and landscape, might be Greenwood, whose written and said to have always been ecocritical. visual work is also available at Special But studies that labelled themselves in Collections). that way began to emerge only in the Some BC writers are simply omitted 1990s" (324). The cross-reference to the due to the cut-off dates involved in the Nature entry leads one to more cross- preparation and production of the referencing: entries on the Animal Encyclopedia', as New indicates in the Story; back to Ecocriticism; over to preface, the materials cover the period Landscape, Region, and Science; and up to the year 2000. Work in need of then on to Nature Writing, the latter future coverage includes Timothy a fascinating entry written by Iain Taylor's Stanley Park (2001) and the Higgins. Finally, the First Nations multimedia production by Stan Book Reviews

Douglas and Michael Turner entitled - the long silence after The Double Hook. Journey into Fear (2002), although the (Her devotees reason that as that novel latter could simply be added to the is the high point of Canadian literature, current entry on Turner (written by its n6 pages are the equal to any other Brett Josef Grubisic). Tracking down writer's two dozen volumes)" (1,198). omitted authors - and contributors to Combined with the selected "Fur­ write decent entries on them - is an ther reading" (which will obviously also endless task, and publishers' production need updating and/or expanding with schedules, regardless of whether later editions of the Encyclopedia) these they are for hard-copy or electronic author entries are an excellent place to publications, are necessarily a limiting start exploring BC writing. Not all of factor. The editor's life becomes far the entries, however, give such coverage. easier once an author has died; living Disappointingly short entries include authors have a nasty habit of writing the one on Eden Robinson (written by more books. K.G. Stewart) and the slightly longer How useful is the Encyclopedia entry on William Gibson (written for readers in search of BC-related by Peter Roman Babiak). Stewart material, especially those who might writes a brief summary, but no more, want to follow up their browsing in about two very moving and powerful more formal ways, such as constructing books: Robinson's Traplines (1996) courses in BC writing? The author and Monkey Beach (1997). The books entries appear well researched, cover deal with physical and sexual abuse key texts, and provide summary and within First Nations communities and critical commentary. Examining three within the context of the residential entries at random - Jack Hodgins school system; both books rework the (written by Chris Gittings), Bill Reid traditional Western Bildungsroman, and (written by Robert Bringhurst), and Monkey Beach reworks the Canadian Sheila Watson (written by George gothic (see Andrews 2001; Lane Bowering) - I am struck by the 2003). Robinson also contrasts modern exceptionally high quality of the Canadian consumer culture with First writing and their informative nature. Nations ritual and spirituality; she All three entries inspire the reader to explores premodern and postmodern turn to the primary authors/texts being conceptions of indigenous culture and covered, and all three contributors attempts a mode of writing that does write with an obvious affinity for not blandly synthesize the two. The their subject-matter. For example, William Gibson entry covers all of the Bowering writes with critical distance essentials, but it fails, in my opinion, and a clear sense of enjoyment: "Sheila to convey the sheer excitement that Watson had unusual knowledge and his work has generated, especially in sophisticated opinions about the entire the world of new media technologies course of international writings, arts, and postmodernism (see, for example, and philosophy in the 20th century. In a Ivison's entry in the Dictionary of conference address, she could deliver an Literary Biography, vol. 251). However, elaborate extemporized argument that having said this, the Encyclopedia does illuminated the connectives in 20th- construct a large, complex "virtual century thought and art. Thus the entry," or simulacrum, of Gibson, puzzlement and disappointment over with the inevitable cross-referencing: the most obvious feature of her career entries are Awards and Literary IJ2 BC STUDIES

Prizes; British Columbia; Cyberpunk Green, Truman. 1973. A Credit to Your (unsigned); Machines (unsigned); Race: A Novel. Tsawwassen, BC: Novel (unsigned); Science Fiction and Simple Thoughts Press. Fantasy (written by Robert Runté); Ivison, Douglas. 2002. "William Technology, Communications, and Gibson (17 March 1948-)." Pp. 96- Canadian Literature (written by 107 in Dictionary of Literary Biography Christopher Keep); and Utopia (written Volume 251: Canadian Fantasy and byKlayDyer). Science-Fiction Writers, ed. Douglas Finally, it is important to bear in Ivison. Farmington Mills, MI: Gale mind that the BC authors covered in Group. the Encyclopedia are, of course, just one Lane, Richard J. 2002. "Canada." In The strand in a complex interweaving of Year's Work in English Studies,vol. 81, writers, subjects, critical concepts, and ed. William Baker and Kenneth themes from across the whole of Canada Womack, 1037-52. Oxford: Oxford and beyond. New has successfully University Press. (Review of Novak incorporated the traditional and the and other relevant B.W. Sinclair canonical with the contemporary and materials.) the cutting edge; since BC authors are ———. 2003. "Reclaiming Maps and necessarily placed, and read, within Metaphors: Canadian First Nations the contexts of their production, and Narratives of Place." In Beyond the wide scope of the Encyclopedia the Borders: American Literature and adds to its value as a research tool Post-Colonial Theory, ed. Deborah for studying BC literature. The Madsen, 184-94. London: Pluto. labyrinthine encyclopedia structure is —.2004. "Canada." In The Years perfectly suited to the contemporary Work in English Studies, vol. 83, view of literary texts as intertextual, ed. William Baker and Kenneth heterogeneous assemblages. Womack, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Review of Ricou and WORKS CITED AND McMaster; information concerning ADDITIONAL REFERENCE Christie Harris Papers /archival MATERIALS holdings.) McMaster, Lindsey. 2002. "The Urban Andrews, Jennifer. 2001. "Native Working Girl in Turn-of-the- Canadian Gothic Refigured: Reading Century Canadian Fiction." Essays Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach" on Canadian Writing jy: 1-25. Essays on Canadian Writing 73: 1-24. Novak, Dagmar. 2000. Dubious Glory: Compton, Wayde, ed. 2001. Bluesprint: The Two World Wars and the Canadian Black British Columbian Literature Novel. New York: Peter Lang. and Orature. Vancouver: Arsenal Ricou, Laurie. 2002. The Arbutus/ Pulp Press. Madrone Files: Reading the Pacific Dandurand, Joseph A. 2003. Shake. Fort Northwest. Edmonton: NeWest. Langley, BC: Skyuks Press. Taylor, Timothy. 2001. Stanley Park: A Douglas, Stan, with screenplay by Novel. Toronto: Alfred A Knopf. Douglas and Michael Turner. 2002. Journey into Fear. London/Kôhn: Serpentine Gallery/Verlag der Buch- handlung Walther Kônig. Book Reviews ffj

The Old Red Shirt: of a public passion for justice, a love Pioneer Poets of British Columbia of literary pathos, and a widespread commitment to recording in verse Yvonne Mearns Klan form people's outrage, joy, ironic wit, Introduction by Peter Trower and conventional sentiment. A personal note: because I once Vancouver: Transmontanus/New attended Moberly School in Vancouver Star Books, 2004.110 pp. Illus. $16.00 (named for the civil servant surveyor - paper. which seemed so much less adventurous W.H.NEW to the ten-year-old mind than did the names of neighbouring schools: University of British Columbia Tecumseh, Mackenzie, Fleming, Van Home), I fastened first not on the HE TITLE QY The Old Red Shirt caribou medicine and paddling songs Tcomes from one of the poems that begin this collection but, rather, that Yvonne Mearns Klan collects in on the poems by and about Walter this wonderful book. The poem in Moberly. The doggerel explanation of question is by Rebecca Gibbs, a black how a pig stole his boot is the stuff of woman who had established a laundry jocular exchange among friends; the in Barkerville by 1868 and who published vitriol towards Van Home suggests poems in the Cariboo Sentinel, It tells of a livelier politics than the term "civil a poor miner who brings a threadbare servant" ever suggested in elementary shirt to a laundress to wash and repair school history; and Walter's sister - a task that leads her to reflect on the Emma's plaintive request for him to plight of miners, mothers, and the return home to England is reminiscent economics of power: "O! traders who of many a Victorian aesthetic gesture. wish to do good, / Have pity on men Walter's holograph addendum to the who earn your wealth, / Grudge not manuscript of Emma's poem, however, the poor miner his food" (47). As with hints at a more complex personality: the other sixty-five "pioneer poems" in "A restless spirit, a ceaseless wish / the collection, Klan less annotates the Debars one from a home of bliss" (28) verse than contextualizes it, introducing - suggesting that a full biography is in each work with a short, lively outline of order. , the historical events that gave rise to it: gold, railway construction, road travel, Klan's collection records moments of rural mail delivery, orchard-growing, Yankee presumption on the gold fields logging, sealing, the missions, political ("Soon our banner will be streaming, change. The result is a fascinating / Soon the eagle will be screaming, / glimpse of (primarily) nineteenth- And the lion - see it cowers, / Hurrah, century life in British Columbia - as it boys, the river's ours" [24]), tells of was being lived by people doing ordinary explosion and death on the Fraser, work and as it was being written into and offers poems that criticize some rhyme and published in local papers missionaries' practice of whipping throughout the colony/province. The Native children. Other poems detail Old Redl Shirt'collects verses that have life aboard the emigrant ships, accidents almost never been reprinted - nor on the wagon roads, the actions of local are they claimed here as great. But celebrities, Doukhobor resentment of together for the first time, they tell the Cossacks, and the tribulations of the telegraph trail and local publishing ssj BC STUDIES

in Rossland. One poem was written Vancouver: A Novel on a blazed tree on the overland route David Cruise to the Klondike ("Damn the journey, Damn the track / Damn the distance and Allison Griffiths there and back, / Damn the sunshine, Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers, Damn the weather, / Damn the gold- 2003. 753 pp. $37.95 cloth. fields altogether" [85]); another, on surveying for the Canadian Pacific LARRY GRANT Railway, was bizarrely pencilled onto Musqueam Indian Band a sanded Crée skull (55). UBC, First Nations Language While some tales here tell about Program starvation and people's unkindness, there is also humour (a quatrain on AND the closure of a pub, irony about ULRICH TEUCHER inflated opinions and expectations, a Scots dialect chorus on the "daftest University of Saskatchewan hour" [42] spent dancing with the hurdy-gurdy girls in Barkerville). ECENTLY, THERE HAS BEEN a Surge The writers, some anonymous, most Rin sweeping popular portrayals of of them male, include Simon Fraser's Canadian history and its Aboriginal son John and C.G.D. Roberts's son origins, most notably in the CBC pro­ LJoyd; most (with the exception of duction Canada: A People's History Bertrand Sinclair and A.M. Stephen) (2000) but also in the current theatrical are largely unknown. Overall, they use Vancouver staging of British Columbia's the rhetorical conventions of the time history in Storyeum as well as the to deal with the land (fragrant cedar, presentation of Vancouver's history in giant pine, fretted shore, lone distant David Cruise and Allison Griffiths' northern land), and they almost in­ Vancouver: A Novel. The latter is an variably rely on rhyme. The poems imaginative account constructed from range in strategy from epitaphs (for a the extensive research of historical dog, a horse) and a square dance call to evidence linking the various histories vernacular couplets and quatrains that of the Aboriginal people and immigrant echo Methodist hymns and vaudeville ethnicities that colour Vancouver songs. Standing out among them are today. an unrhymed love poem, written as a The action begins at the end of the "Kite Song" and translated from an last ice age, about 16,000 years ago, when anonymous Chinese cannery worker Tpoke, of African heredity, wanders (106), and a passage (reset as a found from Kamchatka into Alaska. He does poem called "This Green and Gracious not know it yet but the green jade beads Land") from the prose record of the that he carries provide not only spiritual "girlhood days" of a part-Okanagan guidance but also a helpful structure for woman, Eliza Jane Swalwell: "I readers. These beads weave together have sometimes seen things / sensed African, Oriental, and Aboriginal something / so serene and beautiful / ethnicities and mythologies, appearing it left me weak / and weeping / as I sat and disappearing over the millennia in the saddle" (70). in various of the book's chapters, to be released once again, in the final chapter, from Stanley Park's Siwash Book Reviews -HJ

Rock during an earthquake. This main Aboriginal audience. Aboriginal readers thread organizes the book's narrative, will appreciate some quite wonderful as Tooke's grandchild, Mànto, wanders descriptions of cultural practices, for southward from Alaska, braves a example, the ingenuity involved in flooding Fraser River, and settles in its salmon fishing (199). However, the delta. Fifteen millennia (and a chapter) writing also reveals many (Western) later, we observe Manto's descendants misconceptions of Aboriginal culture. as their chief forces the current keeper Foremost among these, the Salish tribes of the green beads, Uunutu, to give his are portrayed as quite independent and pregnant daughter, Gitsula, away as a as competing with each other. However, bride to visiting Nuu-chah-nulth sailors genealogy shows that tribes were (and - without disclosing her condition. are) tightly linked through inter­ The following chapters trace ever marriage and kinship ties. Similarly, shorter time periods, giving the reader terms such as "chief" (e.g., 88) suggest a view into the ethnic mosaic and domineering rulership, ignoring the cultural practices of: a group of Natives Salish family-based system in which who behave quite stereotypically by the family that is most beneficial murdering everybody on one of Juan towards the community proffers de Fuca's ships in English Bay (except its "headman" or "headwoman" to for the sailor Mindia Estravi); the wily negotiate consensus between a tribe's Darrog Wiley, who saves Fort Langley different families without alienating from a zealous priest and certain anyone. A tribal headperson could destruction at the hands of the Natives; not possibly give away a woman (e.g., the intertwining businesses of the Gitsula) from another family, nor would Chinese Soon Chong and the British s/he dare to hide Gitsula's pregnancy Warburton Pike, involving steamship from the feared Nuu-chah-nulth lines, opium, and the Chinese mafia; an visitors. One more point: these visitors enterprising Nanak Singh from India, are said to paddle their eighty-foot-long who sets up the first farms in the Fraser seagoing canoes with a mere eleven men Valley; and the adventure-seeking (104) - at least twenty men would be German Konrad von Schaumberg, required just to get such a boat past the who ends up dabbling in real estate, a Saanich currents, let alone across the narrative cue for 1960s penny stocks and Strait. the father-daughter stock-promoter These misconceptions are just a team of the Dolbys. Finally, with Salish few of many examples. In addition, Ellie Nesbitt in today's Vancouver, the the authors appear to draw from his­ novel turns full circle as we find the torical accounts that are refashioned green beads at Siwash Rock. and fictionalized to fit a Vancouver The novel portrays, quite reali­ context (e.g., Mindia Estravi's English stically, British colonialism and the Bay murder account is reminiscent of many European and Asian immi­ John R. Jewitt's experiences in Nootka grants who view Vancouver and its Sound as recounted in White Slaves of surroundings as a land of opportunity, Maquinna: Narrative of the Adventures wanting to exploit natural resources, and Suffering of John R. Jewitt [2000]). acquire land, speculate, become rich, For knowledgeable readers, such blur- and retire. The rugged individualism rings of place and action can make the of these immigrant entrepreneurs reading interesting and, at the same will likely appeal to the novel's non- time, frustrating. It is true that the JT6 BC STUDIES

book is identified as a novel, but since pheasant *s head / ... like a bloodied it incorporates a lot of historical details gaff" Especially in Low Water Slack readers may not always remember that (1995) and the novel Downriver Drift it is fictional. This may be a problem (2000), Bowling sings salmon with a for a young Aboriginal readership resonance rivalling Daphne Marlatt's that, in the (traditional) absence of Steveston. The Witness Ghost is Bowling's written Aboriginal histories, might serial elegy for his father, a friendly, find some Eurocentric representations sometimes frightened witness to his confusing. Aside from this serious lifelong work as fisher of the Fraser caveat, the book is an entertaining River. The endlessly moving "dying-as - read, providing a running history of it's born" salmon provides both depth Vancouver's dynamic formation and and mystery to the understanding of suggesting many millennia of evidence a father's commitment/The opening for Aboriginal life in Vancouver. and title poem, a moment-by-moment tracking of an early morning fishing trip, affectionately and gradually reveals the humbling "dictates of your work": The Witness Ghost the shove on the shoulder bones, the Tim Bowling tidal pull of the nets, the staking of a garden with broken hockey sticks. Victoria: Nightwôod Editions, Russell Thornton's House Built of 2003. 88 pp. $15.95 paper. Rain broods, as his title implies, on a one-time British Columbia home Taking the Names Down that nurtures but hardly comforts or from the Hill shelters. Mist — Thornton evocatively Philip Kevin Paul redefines it as "the rain / ... refining itself" - "thread[s]" through the Madeira Park, BC: Harbour, book. The image is commonplace in 2003. 96 pp. $14.95 paper. the coastal aesthetic. The collection's penultimate poem, "Solstice Mist" House Built of Rain (82-3), illustrates a typical set of tautologies contemplating the cen­ Russell Thornton tral paradox of the mist-scape; that Madeira Park, BC: Harbour, is, that outlines and identities are 2003. 88 pp. $16.95 paper. blurred, "inscrutable," but for all their "unknowable"-nés s more attractively LAURIE RICOU "brightening ... with / impossible University of British Columbia gentleness." "Solstice Mist" hides any precise sense of physical location, LTHOUGH HE HAS LIVED SOme while the characters, careless with Ayears now in Edmonton, Tim love as with violence, are identified Bowling continues to be one of the only as "someone." In other words, most eloquent interpreters of British Thornton's poetic emphasizes the Columbia, especially of the river-coast generalized impression and sensation scene and image: the sky wearing a at the expense of specific images or "sodden pea-coat," the "cries" of the coal temporal and spatial details. So too trains as they "go down to the sea," that with narrative, as in the deliberately glimpse through stubble of the "cock- awkward anecdote in "Lonsdale Book Reviews ss/

Quay" (36-7), where "perhaps" is a a translation, I assume. "Sox, HELI" ruling condition, and description of does not mean salal, but salal shapes movements is more "exquisite" than love and sweetness and the promise the reverberations of metaphor. of harvest and "jest." Many of Paul's As his title suggests, Philip Kevin poems imagine the songs of stream Paul at once trusts in and takes and tree and animal discovered in responsibility for the mystery of listening to his new and ancient naming. Several of his poems, and language. They turn like water in those most interesting to me, translate our head; we must keep returning to terms from his native Saanich dialect. them. "Translate" may not be quite the right word because the term may imply some sort of equivalence, Clearcut Cause while the branching of Paul's lines implies a growing of connections. Steve Anderson "Water drinker" may be the literal Prince George: Caitlin Press, 2004. translation of Ko Ko HLC, apparently Saanich for arbutus (20 -3). But Paul's 188 pp. $18.95 paper. poem teaches us - and hence it is a MICHAEL PULLMAN EGAN "BC study" - that speaking the word Washington State University Ko Ko HLC is singing the song of the stream, which is, after all, shaped by the trees. Paul invites us not just to TRUGGLES OVER THE use of British learn a translation, or to listen to a SColumbia's natural resources are new word and try to pronounce it, but a ubiquitous feature of the province's also to imagine the thoughts that the historical landscape. How we should voice and exchange compound and manage our lumber, fisheries, water, compress: and minerals — and who should manage them - mark recurrent debates in the Imagine their thoughts provincial legislature and throughout when they realized communities dependent upon these every stream has its own song resources for their livelihood. In from the shape made by the trees Clearcut Cause, Steve Anderson offers around it, an account of an environmental the sound of the water protest gone wrong. Set just outside turning in the hollow, Kaslo, British Columbia, snuggled returning to them from between Kokanee Glacier Provincial the leaves. (22) Park and Kootenay Lake, Anderson's novel presents both sides of a logging When it comes to arbutus's cousin dispute. Local environmentalists in the heather family, the Saanich - disparagingly called "greenies" by the names themselves compound to logger - put up a roadblock in order to find salal: HELI; S'HELI; sox, HELI, prevent the cutting of a stand of trees the three parts of the poem "What on the edge of a park along Keen Creek. We Call Life." The three sections of The standoff, then, becomes a showcase the poem build alive and lively into for the disparate positions present in a personal belief. Although the poem local environmental dispute. On the honours "the story of my mother's love one hand, logging contractors and for salal berries," salal is not directly SJ# BC STUDIES their employees are feeling the pressure country and it warrants a story, but the of new environmental legislation that wonders of these forests are lost behind has eaten into their profits and so they Anderson's wooden characters and their are desperate to get out the cut. On the mundane chatter. other hand, protesters see only further destruction of the environment and are critical of the money-first mentality that Framing the West: Race, Gender, drives the logging industry. Anderson offers fair treatment of both perspectives and the Photographic Frontier and invites his readers to witness parties in the Pacific Northwest on both sides of the debate. Carol J. Williams But in his efforts to be even-handed, Anderson falls into a difficult trap. Too Oxford University Press, 2003. 272 much of his story is simplistic to the pp. Maps, illus. $29.95 paper. point that it does little to hold the reader's attention or interest. The KIM GREENWELL characters rarely reach beyond their University of Michigan stereotypes. The loggers are, for the most part, honest, hard-working, HOTOGRAPHS OCCUPY a paradoxical blue-collar types who work hard, cuss Pplace in our historical imagination. often, love their children, and just As Carol J. Williams notes in the want to do an honest day's work. The introduction to Framing the West: Race, environmentalists are a combination Gender, and the Photographic Frontier of university-educated ecologists and in the Pacific Northwest, contemporary hippies, not terribly organized but historians have primarily employed resolute nonetheless. A few characters photographs as illustrations "to em­ attempt to blur these categories, but bellish an unfurling historical narrative" they don't succeed. In addition, the (7). Supplements but rarely substitutes dialogue is at times hopelessly con­ for linguistic sources, photographs trived. Anderson lets his characters retain a relatively secondary status do much of the talking for him, but within conventional historiography. because none of these characters Yet, whether on their own or as is particularly complicated, their illustrations, photographs wield a manufactured dialogue establishes their formidable signifying power linked, rationale for behaving the way they do, but not reducible, to the captions and but it is more informative than it is texts that often accompany and enframe compassionate. In sum, Anderson does them. It is a power that we ignore at our little to provoke his readers' sympathies peril and that we can best understand or passions. by examining photography's complex And the story ultimately offers dynamics of production, circulation, precious little. Rather than letting and interpretation. This is the his­ the stand-off ferment to a complicated torical task Williams undertakes with crescendo, the novel's climax is sensitivity, skill, and nuance in Framing abrupt, far-fetched, and predictable, the West. its dénouement even more so. Further, Offering a unique twist on the ail- Anderson conveys little sense of the too-familiar and often romanticized natural landscape that serves as the imagery of North America's north­ backdrop to this book. This is beautiful western "frontier," Williams examines Book Reviews SSÇ

how photography constituted its own tragically "vanishing" in the face of form of "frontier" in and through which Euro-American expansion. Similarly, "the West" was both constructed and Williams notes the individual stamp contested as an imaginative and of commercial photographers, whose material space in the late nineteenth portfolios comprise so much of the and early twentieth centuries. Far photographic archive, while continually from a "benign tool of observation" locating their influence and intentions (4), the camera was an instrument within a power-laden field shaped not inextricably embedded in the cross- only by hierarchies of race but also by cutting imperatives and ideologies of those of gender and class. Throughout, empire and nation-building projects. she emphasizes that photography was Williams deftly compares the way in never merely a reflective expression which codes and conventions in survey, of colonial relations but, rather, a promotional, studio, and ethnographic constitutive medium through which the photographs produced a particular aspirations and anxieties characterizing narrative of settlement - "progress" such relations were mediated. - and the Euro-American encounter It is Williams's attention to the with Native Americans. complex intersections of race, gender, What makes Williams's analysis and class shaping the photographic so compelling is her attention to frontier that allows her to reread the multivocality of this narrative photographs against convention, un­ and her care not to reduce all to the settling assumptions regarding Native monolithic operation of a singular American women's reasons for religious colonial "gaze." Government agents, conversion, disrupting narrowly mas- missionaries, anthropologists, com­ culinist narratives of settlement, and mercial photographers, and indigenous perhaps most important, recognizing men and women were all actively, indigenous peoples as active subjects, if asymmetrically, involved in the not passive objects, in photographic production and consumption of photo­ encounters. In offering such a rereading, graphic images as well as the ongoing Williams precisely demonstrates her process of constructing their meaning. point that the meaning of photographs Ultimately, Williams acknowledges is best understood as an ongoing and that photography "served the goals, contested process rather than as a interests, and aspirations of those fixed or finished product. This is not ... who held power" in the colonial to suggest a process in which "anything context of the Pacific Northwest (31), goes" - far from it. Indeed, the irony but she attends carefully to the diverse Williams uncovers is that it was individuals and groups who competed precisely the coding of certain visual for this power. The resulting analysis conventions as representing Euro- avoids constructing strawmen and American progress, respectability, and offers a truly multidimensional picture entitlement that made them such potent of photographic practice at a particular symbolic resources for appropriation time and place. Discussion of the and redeployment by groups and conflicting agendas of missionaries individuals marginalized by their and anthropologists, for example, sheds race, gender, and/or class. Williams light on the seemingly paradoxical balances the important recognition representations of Native Americans of the existence of such strategies of as both successfully assimilating and resistance and appropriation with an I20 BC STUDIES understanding that their success was The Whaling Indians: by no means guaranteed, and with an Legendary Hunters examination of the socio-historical conditions within which they variably Edward Sapir, Morris Swadish, played out. Alexander Thomas, It is the book's final chapter, which John Thomas, and Frank examines indigenous uses of photo­ Williams graphy within both historical and contemporary contexts, that perhaps Ottawa: Canadian Museum of provides Williams's most unique con­ Civilization, 2004. 432 pp. $45.00 tribution to the scholarship on colonial paper. photography. That Native Americans not only appeared in photographs UMEEK (E.R. ATLEO) but also participated, with varying Winnipeg degrees of agency and empowerment, in their production and consumption HE INTENT OF The Whaling is a dimension of the photographic TIndians: Legendary Hunters is to frontier too easily and frequently present the "Native point of view" and obscured from view. By examining the so that will also be the perspective of culturally specific and often innovative this book review. On the surface of uses and interpretations of photography things, the method to achieve this by different indigenous groups and intent is straightforward and simple. individuals over time, Williams begins Sapir, a leading linguist of his day, filling in this "side" of the picture and recorded this ethnography in the pointing the way for future research. Nuu-chah-nulth language. To save As implied by the active verb of time and money, Sapir taught a local the book's title, framing the West is a Native, Alex Thomas, how to write dynamic process in which photographs and record these ethnographies in have played, and continue to play, a his own language. Subsequently, the pivotal role. It is also a process in which first two volumes were published in contemporary analysts are inevitably 1939 [Nootka Texts) and 1955 {Native imbricated when they re-present Accounts of Nootka Ethnography). The and reread historical photographs. present volume contains 28 accounts Williams's own arguments and analyses of hunting, 24 of which are about the are thus part of the very processes she preparation, pursuit, and capture of examines; her book ^frames the West whales. by denaturalizing and disrupting Does the book present the Native the assumptions embedded in its point of view? Yes and no. Yes, in that conventional framings. The point is the ethnographic accounts are pre­ not to proclaim a final or definitive sented both in the original language interpretation of photographic images as well as in an English translation but, rather, to recognize, as Williams so that any contemporary speaker, does so effectively, their place in such as me, might check to see if the ongoing efforts to picture the past and translation is more or less accurate. to imagine possible futures. While the meaning-sense of a sentence may be captured in translation, the original fluency is often lost, as in the following case. In account number no, Book Reviews J2J

page 191, the sentence "Now the chief subtitle "Legendary Hunters" does who was named Sorehead-[Whale] not represent a Native point of view. Hunter was staying home" is translated Any legend, by definition, lacks ac­ from "Walyaqil ya: Haw'ilPi ?okla: ?1: curate historical evidence according chqiqmi:k" which literally translates to Western historical tradition. Since from each Nuu-chah-nulth word as the stories come from an oral tradition Walyaqil-(Being at home), ya-(there), they cannot be said, from the Western Haw'lPi-fahe one identified as a chief, tradition, to contain accurate evidence. lord, great personage), ?okla:-(in the However, from a Native point of view, sense of whose name is), ?l:chqiqmi:k- these stories are not legend but actual (creator or maker of sorehead). What is historical accounts that have their own lost in translation here is the immediacy rules of evidence found within their of the action in the original language own life ways in family storytelling (i.e. being at home in the ever-present traditions, feasting, potlatching, and now) as well as the power, implied in the demonstrations of spiritual power that original, found in the name of the chief. are as reliable a way of confirming facts It appears from the translation that it is as scientific methodologies. A major the chief who has the sore head but the rule of evidence or methodology of the suffix mi:k in this name clearly indicates Nuu-chah-nulth is ?o:simch, which the achievement of spiritual power as I have spelled oosumich in my book is illustrated by numerous other names Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview with the same suffix, such as Cha: (UBC Press, 2004), and translated as kwa:siqmik, Ko:hw'isaqmi:k, and Hi: "bathing" in this edition but which I tsswatqmi:k. Each of these names was have translated as "careful seeking in acquired as a result of demonstrations a fearsome environment" or simply as of spiritual power that allowed each to "vision quest." Oosumich was common be successful, or, more to the point, practice known throughout all Nuu- allowed each to become accomplished chah-nulth land as an effective means at some important skill. This is not a of acquiring knowledge, power, and small matter. It can be argued that the success in this world. Just as there are translation "Hunter" in this name is a ineffective scientific methodologies mistranslation because the suffix mi:k that do not negate the reliability of in a name indicates an achievement, sound scientific data so too are there in­ an accomplishment, in the very same effective oosumich methods as pointed way that the prefix "Dr" before a name out in The Whaling Indiansbut when the indicates an accomplishment today. By oosumich method is done properly then itself, "Hunter" can apply to one who is the outcome can, from a Native point either successful or unsuccessful. Nuu- of view, be as sound as any scientific chah-nulth names left no ambiguity as finding. to meaning since a name was always On this same point of ineffectiveness descriptive of reality. of method and outcome, the Native More glaringly, the Native point point of view is misrepresented in the of view is obscured both in the title introduction. While the Native point of and the introduction of the book. view is presented in the favourable char­ The misnomer "Indian" is by now acterization of the Native translators well known. Not well known is the such as Saiyaxh'apis who is described contemporary self-description of as "unfailingly good-humored and the people as Nuu-chah-nulth. The courteous" as well as in the technical Z22 BC STUDIES explanation of the orthography of introduction. What is the rationale for the texts, the introduction actually the way of life of the whaler? How did foregrounds an academic point of view the information for the methodology that has proven problematic to the of oosumich arise? These and other Native point of view during the past questions are answered in Tsawalk: A 500 years. On page xix is the comment Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview. that West Coast whaling is "more a matter of prestige than economy" and again on the same page: "Whales were Oregon s Promise: often struck and then lost." Neither of these statements is untrue but from An Interpretive History a Native point of view it might be David Peterson del Mar said that Whaling is more about the great secret discovery through the Corvallis, OR: Oregon State method of oosumich that heshookish University Press, 2003. 314 pp. Tsawalk, everything is one. This US$19.95 cloth. worldview is mainly about the great discovery by Son of Raven that the RODERICK BARMAN spiritual realm and temporal realm are University of British Columbia so intimately related that any kind of life is completely dependent upon the HY SHOULD BC Studies review a quality of this relationship. The quality Whistory of the State of Oregon, of the methodology of oosumich, situated in another country and some vision quest, determines the quality of 300 kilometres to the south? For many this relationship, whether the whaler reasons. Our province and Oregon lie and whale can form a relationship as in a single economic-environmental evidenced by the action of the whale region, the Pacific Northwest, which when it "hugs" the whaler's canoe. The has constrained and even directed failure in the methodology of oosumich the development of the two societies. that results in a whale being lost is not a That development has been shaped by failure of the methodology but a failure constant intrusions from the outside of applying the methodology effectively. world: human migrations, resource This is also true of science - ineffective exploitation, new technologies, and methodology always produces un­ capital investment. The intrusions reliable results. In the same vein, the have not been precisely similar between emphasis upon losing whales after Oregon and British Columbia nor they are struck is an academic point of has their impact been identical. The view usually employed in a deliberate resemblances are nonetheless close, and derogatory sense when observing so close as to make sensitivity to these another culture that is considered to be intrusions indispensable in the study of inferior. any part of the Pacific Northwest. Overall, this ethnographic account Such sensitivity is, of course, a fairly of some of the Nuu-chah-nulth people recent development. It has replaced is an important work, especially if it what may be termed the "celebratory" can be placed within the context of approach, in which the hegemonic a Nuu-chah-nulth worldview rather social elements perceived the entity than in the context of an academic in which they live as a unique Eden perspective such as that found in the predestined for their occupation Book Reviews ^J

and benefit, something they must Oregon s Promise reflects in structure preserve unsullied. In Oregon this and approach this conflict and the approach has been tenacious due precedence given to myth. As Chapter to a number of powerful "myths," I'S title "Natives and Newcomers" including the pioneers' odyssey along implies, the indigenous peoples have the Oregon Trail, the bounteousness significance only as a preliminary of their reward, the resulting society's to and in preparing the way for homogeneity and cohesion, and its Oregon's promise. Chapter 2 regrets "progressiveness" in its handling of the,elimination of the indigenous politics and the environment. How inhabitants but essentially views captivating, even intoxicating these the outcome as inevitable. "It was myths remain for anyone who has a transfer, a conquest," the chapter grown up with them is evident in this concludes, "that Oregonians have yet new history of Oregon. to come to terms with" (62). Little or no As his introduction shows (2 and 6), attempt is made to facilitate this goal. the author is conscious of the problems The ensuing 220 pages contain only he faces: "mythic history oversimplifies seven passages (not all substantial) and obscures the past." His text discussing the indigenous peoples. struggles to include and give due The author's final statement, patently weight to elements in Oregon's history sincere, reveals his reluctance, even previously ignored or suppressed. But, incapacity, to demolish the founding as David del Mar concedes, he writes myths: "We must confront the fact that from within the myths. His ancestors, white settlers shunted aside and killed on his mother's side, came to Oregon the people who had flourished here, an in the late nineteenth century, seeking attempted ethnic cleansing that still Eden (2-3). The long years it took his haunts the state's indigenous peoples family to achieve "Oregon's promise," - and ought to trouble us all" (280). to use the title's words, makes that The strength of myth is equally achievement the more precious and apparent from David del Mar's treat­ continued belief in the myths more ment of the external intrusions. Those compelling. he sees as challenging Oregon's promise The front cover of the paperback are denigrated, as with the Hudson's edition symbolizes the book's am­ Bay Company, portrayed as intent on biguities. A photograph of a family interfering with Manifest Destiny. of Mexican migrants gathering onions Statements such as "Why was Great takes up two-thirds of the cover, a Britain willing to give up land that picture of Mount Hood one-third. its citizens had occupied for the past But Mount Hood is placed at the three decades?" in respect to the 1846 top, in full colour. It rises white and Oregon Treaty come oddly from the pristine in a cerulean sky from behind pen of a historian who, having taught green pine trees and a dark blue river. for several years in this province, should The Mexicans are at the bottom, know that British citizens had never coloured a muddy orange, which "occupied" Oregon in the sense of land downplays the humanity of the five ownership. A further weakness in the individuals. In the conflict between the handling of the intrusions is that they myth and the reality, the front cover are viewed seriatim, never as a constant asserts, consciously or no, the greater factor in Oregon's development. This significance of the former. inability to place the state within a jzj BC STUDIES

larger context explains the author's a comprehensive and well-written incomprehension and even dismay at account of the history of the Yukon the recent polarization of the society Telegraph Line. over issues imported from elsewhere The book begins with the need for in North America. The author's final the Canadian government to protect plea (281) is for the homogeneity and its yet undefined borders between cohesion that he regards as Oregon's Canada and Alaska, and to provide promise and that he believes can be security after the Klondike strike achieved. brought hordes of gold-seekers to Anyone who is looking for a pro­ Yukon in 1897-98. The government bing, critical view of Oregon's past did this by stationing North-West had, therefore, best pass this work by. Mounted Police, who also served as But those who want to understand the customs agents, at Canada-Alaska foundational myths of that state, their border crossings (provisional boundary continuing allure, and how they shape agreements were made in 1899) and by Oregonians' view of their history will deploying 202 officers and soldiers of the find this a very revealing book. The Yukon Field Force to maintain order implications for British Columbia's and to provide an official presence past are enormous. in Yukon, where the vast majority of people were American. At the same time, the Canadian government realized that major improvement of Wires in the Wilderness: the transportation and communication The Story of the Yukon Telegraph facilities within Yukon, and from there BillMiller to the outside world, was an absolute necessity. Surrey: Heritage House Publishing In 1898-99 the narrow-gauge Company, 2004. 336 pp. Maps., White Pass and Yukon Railway was illus. $19.95 paper. built, along with a telegraph line, from Skagway through the White GEORGIANA BALL Pass to Bennett City near the BC- Vancouver, BC Yukon border. Before construction was completed in July 1899, the Privy T WAS WITH SOME excitement and Council approved the extension of the I a little trepidation that I agreed to telegraph line to Dawson City and a review Bill Miller's book. First of all, spur line to Atlin, British Columbia, my father, George Ball, was a Yukon where a gold strike had occurred Telegraph Line operator in the early the previous year. These lines were years; and I, being raised along the completed in September 1899. Stikine River, knew or knew of some A telegraph message from Dawson of the other characters who worked on City still had to make the boat trip the line. Second, I have read a number of four to five days from Skagway to of articles and books about the North Vancouver before it could reach its that do not do justice to the events or destination. A land-line from Atlin lives of northerners. I was afraid that to where the transcontinental line I might have to write a somewhat ended at Quesnel would provide an negative review. Fortunately, this is all-Canadian route. In December not the case. Bill Miller has produced 1899 the Department of Public Works Book Reviews J2f

decided to extend the line south. This and women, including a murderer and was not to be the comparatively easy a woman travelling to Siberia, who for construction to Dawson City, which many reasons hiked or attempted to used the Yukon River as its general travel by motorcycle on the trail. Their freighting highway. The southern line compelling stories are recounted in this would not follow rivers but, rather, go book. overland, often through mountainous Miller made a few errors that should terrain. Still, J.B. Charleson, supervisor be noted. He supposedly quoted me of construction of the telegraph line describing how three of the four air­ from the beginning, expected to finish planes the US Army flew to Alaska the 944-mile (1,519-kilometre) line in in 1920 landed on Callbreath's ranch 1900. He sent surveyors, line crews, and on their return flight, harming the supplies to Atlin and Quesnel. Supplies undercarriage of one of the planes (193 were also sent to Hazelton on the ni8). The quotation came from Frank Skeena River and to Telegraph Creek H. Ellis (i960, 35) The Cariboo Digest. on the Stikine. Pack trains of horses/ The source for Miller's next paragraph mules carrying the supplies went along (chap. 12, 193-4 ni9) does come from with the crews, who also had to build a short account I wrote, which is. the many stations and refuge cabins. By published in Stan Cohen's (1998, 97-8). late fall, after encountering countless The Alaska Flying Expedition: The US pitfalls, the crews had to stop work Army's 1920 New York to Nome Flight. (the animals were starving because the This source is not cited in Chapter forage was dead), leaving a 121-mile 12, note 19. Incidentally, the ranch is (195-kilometre) gap between Hazelton ten miles (sixteen kilometres) from and Telegraph Creek. By the fall of 1901 Telegraph Creek, not thirty, as Miller the gap was closed and a branch line to wrote; and it was a bonfire on the hill Port Simpson had been built. behind the village that notified the pilot Miller's descriptions of the events that the weather had cleared south of and people involved in the telegraph Telegraph Creek so that the plane could line construction are quite thorough. take off after having been on the ranch He often uses excerpts from the tele­ for twenty days. graphers' journals to describe their Unfortunately, Miller (269) uses interesting, and sometimes dangerous, a sentence in Archie Hunter's (1983, lives. Wires in the Wilderness explains 96) Northern Traders as a source of how the telegraph line was replaced information. This sentence incorrectly gradually by wireless telegraphy, and states that the fifty US Army Engineers how the Yukon Telegraph Line finally who arrived in Telegraph Creek in 1942 came to an end in 1952. (not 1941) were to go into the Interior Many people travelled on the tele­ to work on construction of the Alaska graph trail before and after the closing Highway. That was not their mission. of the line. Some were regular users, They were to survey and cut out a route like the packers on the pack trains to Alaska for a railway, a project that that annually carried supplies tp the came to naught. stations and the large pack trains that The caption for an archival photo­ went along with hunters and their graph of tractors on the Dease Road guides on forty- to ninety-day hunts is incorrect (261). The US Army Engi­ (Miller does not mention the latter). neers had nothing to do with improving And then there were the trekkers: men the road for small-truck traffic; rather, S2à BC STUDIES

it was the Department of Public Works Robert McCandless (1985), have had crew from Telegraph Creek that did the a much more conventional approach. work. They were possibly assisted by McCandless was interested in the sub­ General Construction, whose trucks ject from a fairly predictable standpoint, and boats hauled the freight on the but Morse takes a largely different tack. Dease Road and Dease Lake/River, She follows the Klondikers to the west and who built Watson Lake Airport. coast, up the inside passage to the Regardless of these errors, Miller has north (calling them "rushers" - not written a captivating book that fills the usual nomenclature - where did a large gap in the written history of that word come from?), across the northwestern Canada. passes, and down the Yukon River to the diggings on the creeks, and then REFERENCES draws theoretical lessons from her narrative. The book's theme is that Cohen, Stan. 1998. The Alaska Flying technology altered and distanced the Expedition: The US Army's 1920 relationship between miners and their New York to Nome Flight. (Missoula, environment; for example, as Morse Montana: Pictorial Histories Pub­ says in the introduction, it "eliminated lishing.) the space between the places where Ellis, Frank H. i960. The Cariboo pork and beans were produced, and Digest. where they were consumed ... made it Hunter, Archie. 1983. Northern Traders: very easy to forget that pork and beans Cariboo Hair in the Stew. (Victoria: came from anywhere specific at all" (11). Sono Nis Press.) Readers looking for a straightforward account of flora and fauna will be disappointed, for this is not so much The Nature of Gold: a history of the physical world as a philosophical investigation into the An Environmental History relationship between humans and the of the Klondike Gold Rush natural environment. Kathryn Morse The descriptions of mining activity and the excellent illustrations are Nature Seattle: University of Washington of Gold ys greatest strengths, for Morse Press, 2003. 304 pp. Illus. has a keen eye for detail and has done $37.95 cloth. a great deal of mining herself - in the diaries and other records left by miners. WILLIAM R. MORRISON The book is full of instructive and University of Northern illuminating detail, for which the reader British Columbia will be grateful. Oddly, though, some important aspects of environmental VE NATURE OF GOLD is in several activity seem to have been overlooked: T ways a path-breaking work since, dredging, for instance, which was a although there is a large literature on major cause of environmental alteration, Yukon environment, there has been is mentioned only twice in passing. very little written on the environmental However, it is the lessons drawn from history of the Territory, and the works these records that give me, at any rate, that have been published, notably concern. Morse's technique is to give Yukon Wildlife: A Social History by examples of activities in Yukon that Book Reviews ^/ involved the environment and then On first reading, this passage may to draw theoretical conclusions from seem profound. But then questions them; such accounts of activities arise: what labour is not cultural, followed by conclusions are the back­ and what does "intensely cultural" bone of Nature of Gold. Here is an mean anyway? From elsewhere in the example, one of many, taken from the book it seems that transportation was beginning of Chapter 4, "The Nature commodified because men had to pay of Gold Mining," where she quotes Bill to ride steamboats instead of walking, Hiscock, a miner from New Zealand: but was that not true wherever travel was mechanized, as, for instance, in We got some miles up the the United States when it became Bonanza before we came to any possible to take a train from New claims being worked. Then we York to Chicago? Of course the work began to see a windlass with a of digging gold from the ground heap of dirt; and gravel being connected Yukon miners to nature; frozen to all depths has to be just as digging potatoes from the red thawed out, with wood fires, soil connected Prince Edward Island usually put in in the evening and farmers to nature. What seems at first left to burn during night time. In reading to be a novel interpretation the morning the thawed earth, turns out, on further thought, to be from 4 to 5 inches to 8 or 90 rather commonplace. inches, is hoisted by windlass in To take another example: Chapter a wooden bucket, tipped out and 6, "The Nature and Culture of Food," in 20 minutes it is frozen solid quotes a lively description of a festive again and remains there until the dinner and then proceeds to draw an spring comes. (89) environmental lesson from it: So far, so good. But then Morse goes Meals like these holiday feasts on to make her point: revealed the miners' creative Like the labor of transportation, culinary efforts. They also the labor of mining was an revealed the nature and culture intensely cultural process of food during the gold rush. through which miners carried The miners' food, like all food, their industrial economy north, was natural; it came from nature. including the commodification Fish-goose stew a-la-Bonanza, so characteristic of Yukon moose roast, and moose stew transportation. Like trans­ came from local nature, from portation, the actual work of nearby creeks, rivers, and digging gold from the earth also forests, provided most likely connected miners to nature, to by Native hunters who fueled heaps of dirt and gravel, frozen a steady market... Such foods to all depths. Such labor brought forged direct connections to miners new knowledge of the local ecosystems and to local natural world and transformed peoples ... most of the miners' the gold creeks into new food - bacon, beans, flour, sugar, places. (89) potatoes, canned vegetable and fruit - came across great 72# BC STUDIES

distances from the agricultural Metro chair Fred Gardiner put his empires of North America. (139) distinctive imprint on Toronto in the 1950s; and Jean Drapeau is the The key sentence in this paragraph larger-than-life mayor who brought is the third one, which indicates that a subway system, Expo '67, and the miners' food was like all other food. Olympics to Montreal. Where, one True, it "forged direct connections to might ask, is someone of comparable local ecosystems"; that is, it was locally stature from Vancouver? The question grown or harvested, just as were the is unfair, of course, because New York, carrots grown in market gardens and Toronto, and Montreal are bigger than sold at local markets in every small Vancouver and, thus, historically have and medium-sized town in the United offered greater opportunity for creative States at that time. But it was the same municipal leadership. Nonetheless, the food, so what special point is being comparison serves to underline the per­ made here? ception that Vancouver's mayors have The "new history" that knocked been an undistinguished lot. Beyond the old political history off its pedestal the two recent mayors who moved from a generation ago contributed tre­ municipal to provincial politics (Mike mendously to our understanding of Harcourt and Gordon Campbell), and the past, but Nature of Gold, it seems Gerry McGeer (Vancouver mayor to me, strains too hard and without in the mid-i93os), little has been much success to dig new and deeper written about our civic leaders and understandings of environmental less is known about them. It is this processes from the frozen soil of the gap in the city's history that Daniel Klondike. Francis, editor of the highly regarded Encyclopedia of British Columbia, has REFERENCES set out to rectify by telling the story McCandless, Robert. 1985. Yukon of Vancouver's longest-serving mayor, Wildlife: A Social History. (Edmonton: Louis D. Taylor. University of Alberta Press, 1985). Taylor provides plenty of material for a compelling story, and Francis makes the most of it. Taylor's eight terms as mayor, for a total of twelve years in L.D. : Mayor Louis Taylor office, spanned three decades of the and the Rise ofVancouver city's history. Born in Michigan and Daniel Francis a resident ofVancouver from the late 1890s, Taylor died in 1946 a lonely and Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, poor old man. Along the way he was 2004. 239 pp. Illus. $21.95 paper. elected licence commissioner in 1902 and mayor in 1911, 1915, four times in ROBERT A.J. MCDONALD the mid-to-late 1920s, and twice again University of British Columbia in the early 1930s. He also lost electoral battles sixteen times, once for licence ANY NORTH AMERICAN cities commissioner, four times for alderman, Mhave had great civic leaders. and eleven times for mayor. Yet L.D. Fiorello La Guardia, New York's is about more than elections. What Depression-era mayor, is considered made Taylor an important figure in the father of modern New York; Vancouver's history, Francis tells us Book Reviews J2Ç

convincingly, was his understanding less in his role as Vancouver's mayor the city's character. The book features and more in his place as a representative lively digressions into city life, in­ of the populist impulse that formed a cluding narrative explorations of the powerful component of the province's prewar boom and collapse, the race political culture in the early years of the riot of 1907, and the plight of the twentieth century. At the provincial homeless in the 1930s. Family papers level this current attracted into political recently uncovered in California illu­ life the likes of former coal miners Tom minate hitherto unknown aspects of Uphill from Fernie and Sam Guthrie L.D. Taylor's private life, including from Cowichan-Newcastle, and, at the fact that he spent time in jail the federal level, Vancouver's Henry for embezzlement before coming to H. Stevens, a Conservative who had Canada and that he lived in a bigamous no use for Taylor's relaxed attitudes relationship for eleven months after his towards moral issues but whose own second marriage. This new research anti-elitist tendencies led him to oppose adds depth to our understanding of the corporate-friendly policies of his Taylor and colour to the author's story. leader in the Conservative government What results is not just a history of of the early 1930s, Prime Minister R.B. politics and city-building but the story Bennett. By limiting his analytical of how life on the western edge of framework to the City of Vancouver, the continent allowed immigrants to Francis has, perhaps, left unexplored rebuild their lives out of the mess they the broader political context that best had left behind. The author concludes explains L.D. Taylor's significance as a that Taylor "arrived as an accused political figure in BC history. embezzler on the run from the law. Certainly, while Daniel Francis's Vancouver gave him the opportunity well-written and informative history to remake himself" (202). of L.D. successfully lifts the veil of Apart from its longevity, L.D. obscurity from an important figure in Taylor's political career was marked Vancouver's civic life and contributes by his empathy for the "plain people" significantly to a fuller understanding rather than for the elites of Vancouver, of Vancouver history, it is questionable an ideological orientation symbolized whether we can conclude from the by his ever-present red tie. Taylor's book that Taylor was a great mayor. enemies accused him of being a Francis does not claim that he was, socialist, but Francis is correct, I think, and rightly so, because at times one in discounting such a notion. He was senses that Taylor was a man who a populist, a man whose sympathy for had very little in his life except local working people and support for trade politics, and who, in the latter part of unions and working-class culture his career, kept running for political and deep commitment to the local office mainly because he needed an community tied him politically to income. While the author does not see the working- and lower-middle-class Taylor as "a visionary mayor" (200), he areas of the city, especially on the does suggest that Taylor could claim east side. Indeed, it is here that one of a number of achievements, including the limitations of Francis's "popular" his encouragement for the scheme approach to his subject reveals it­ to fill in False Creek east of Main self. One might argue that Taylor's Street; his support for the creation of significance as a historical figure lies a town planning commission and the JJO BC STUDIES

amalgamation of South Vancouver contributed to his volatile personal life and Point Grey with Vancouver; his (including three marriages), but profes­ assistance in the establishment of sionally Mair is a home-grown success Vancouver's airport, the building of story. He began his career as a lawyer, the first Second Narrow's Bridge, was elected to the British Columbia and the construction of a major new Legislative Assembly in 1975, and served railway hotel (the Hotel Vancouver); as a minister in the Social Credit gov­ and, in the 1920s, his leadership in ernment of Bill Bennett. For the last the creation of a very important new quarter century, though, he has been administrative structure for the city, a radio talk-show host who regularly the Greater Vancouver Water District conducts interviews with the prominent Board. However, we are told little about and the powerful. the politicians and civil servants around I fit into neither of those categories, Taylor and how he interacted with and but I confess at the outset that I influenced them. Such interaction was appeared on Mr. Mair's radio show in important to the successful operation of the early 1990s. He was intrigued by my Vancouver's "weak-mayor" form of civic history of government regulation of government. That story, indeed most liquor in British Columbia. I found him aspects of Vancouver's political history, quick and charming in a quirky way. It remain to be told. Daniel Francis's L.D. probably helped that we shared similar should encourage other writers to begin attitudes towards liquor regulation and that task. that I had acknowledged his regulatory contributions in my book.1 If I re­ member correctly, as I walked out of the studio in walked Glen Clark, then still Still Ranting: More Rantsy Raves a cabinet minister in Mike Harcourt's and Recollections New Democratic government and now RAFE MAIR a rising star in the Jim Pattison business empire. North Vancouver: Whitecap Still Ranting is a collection of nearly Books, 2003. 256 pp. $19.95 paper. fifty essays that range from two to eight pages, housed under five broad Rafe: A Memoir categories: On Politics; On the World in General; Past, Present, and Future; RAFE MAIR On Fishing and Other Sports; and Maderia Park, BC: Harbour On Travel. The book is an eclectic Publishing, 2004. 255 pp. collection, with Rafe Mair's thoughts on everything from fly fishing to $34.95 cloth. Bill Bennett, who Mair believes to ROBERT A. CAMPBELL be second only to W.A.C. Bennett Capilano College (Bill's father) as the "best premier British Columbia ever had" (80). Mair

E LEARN A LOT ABOUT Rafe Mair 1 Robert A. Campbell, Demon Rum or Easy Win these two well-written, pro­ Money: Government Control of Liquor in vocative books. By his own admission British Columbia from Prohibition to Priva­ he has a large ego, thin skin, and short tization (Ottawa: Carleton University Press temper. These features have probably and McGill- Queens University Press, 1991), 159-64. Book Reviews sjf

obviously likes to provoke his audience, in 2003 he phoned Jim Pattison and and readers of this journal will likely soon had another job at Pattison's 600 find something to infuriate them. He AM, where he continues to command pulled my chain with his essay on the the airwaves. Mair has a keen sense need for British Columbia to separate of radio journalism as entertainment, because we are so hard done by by and kicking authority figures has kept central Canada. To describe Rafe Mair his show high in the ratings. Quite as a provincial rights advocate would correctly, Mair sees himself as the heir be more than an understatement. Yet to Jack Webster, and he claims that his unrelenting attacks on the federal Webster taught him "that you didn't government, especially the centralized have to know a hell of a lot about your authority in the Prime Minister's subject if you were an entertainer" Office, are a bit facile. He tends to (225). ignore what a decentralized federation Still, Mair does more than inflame Canada is and how much constitutional and entertain. He has never been too authority lies within the jurisdiction of shy to use his airtime as a bully pulpit. the provinces. Some may remember his unrelenting While Still Ranting is a fun read, attacks on the Charlottetown Accord, a Rafe: A Memoir, is a better book be­ 1992 proposal for constitutional change, cause it offers more context. As well, which was defeated in a national vote. many issues raised in the first book Perhaps thanks to Rafe Mair British are repeated, sometimes word for Columbians were the most opposed word, in the second. Mair's hostility to the deal. Much of his opposition to the "establishment" is probably the to the accord was due to the fact that closest he comes to an overarching it recognized Quebec as a "distinct theme in the memoirs. His use of society." Had the accord passed, how­ the word is very broad, but he comes ever, it would have granted more near to defining it as "business leaders, power to all of the provinces, not just labour leaders, politicians, artsy-fartsy to Quebec. types [especially CBC interviewers and An avid environmentalist and fly interviewees] and the media them­ fisher, Rafe Mair has been extremely selves" (239). Mair poses as the anti- critical of the fish farm industry and establishment crusader who takes pride its threat to indigenous salmon runs. in poking the privileged defenders of He considers Paul Watson, "the Sea the status quo. Shepherd Society's whale protector" Yet the anti-establishment garb as "one of my heroes" (87). Diagnosed does not entirely fit when one considers with clinical depression, Mair has also Mair's own credentials. Born on the worked hard to undermine the stigma west side of Vancouver on New Year's attached to mental illness. Eve 1931, he attended St. George's Perhaps somewhat tongue in private school, and his 1956 UBC law cheek, in his memoirs Mair describes school class included "far too many himself as a "new socialist." Those distinguished members than I could beliefs are fleshed out better in the name in the space allotted" (19). In part, first essay of Still Ranting ("Drifting Mair grounds his support of affirmative Left"). While firmly on the side of action in the awareness of advantages private enterprise, Mair defends the that his privileged background has regulatory and redistributive role of given him. When CKNW fired Mair government: "Corporations don't jj2 BC STUDIES give a damn about the environment to argue that "bad subjects cannot be except to the extent that governments treated as people who have histories force them to care" (5). He argues that and knowledges of their own because government regulations, not corporate the history of the bad subject cannot consideration, protect workers' safety. be recounted or written inside of the As he points out in his memoirs, Mair State," and she wonders how it was that is a now an active Christian. Yet he is Doukhobors, one of the perennial "bad no social conservative: "as I see it, no subjects" of Canadian cultural history, matter what your sexual preference, began to use "a discourse of the 'good if you love God and your neighbour subject' - like autobiography." as yourself you can call yourself a Certainly the history of the Christian" (178). Doukhobors may be subsumed under Rafe Mair is a complex man of a state definition of bad subjectivity, conviction, and one is left with a whether in Russia (rejecting the na­ begrudging respect for him. One tional church, refusing to serve in might quibble with descriptions but, the Tsarist army, burning firearms to rather than a new socialist, I think protest militarism) or in Canada (es­ he is an old-time Red Tory. Since pousing a millenarian faith that stands the Canadian Alliance takeover of in direct contrast to liberal, materialist the Progressive Conservative Party, society, refusing to swear allegiance to however, Red Tories have become an the Queen, and insisting upon living a endangered species. Rafe Mair may communal, pacifist lifestyle). The very have more in common with the fish word "Doukhobor" - "spirit wrestler" and whales than he realizes. - carries an intense dialectic of social exclusion and rejection measured against a recalcitrant sense of heroic personhood within communal society. Negotiated Memory: Doukhobor Rak moves from the concept of "bad Autobiographical Discourse subjectivity" - a political category - to Julie Rak the idea of autobiography as a negotiated space of personhood, a resistance to Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004. dominant social discourse, what might 184 pp. Illus. $29.95 paper. be understood as the resistant self, or selves, of Doukhobor history. She MYLER WILKINSON links this resistant self of Doukhobor Selkirk College experience to the recurrent historical motif of Plakun Trava, a Russian water N Negotiated Memory: Doukhobor plant that "defines itself by the current it IAutobiographical Discourse) Julie Rak grows against," a subjectivity that seeks refers to Doukhobors as "bad subjects," narratives of identity in order to resist drawing on a concept formulated by prevailing social forces of conformity. Louis Althusser to describe a people Rak's implicit idea throughout is that, who "resist the institutions, laws, and historically, to be a Doukhobor has been beliefs that would make them into to suffer for a belief in social otherness, 'good' immigrants and docile citizens" an alternative spiritual existence as well as who refuse "to recognize the that critiques dominant materialist terms of recognition" that would lead ideology. Doukhobor narratives of self to cultural assimilation. She goes on have claimed the realm of suffering as a Book Reviews S£? sign of individual and collective health. Vasily Popoff, Cecil Maloff, Gregory Rak says that "the very act of entering Soukorev, Nick Arishenkoff, Cecil autobiographical terrain [is] an attempt Koochin, Vanya Bayoff, Helen Popoff, to negotiate what will be remembered and, perhaps most important, Anna about Doukhobor history as well as Markova. Rak makes the intriguing what position Doukhobors will have in point that, in the period between 1930 Canada both now and in the future." and i960, a wealth of autobiographical This is the intellectual heart of Rak's writing came from a segment of the book; an early chapter deals at length Doukhobor community that one might with the history of autobiographical think the least likely to have produced theory (mentioning names such as it: the Sons of Freedom. She examines Lejeune, Olney, Roy Pascal, and hybrid narratives from people such Sidonie Smith). Rak proceeds from as Mike E. Chernenkoff, Alexander this overview of academic theory Efanow, Fred Davidoff, and Peter (which, to her credit, she questions Malloff, casting some light onto the as a valid approach to Doukhobor little known, and often misunderstood, experience of self and community) to thoughts of this radical subgroup of the a detailed examination of Doukhobor Doukhobor family. history and belief (a chapter that is At the conclusion of Negotiated notable both for its clarity and its lack Memory, I found myself thinking not of theoretical apparatus). The middle only about what Rak says concerning section o£ Negotiated Memory is taken the politics of autobiography and of the up with the diaspora of Doukhobors writers she includes but also about those from Russia to Canada. Rak argues others who remain silent. I wondered that this forced homelessness is about a writer such as Kathryn coupled with the Russian concept of Solovyova, who once responded to the Vechnaiia Pamit and what she calls question "What is your autobiography?" the "diasporic imaginary, which with the answer "You must read my the Doukhobors translate as eternal poems" (poems that, arguably, are memory and eternal consciousness in the finest by a living Doukhobor the Kingdom of Heaven after death artist); or of a postmodernist such ... This oral tradition forms the sacred as Denis Denisoff, whose novel Dog language of migration, resistance, and Years explores not only the Chernobyl suffering also found, or referred to, in disaster but also young Doukhobors Doukhobors' written autobiographical in Ukraine coming to terms with the productions." politics of sexual difference; or even The concluding chapters of Nego­ Vi Plotnikoff, whose book Head Cook tiated Memory explore at length actual at Weddings and Funerals contains the autobiographical narratives not of recurring character of Ana, arguably literary artists but, rather, of people a mask for the author's extended who have just emerged into literacy imaginative autobiography. Perhaps and who often express themselves in what these questions prove is only unique hybridized narratives, relatively that autobiography, as a genre, is unconstrained by dominant rhetorical notoriously slippery (or that these models. There is much worthwhile (and writers may be the subjects of another little-known) research material in these kind of book). What Rak has written final pages - extended examinations is a serious and worthwhile addition of self-narratives by people such as to our understanding of the way a Ij4 BC STUDIES

marginalized people struggles, against British jurisdiction arrived with all those social currents that would placer mining in the 1860s, but Gordon silence them, to find and honour a relates that the real imprint on the West collective autobiographical voice. Kootenay occurred when, in 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) passed by the northern tip of the region. She overlooks the Northern Pacific Railway, The Slocan: Portrait of a Valley which arrived in 1883 and which, from Katherine Gordon Spokane, built its "Inland Empire," which included the West Kootenay. Winlaw, BC: Sono Nis Press, 2004. Mining in the Slocan Valley peaked in 320 pp. Illus. $24.95 paper. the late 1890s as the patchwork Great

W.A. SLOAN Northern Railway, with its subsidiaries - the Kaslo and Slocan, and the Nelson CastlegaTy BC and Fort Shepherd - both arrived in 1895. This forced the CPR to improve and HIS LONG-AWAITED BOOK argues consolidate its land and rail connections Tthat the Slocan Valley, through its to Sandon. Aided by a subsidy in land often dramatic history, is a reflection and cash in return for a fixed freight of the region and its connection with rate on incoming food (the Crow events in British Columbia and Canada. Rate), the CPR built the Crowsnest Not so much a local history, it offers Pass Railway in 1898. This connection a broad economic picture of the West and mining lands were combined with Kootenay region, with snapshots of its the newly acquired Trail Smelter (1896) social components. Gordon argues that to form the Consolidated Mining and the Oregon Treaty's 1846 placement of Smelting Company (CM&S, later the forty-ninth parallel had a profound Cominco), and another subsidiary, effect not only on the Native peoples of West Kootenay Light and Power, in the region, the Ktunaxa and the Sinixt, 1906. Gordon makes much of the role but also on ensuing settlement. the zinc penalty and tariff played in Gordon begins by defining the causing reduced access to the American spectacular geography and geology market prior to the First World War. of the Slocan Valley and the place of More important to the solution of Native peoples. She provides a brief the "zinc problem" was the shift in picture of the influence of the fur trade interest away from American smelters in drawing the Sinixt, the Lakes people, to Cominco, which was developing an south within the cultural influence of electrolytic process for refining zinc. Fort Colville, but she says nothing This process made smelting the huge about the first gold rush in British bodies of low-grade zinc-bearing ore Columbia - the Pend d'Oreille in 1854 possible; notable was the ore from the - which overnight established dynamic Sullivan Mine, which allowed cheaper mining forces in conflict with the more permanent rail access and more Lakes. These developments would be stability for working populations than factors when many of the Lakes people was the case in the Slocan. The bright chose to relocate below the forty-ninth lights of Sandon, with its opera houses parallel on the Colville reserve in 1872, and red light district, would dim by eleven years before the first reserve was 1910 as the town of Trail, with it's huge established in the Kootenays. Book Reviews SJS smelter and the service centre of Nelson contributed to the valley's communities were becoming the "bright lights." and greatly influenced the general The remaining chapters address culture. A high proportion of literate, the social elements of the Slocan highly educated, free-thinking, and Valley. By 1910 several mills and a tolerant individuals injected energy into few productive farms were supporting community life: artisan shops, galleries, small communities. A speculative and libraries were invigorated, and boom in fruit lands before the First property values reversed as cash flowed World War led to the arrival of some into the strapped region. Tourism began notable families and characters but a climb that, by the 1980s, resulted in little long-term permanence. By 1910 a heightened level of confrontation the Doukhobors had relocated to the between environmental interests and West Kootenay and Boundary District, resource extraction interests. and the author's synthesis of the issues In closing, The Slocan sets a very high around leadership, militarism and standard for local history. Photographs pacifism, registration of vital statistics, are well selected and are of high quality; and compulsory schooling is excellent. maps are well crafted; and sources are Despite the picture created of the 1930s provided. Slocan Valley as a "good place in hard times," the Depression ensured that there was limited work at low wages in valley mines, mills, and farms. Commercial fruit-growing was nearing an end, and in 1938 the Doukhobor lands were seized. A left-wing union (not a company organization, as in­ timated), Local 480 of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, was formed in 1939 as economic vitality began to return. The arrival of Japanese internees after 1942 relieved some of the down­ turn of the 1930s and provided the Slocan Valley community with many resourceful and talented people. Gordon discusses the economic demands of the Second World War, which further expanded hydroelectric generation in the valley, and government treatment of the Doukhobor "extremists," parti­ cularly the seizure of children to enforce schooling in 1953. Government retention of Doukhobor lands worsened relations until 1963, when lots were transferred back to individual families. Gordon notes that the arrival of conscientious objectors fleeing the United States during the Vietnam War