BOOK REVIEWS

Music of the Alaska-Klondike Gold Rush: Songs and History Jean A. Murray Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 1999. 440 pp. Illus., music, compact disk. US$35.95 paper.

By Michelle Mulder University of British Columbia

CAREFULLY AND EXTENSIVELY by both "the music lover and the his­ researched work, Music of the tory buff" (x, xiii). As such, the book is AAlaska-Klondike Gold Rush a success. It does indeed offer a wealth provides a musical and lyrical depiction of potential entertainment and food of goldmining settlements, their culture for thought, conveniently organised and concerns. Jean Murray's intro­ and practically indexed. Prospective duction explores the history of the gold academic purchasers should note, how­ rush, comparing the hopes of miners ever, that this work is not intended before they left home with the general primarily for scholars. Its documentation disillusionment of those in the mining is extensive enough to provide a helpful settlements for some time. Murray base for scholarly work, yet Murray asserts that music held a prized place openly admits that selection of music in the lonely, often monotonous lives for the compilation was at times based of the miners. Her compilation evidences on personal preference (x). Moreover, the wide range of music common in she does not engage in interpretive com­ the camps, providing examples of bar­ mentary about individual songs. She room choruses, fiddle solos, and does occasionally step in to change a melancholy ballads such as "Billy Pike song's diction when she feels that it of Klondike." Murray introduces each includes "gratuitous racial slurs that piece individually, citing her sources, were an unthinking part of the milieu." as well as contemporary commentary (For example, in "The Cat Came Back," seen in diaries or songbooks of the she changes the term "nigger" to "fella" time. Often, Murray also includes bio­ [xiii].) Her basis for determining what graphical and anecdotal information is and is not a slur is unclear, as she about characters strongly associated herself freely refers to "Eskimo" rather with each piece. Maps, illustrations, than "Inuit" (54) and does not comment and the book's accompanying thirty- on the degrading depictions of women five minute CD provide a sense of pervasive throughout the songs. each piece's original place in the Music of the Alaska-Klondike Gold Rush Alaska-Klondike gold rush. is highly useful to those interested in a The book's preface states Murray's comprehensive survey of music of the hope that Music of the Alaska-Klondike time. For those who love sing-along songs, Gold Rush will be "used and enjoyed" Murray's book is well worth perusal. 96 BC STUDIES

American Indians in the Marketplace: Persistence and Innovation among the Menominees and Metlakatlans, 18J0-1920 Brian C. Hosmer Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999. 309 pp. Illus., maps. US$35 cloth.

By Margaret Seguin Anderson University of Northern British Columbia

/t M ERIC AN INDIANS in the Hosmer's approach is grounded in f-w Marketplace compares two world systems theory as developed in ^L JL interesting case studies of how Immanuel Wallerstein's The Modern Aboriginal communities engaged with World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the emerging market economies of the Origins of European World Economy their regions during the late nine­ in the Sixteenth Century (1974) and teenth and early twentieth centuries. adapted to American Indian history by These case studies involve, respectively, Richard White in Roots of Dependency the Menominees (Wisconsin) and the (1983). Through a detailed analysis of MetlakatlaTsimshian (Alaska). Brian changes that took place over fifty years Hosmer presents detailed analyses of in these two communities, Hosmer how these two communities sought to demonstrates the usefulness of this participate in economic development approach to understanding the active through the marketplace and to temper agency of Aboriginal communities in the effects of the market economy on the interplay of economic and cultural their cultural values. He argues that they change and the persistence of cultural were not simply active participants in values. the emerging market economies of Hosmer takes communities as his their regions but that, along with other unit of focus, examining the ways in Aboriginal communities, which market enterprises were de­ veloped and shaped to community they understood that market purposes. Readers will find some capitalism encouraged and similarities to the approach taken in rewarded individualistic, entre­ Sarah Carter's study of Aboriginal preneurial values, along with ranching in the Prairies (Lost Harvests: modes of behavior that tended to Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and separate persons from their Government Policy [1990]). Furthermore, community. Perceiving these Hosmer's focus on communities rather influences as corrosive to than on individuals complements the fundamental values that pre­ approach taken by Rolf Knight in served, sometimes even renewed, Indians at Work (1978). Knight's argu­ community and identity, some ments about the significance of Abo­ Indians, Menominees and riginal labour in building the economy Tsimshians in this study, ex­ of British Columbia focused on the plored means to conform eco­ contributions of Aboriginal people as nomic change to their needs, (xi) Book Reviews çj

workers but did not explore the role mary clans among the GitkVta (116). of Aboriginal communities in shaping In fact they were Blackfish and Eagle, economic participation to meet their as stated in what appears to be his pri­ own ends. mary source onTsimshian culture, Jay Readers of BC Studies will be most Miller's Tsimshian Culture: A Light interested in the detailed discussion through the Ages (1999,56). There are also of the economic history of Metlakatla, some orthographic errors with regard which includes a twenty-page chapter to the use of Tsimshian terms ("walp" on the Tsimshians of British Columbia or "waab," not "waalb"; "Gitga'ata" or (including Gitxsan and Nisga'a com­ "GitkVata," not "GitkVta" [116]). munities). Hosmer has cited many of Though readers should treat Hosmer's the available published and archival discussion of Tsimshian ethnology sources and presented a competent with some caution, even specialists synthesis, although specialists will will find that the history of the have some quibbles with it. For in­ economic enterprises that he has stance, Hosmer states that Blackfish studied provides some new material and Raven were the original and pri- and an interesting synthesis.

Haa Aaniy Our Land: Tlingit and Haida Land Rights and Use Walter R. Goldschmidt and Theodore H. Haas Thomas F. Thornton, editor Seattle: University of Washington Press and Juneau: Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 1999. 219 pp. Illus., maps. US$30 paper.

By Charles R. Menzies University of British Columbia

HERE IS A SIGNIFICANT body of and Theodore Haas, is one such report. anthropological work lan­ Its purpose was to determine Tlingit Tguishing in the no man's land and Haida land rights in southeast of the unpublished report. Available Alaska in anticipation of the nation­ to the general public briefly, if at all, wide hearings of the Indian Land these reports disappear quickly and Claims Commission and the impending quietly into the depths of waiting statehood of Alaska (xxiii). However, archives. Sometimes they may have a it long outlived its initial purpose. As life beyond the initial aims and ob­ editor Thomas Thorton explains, the jectives of the agency that commis­ report came to be regarded by the sioned the report. "Possessory Rights Tlingit and Haida as a "remarkably of the Natives of Southeastern Alaska," useful study [that] was almost always originally commissioned by the United the starting point for further research States Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1946 [into questions of] customary and tra­ and written by Walter Goldschmidt ditional uses" (xiii). That the report 98 BC STUDIES has been co-published by Sealaska with the lawyer Theordore Haas and Heritage Foundation with the Uni­ Tlingit researcher Joseph Kahklen, versity of Washington Press speaks to they embarked on a whirlwind tour of the regard with which it is held by Tlingit and Haida villages in southeast contemporary Tlingit and Haida com­ Alaska. The entire report, from research munities as a useful anthropological to final draft, was completed within work. three months. "It is a source of sur­ HaaAani'is an important document prise to me," Goldschmidt comments, that has significance for First Nations "that we managed as well as we did, in British Columbia and all those with and of great pride that the Report is an interest in Tlingit and Haida seen fifty years later as of such value relations to their land and resources. that its republication is sponsored by This is so in two particular ways. First, the Tlingit people themselves" (xxv). the original document itself is an As an academic positioned between exemplary example of how to research life as a social anthropologist and and write a report concerning Abo­ family ties to the very people being riginal land rights and use along the chronicled, I found the transcripts of Northwest Coast. Second, and per­ the elders' and community knowledge haps even more important, the report holders' interviews especially powerful. is an example of how anthropology as In particular, the words of the elders a discipline and a methodology can be from Tongass Island, a small island employed by and on behalf of First just across the BC/Alaska border, took Peoples. I will expand this point me back to memories of my child­ below, but first allow me a few words hood. I was born and raised in Prince on the actual contents of Haa Aani. Rupert, barely a half day's boat trip The republished report contains an south of Tongass Island, and I grew introduction by Thorton, a reflective up listening to stories about my essay by Goldschmidt (one of the family's history and how my great- original researchers), and the complete grandmother and her family left the transcripts of the original testimony village on Tongass Island in the late of the elders and community leaders 1800s during the US Army occupation interviewed in 1946. Thorton's intro­ of the island. I hear the echoes of my duction effectively situates the signi­ own family's history in the words of ficance of the report for the Tlingit the elders. Their words lend meaning and Haida. He provides an important and context to the stories I grew up historical context to the report that with in ways the report, with its nar­ carefully and concisely describes the row focus on resource use and pro­ legal framework within which the prietary rights, never can. Alaskan Native Claims movement As in many cases in British Columbia's evolved. Goldschmidt's personal re­ recent history, the research agenda miniscence of the research experience behind the original Goldschmidt and and his "relationships with and feelings Haas report was driven by outside legal about the community of Alaskan requirements, not direct community Indians, mostly Tlingit, who accepted needs. In 1940s Alaska, the drive towards and trusted [the research team] with statehood and the encroachment of their knowledge" (xxiii) is of particular non-Aboriginal settlers were adversely interest to anthropologists, especially affecting Tlingit and Haida use of applied anthropologists. Working their traditional territories. In British Book Reviews çç

Columbia similar issues are driving experts such as anthropologists and the contemporary indigenous research historians to validate and translate for agenda, in which First Nations are the court what community members required to demonstrate that they already know. exist as an indigenous people and then Despite the important role anthro­ document the extent of their land base pologists have played in support of as it existed prior to European contact. Aboriginal rights and claims, they are The result is that key concerns relating rarely part of the power structure that to meeting real needs pertaining to shapes the everyday lives of First local well-being are often pushed Nations peoples. They are, however, aside as bands and tribal offices are people who return, year in and year out forced to defend their land and ter­ (as funding and personal commitments ritory in Canadian courts. to family and work allow), to the com­ The question of who drives the re­ munities with whom they have worked. search agenda also raises an important It is long past time to recognize that and uneasy question about the role of the source of colonialism and the anthropologists in First Nations com­ exploitation of First Peoples is neither munities. It is not unusual to hear First anthropology nor anthropologists. Yes, Nations people talk about anthro­ the discipline emerged out of the pology as a process of cultural theft expansion of capitalism and the and anthropologists as the thieves who European-based colonialism of the steal in under the cover of friendliness late i8oos. Yes, there are individuals only to depart, never returning, with who are insensitive and self-serving. stories and knowledge they then ex­ However, to continue to target anthro­ ploit to the detriment of the community. pologists, as some commentators do, Haa Aaniy however, is an important merely shifts the spotlight of critical example of what anthropologists more examination away from the real often contribute to First Nations com­ offenders. The real thieves arrive with munities: reports, articles, books, and briefcases and contracts, they promise manuscripts that are useful, in­ economic benefits, jobs, and com­ formative, and carefully thought out. munity centres in exchange for timber, In British Columbia for example, nearly fish, minerals, water rights, or places every major court case concerning to dump toxic waste and garbage. Aboriginal rights and title that has These people are rarely interested in been heard has involved one or more the lives of First Nations, except in so anthropologists hired by a First Nation far as this knowledge may improve to prepare an "expert" witness report. corporate profit margins. Anthropologists are among the first Anthropology is not simply part of to argue that the misplaced standards a Western metanarrative responsible of the Euro-American legal system for destroying indigenous societies. In inappropriately require an "expert" to fact, anthropology is a by-product of say what should rightfully be said - if the interaction between Europeans it should be said at all - by elders and and First Nations, and it is at least as other community-based knowledge useful to First Nations as computers, holders. Yet this has been the colonial back-hoes, or modern fishing boats. paradox. In order for First Nations to Anthropology is one more tool that, assert their claims before the courts, in particular circumstances, can be put it has been necessary to hire outside to good use by and on behalf of First ioo BC STUDIES

Nations. The publication oîHaaAani and community leaders continue to should remind us that anthropologists stand up and repeat: this is our land, can be important allies in the struggle we were born here, and our grand­ for self-determination and decoloni- parents and their grandparents before alization. us were born here, back to before the First Peoples in the Americas have time Raven brought light to the repeatedly been forced to assert own­ people. Haa Aani is a document that ership of the land, to stand up and say: should be read and pondered by all HaaAani, this is our land. Even when those concerned for the rights of First the newcomers do not listen, elders Peoples.

Those Who Fell from the Sky: A History of the Cowichan People Daniel P. Marshall Duncan: Cultural and Educational Centre, Cowichan Tribes, 1999. 194 pp. Mus., map. $29.95 paper.

By Terry Glavin Editor, Trans m ont aine Books

HIS IS NOT a work of in­ sponse to that challenge is their par­ dependent scholarship. It was ticipation in the British Columbia T undertaken by a graduate Treaty Process as well as in public student in history, but it is a com­ education efforts, of which this book missioned work that was vetted by a is a part. group of Cowichan elders, a "history Those Who Fell from the Sky presents book committee," and senior tribal a version of the Cowichans' oral tra­ officials. It is the Cowichans' authorized, ditions that follows a single narrative approved, and "official" version of line of the sort that tends to lose the history. It does not pretend to be nuances and the vitality of the original otherwise, and it is a useful and stories. Still, the contribution made by valuable work, in spite of these things "official" histories such as these, as long and because of them. as they are understood to be mainly Originally intended as a book for descriptions of stories rather than the Cowichan youth, Those Who Fell from stories themselves, should not be the Sky evolved into a book specifically underestimated. Those Who Fell from intended to educate the general public the Sky allows the Cowichan peoples about the Cowichan peoples, their to present the history of their "land history, and the ways the Cowichans claims" on their own terms. This have met the challenge arising from should be of broad interest, if only long-standing trespasses upon Abo­ because it was the failure of the Crown riginal title in British Columbia. The and the Cowichan peoples to conclude Cowichan tribes' contemporary re- a treaty in the 1860s that marked the Book Reviews 101

beginning of British Columbia's "Indian cludes with a meditation upon the land question." But more important, isolation of the Cowichan Valley's and precisely because it is an auth­ settler cultures from the Cowichan orized history, it is a formal invitation communities in their midst, juxta­ to settler communities to see the posing the Clemclemuluts longhouse landscape around them in ways nor­ with the nearby South Cowichan mally reserved to the Cowichan peoples. Lawn Tennis Club to make the case Throughout British Columbia, that "segregation ... is still a feature of tribal groups are routinely confounded the Cowichan Valley today." If segre­ by internal debates that hinge on gation persists, then it is doubtful that arguments about whether it does more the tennis club, any more than the harm than good to allow the general longhouse, is evidence of it. public to comprehend specific features Still, Those Who Fell from the Sky of the landscape in ways that are re­ contributes to a deeper understanding vealed in oral histories. The Cowichan of the need for reconciliation between elders clearly decided that more good British Columbia's settler cultures and than harm can come of such knowledge. Aboriginal cultures. It does much to The result is a sort of public map of explain why the law demands a recon­ the Cowichan territory, one that en­ ciliation between Crown sovereignty courages non-Aboriginal people to and Aboriginal title in British Columbia. understand and respect the signi­ It also hints at a different sort of his­ ficance of certain landmarks and tory - one in which Native and settler features of that territory Vancouver communities have struggled to live to­ Island communities that have sprung gether, as neighbours, in spite of up in and around the Cowichan Valley everything. In the Cowichan Valley, the cannot help but be enriched by Those first White settlers were no less fervent Who Fell from the Sky and brought than were the Cowichan peoples in their closer to the Cowichan peoples through faith that the "land question" would, a new appreciation of the landscape. ultimately, be resolved amicably and There are problems with Those Who fairly. This faith persists, after all these Fell from the Sky. Fully eight pages are years, and it reveals a shared history given over to a story of dubious ve­ British Columbians can look back upon racity, reprinted from Anne Cameron's without shame. It is a tradition carried Daughters of Copper Woman, appar­ by Daniel P. Marshall himself, the ently because the story involves the nominal author of Those Who Fell from Cowichan. The term "sovereignty" is the Sky, whose own great- great-great- used throughout where "Aboriginal uncle built the first road from Somenos title" would have been accurate and to Maple Bay in 1864. Histories like uncontroversial. Also, the book con­ these we desperately need. I02 BC STUDIES

"Keeping the Lakes' Way": Reburial and the Re-creation of a Moral World among an Invisible People Paula Pryce Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. 203 pp. Illus., maps. $17.95 paper.

By Randy Bouchard and Dorothy Kennedy British Columbia Indian Language Project, Victoria

HE SINIXT (sngaytskstx), or in 1985. Although these chapters rely Lakes people, an Aboriginal heavily upon the facts documented in T group of the Arrow Lakes our reports, Pryce nevertheless deviates region, were deemed "extinct" by the from our analysis of Sinixt history federal and provincial governments when she hypothesizes that the iso­ almost fifty years ago. This remains an lated Slocan and Arrow Lakes pro­ unresolved chapter in the history of vided a refuge where the Sinixt could British Columbia's First Nations. Like live in peace in the mid-nineteenth the author of this volume, we became century, away from the Plateau Indian intrigued by the question of why there wars of the 1850s, and that they had a are no Sinixt Indian reserves in British "latent presence" north of the border Columbia. The issue first came to our until near the twentieth century. attention when a Sinixt elder from Pryce's thesis (8) is complete con­ the Colville Indian Reservation in jecture. She does not present a single Washington State walked into our piece of evidence to support it. office in 1972 seeking information If Pryce's argument retains any about his people's history in British plausibility, then it is only because Columbia. Our personal voyage of there is very little documentation discovery, which led us to dozens of pertaining to this area between the archives throughout Canada and the 1840s and 1850s that could either prove United States, resulted in a lengthy or disprove her thesis. However, what and well-distributed report {Lakes is available does not support her Indian Ethnography and History) that position. Father De Smet's 1842-8 we compiled on the subject in 1985 (on map, for example, notes a Sinixt behalf of the British Columbia Heritage settlement on the west side of Upper Conservation Branch), following a Arrow Lake, which he noted as con­ more general study [Indian Land Use sisting of twenty families. This was the and Occupancy in the Franklin D. only settlement he recorded in tra­ Roosevelt Lake Area of Washington ditional Sinixt territory. The map also State) that we produced in 1984 on indicates that De Smet had only a behalf of the Colville Confederated vague knowledge of the Slocan area, Tribes and the United States Bureau despite his discussions with his Sinixt of Reclamation. converts. If large numbers of Sinixt Paula Pryce spends the first three were in the Slocan at this time, then chapters of Keeping the Lakes Way De Smet would have obtained this in­ revisiting the questions we addressed formation from his enthusiastic Sinixt Book Reviews IOJ

congregation and sought them out. the early twentieth century, then she The widely respected chief of the Lakes could have done so by sticking to the became a staunch Roman Catholic in facts. It is the careful, critical, and the 1840s and surely would not have comprehensive analysis of the ethno­ concealed from De Smet the existence historic, ethnographic, and linguistic of significant numbers of unbaptized facts - not the construction of an members of his tribe. alternative theory - that supports By the early 1860s, an increasing Sinixt claims to the Arrow Lakes and number of miners, government officials, Slocan areas. explorers, and trail builders were in the The one new ethnohistoric addition Arrow Lakes region. Some of them Pryce offers to supplement our re­ came across encampments of Sinixt search is, in fact, an error and, thus, people but received no information merits examination. Although she that significant numbers of Sinixt, or acknowledges she has no linguistic anyone else, were holed away in this training, Pryce concludes on pages 17- region. Our reports cite several author­ 8 and in Appendix 1 that "Chatth-noo- itative ethnohistoric references to the nick" is a "plausible rendering" of fact that the Sinixt people had largely Sinixt, and she suggests that Aaron migrated south. Pryce has chosen Arrowsmith's 1814 map, which contains either to not refer to them or else to this term, is the first transcription of minimize their implications. the name of these Aboriginal people. The irony is that, even given Pryce's The first part of the term appears in obvious agenda, her concoction of an the Spokane/Kalispel/Flathead word alternative history depicting the Sinixt for "lake" but not in the language of as occupying their territories for longer the Sinixt people. This is significant, than they did is entirely unnecessary to for it helps confirm Arrowsmith's establishing a land claim. The docu­ error. Pryce (17) cites Barbara Belyea's mented evidence indicates that, while (1994, xii) Columbia Journals as the most of the Sinixt had relocated their authority for her statement that in­ winter villages into American territory formation on the 1814 Arrowsmith map by the 1870s, Sinixt people still con­ "came largely from David Thompson," tinued to come north into their tra­ thus implying that Chatth-noo-nick ditional territory each year, parti­ may have been included in the in­ cularly to hunt and harvest berries. formation from Thompson. But the The fact that they continued to claim word Chatth-noo-nick appears nowhere broad rights to land in the Arrow Lakes on David Thompson's 1813-4 map, and elsewhere in the 1880s and 1890s and Belyea herself comments that is well documented. A few Sinixt "Arrowsmith may have obtained this people may have wintered regularly in information not from Thompson but the north, and additional small numbers from Joseph Howse, whose map of the (particularly a Sinixt family who were upper Columbia, drawn in 1812, is now well known around Castlegar) appear lost." (295-7). Thus ^ ^s not correct to to have wintered south of the border suggest that the information on the most years but to have spent much of 1814 Arrowsmith map came from the rest of the year in Canadian ter­ Thompson. In fact, the information ritory. If Pryce's intent was to show came from several sources. The 1814 that the Sinixt traditionally lived in map identifies a large lake west of and used the Arrow Lakes region until Flatbow (Kootenay) Lake as "Chatth- IO4 BC STUDIES

noo-nick or Ear-bobs L." However, data is manufactured by her re­ Alexander Henry makes references to arrangement of the record. the "Kullyspell or Earbob" Indians, Pryce's entire analysis seems to both in his 1810-1 journal and also in serve only to reinforce her false thesis a vocabulary of "Flat Head." The that sloppy ethnographers and stiff- reference is clearly to the Kalispel, or necked bureaucrats cross-pollinated to Pend d'Oreille, who were frequently erase the Sinixt people from the his­ perceived as one people in the early torical map. It is her view that "an­ i8oos.The "Ear-bobs" became known thropologists have made a greater more commonly by the French term contribution to the obscurity than to "pend'oreilles," which translates as the knowledge of the Sinixt" (7-8). "ear-drops," or "ear-bobs," hence the She proceeds to say that "much of the tribal designation "Pend d'Oreille." more comprehensive writing on this Chatth-noo-nick) thus, is not the name subject has been left to moulder un­ for the Arrow Lakes, and it is certainly published" (8) and that, consequently, not another transcription for "Sinixt." anthropologists are responsible for The cartographer, Arrowsmith, simply governments' lack of knowledge and, made a mistake, and Pryce follows ultimately, their decisions. On page 22 suit. Moreover, Arrowsmith's 1818 map she is more direct, noting: "At least corrects his 1814 map's error by removing part of this confusion has arisen as a the words " Chatth-noo-nick or Ear- result of sporadic and patchy ethno­ bobs L." from the Arrow Lakes. graphic fieldwork among Arrow Lakes In summarizing Sinixt ethnography, people. No major work or compre­ Pryce gets into further trouble: the hensive ethnography has been written following few examples are illustrative on the Sinixt. However, James Teit, but, unfortunately, by no means ex­ Verne Ray, William Elmendorf, Randy haustive. Twice she misquotes archae­ Bouchard, and Dorothy Kennedy have ologist Gordon Mohs's citation of done limited fieldwork, the latter three W.W. Elmendorf and states that "the without publishing their results." Sinixt are a matrilineal people who Pryce's summary both inaccurately generally followed an endogamous denigrates the existing anthropological matrilocal marriage pattern" and that literature on the Sinixt and greatly "well into the nineteenth century, overstates her role in drawing together polygyny was relatively common" (26). the "dispersed references" that she First, Mohs notes that Elmendorf re­ claims to present. While the existing corded that the Lakes had preferential literature on the Sinixt is limited, matrilocal residency patterns but much of it is of high quality, including made no reference at all to the Lakes the work of James Teit (1930), Verne being a matrilineal society. "Matrilocal" Ray (1936), and W.W. Elmendorf and "matrilineal" are not synonyms. (1935-6). If the anthropological literature Second, Mohs, citing Elmendorf, does had no impact on government policy not say that polygyny was "relatively makers who did not read it, then this common." He says: "there was also a is hardly the fault of the ethno­ tendency towards monogamy, although graphers involved. polygyny was not uncommon," which Pryce's contention that we and the has a rather different emphasis. In late Bill Elmendorf undertook only other places (30), the ambiguity that "limited" ethnographic fieldwork and Pryce attributes to the ethnographic that this work was "sporadic and Book Reviews 105

patchy" are, in our opinion, inaccurate skeletal remains. After presenting a and unfair. Elmendorf undertook review of the more common sources ethnographic and linguistic fieldwork on the Prophet Dance movement, Pryce among the Sinixt in September 1935 extends the discussion with a sum­ and August-September 1936. The mary of Fentress and Wickham's (1992) source of Elmendorf's Lakes in­ social memory thesis, followed by formation was a woman who was born Bakhtin's (1981) ideas on chronotopes. in the mid-i86os, more than thirty Chapter 5 then applies these concepts years before the birth dates of the to what Pryce observed and heard oldest Sinixt people we interviewed in during her visits to the Sinixt people's the 1970s and 1980s. Consequently, Vallican encampment. Though Pryce Elmendorf was able to obtain in­ finds that a relationship with the formation that was no longer known Prophet Dance is indirect, persisting to the people we interviewed, although only in a "discursive field," she argues the Sinixt elders with whom we more convincingly that Vallican serves conducted extensive field interviews as a "space where time and people come between 1975 and 1985 were recognized together" (112); that is, as a chronotope. as the most traditionally knowledgeable Despite the severe limitations of people available. As a result of these Pryce's book, this approach makes a interviews we produced the two book- significant contribution. length studies Pryce relied upon (as Some say you can judge a book by well as an ethnobotanical monograph its cover. The back cover of Keeping the and several articles). Perhaps Pryce Lakes Way displays an 1861 photograph believes that a written work has to be of Sinyakwateen depot. But it is not published in order to be compre­ located "near Hudson's Bay Company hensive. Fort Shepherd," as the caption states, Pryce's thesis in the second half of nor is the term a rendering of "Sinixt," Keeping the Lake Ways is that the as Pryce states on page 150; rather, Sinixt's "social memory" of the area is Sinyakwateen depot was located about accompanied by "ideas of prophecy, seventy-five miles to the southeast, in destruction, and resurrection" (10, 98) Kalispel territory, where the Pend that have motivated their concerns d'Oreille River flows out from Lake about repatriation and reburial of Pend d'Oreille. ioô BC STUDIES

Out of the Mist: Treasures of the Nuu-chah-nulth Chiefs Martha Black Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum, 1999. 159 pp. Illus., maps. $36.95 paper.

By Ki-ke-in (Ron Hamilton) Em in

UT OF THE MIST, the official seminal nature and overarching im­ catalogue for the Royal British portance of these types of artefacts to O Columbia Museum travelling Nuu-chah-nulth ceremonial activity show of the same name, is a large- today, the record shots of individual format picture book. Profusely illus­ objects are a major disappointment. trated with no less than 256 photographs, Only three historic and two con­ this is an immediately impressive and temporary pieces are given full-page enjoyable publication to look at. There status (1, 2, 98, and 18,133). The cover are 205 coloured photographs and and many pages feature a single object fifty-one historical black-and-white but clutter the image with titles, images. Aside from record shots of the patches of text, or both (45, 70, 82). A artefacts, there are two groups of clear title page for each section would coloured photographs found here. Near have been a nice touch. I find the the front of the catalogue are seventeen manipulation of the mask image on small, refreshingly informal portraits the cover (certainly the oldest piece from of Nuu-chah-nulth Ha'wiih (hereditary the show most referenced by Nuu- chiefs) (36-8). Near the back of the chah-nulth carvers today) both ugly book are eighteen shots of Nuu-chah- and disrespectful. Page 33 provides nulth people at the opening ceremonies another example of the book's poor for the show in Victoria (136-40). The layout. With image and text on a portraits are a respectful and tacit single leaf, there is more empty space acknowledgment of our traditional than used space here. The image of system of government. The images of "The Whaler's Dream" could have people speaking, singing, dancing, and been considerably larger; as it is, it is just being at the opening clearly cap­ almost a throwaway. ture some of the joy, excitement, and Most of the black-and-white images gravity we feel when we open up our the author utilizes in Out of the Mist treasure chests and reconnect with our were made during the last decades of ancestors through the display and use the nineteenth century and the early of our tuupaatis — our crest objects. decades of the twentieth century from Our tuupaatis: screens, curtains, large-format glass negatives. These talking sticks, boxes, whaler's hats, photographs feature views of old Nuu- headdresses, dance-robes, masks, chah-nulth villages, with their char­ drums, rattles — these are the very acteristic big houses scattered along heart and soul of this exhibition and our west coast (8, 21, 26, 65, 158). A this catalogue. Given this, and the few others capture distinguished Book Reviews ioj

individuals from our past dressed to being carried aloft in official welcome meet or entertain the public (58, 64, by a crew of Tla-o-qui-aht (41). The 107,142). Such images reach across the shot of Queen Mary, wife of Tla-o- years and draw us back in time; they qui-aht chief Wickaninnish, in a captivate us and speak eloquently of potlatch house might have helped the dignity and pride of our im­ contextualize some of the Tla-o-qui- mediate forebears. Three black-and- aht material in the show had it been white photographs depict Nuu-chah- placed in proximity to it. However, the nulth women weaving baskets, and shot appears in the pronunciation there is a single shot of a carver appendix at the back of the book (149). working on a model pole (118,124,125, It is worth noting that Nuu-chah-nulth and 108). I enjoy these photographs photographers have taken countless because they show some of the people photographs during Nuu-chah-nulth who made some of the older objects feasts and potlatches from about 1930 in this catalogue. onward. A selection of these would The advertising blurb on the back have enriched this catalogue im­ cover of the volume claims that "this measurably. book is more than a catalogue ... In contrast to the rich array of Martha Black places the objects in photographs in Out of the Mist, Black, context with the culture and history as the curator of this important exhibit of these west-coast people." This is an of material culture and as the author overstatement, as only 152 of the 218 of this catalogue, seems to have little items in the exhibit are illustrated in to say. She quotes various Nuu-chah- the book. Having seen the show a half nulth people at length and throughout dozen times, I would appreciate seeing the book, but her own lack of expertise more of the pieces included. As well, in matters Nuu-chah-nulth is all too for almost two decades now, students evident. She has not provided even a of Northwest Coast art and history simple essay to introduce the distinct have been accustomed to exhibition character of Nuu-chah-nulth myth­ catalogues with considerable contextual ology, history, beliefs, politics, or cere­ material. For example: Bill Holm's mony and ritual. Perhaps she is wise Smoky-Top: The Art of Willie Seaweed to keep her observations and com­ (1983), Doreen Jensen and Polly ments to a minimum. Sargent's Robes of Power: Totem Poles In her preface, the author declares on Cloth (1986), Robin K. Wright's A the museum show chronicled in this Time for Gathering: Native Heritage in book to be the "first-ever exhibit of Washington State (1991), and Steven Nuu-chah-nulth arts and culture" (13). Brown's The Spirit Within: Northwest This statement is as bold as it is ig­ Coast Native Art from the John Hauherg norant. Nuu-chah-nulth peoples have Collection (1995). There is no new used great paintings and carvings, scholarship in Black's work, only new beautiful robes, strong songs and material surveyed briefly. dances, eloquent speakers, and a broad Sadly, only two of the many photo­ range of ceremonies to proclaim our graphs used in this book are note­ place and our authority along the west worthy because of their potlatch coast of this island since time im­ settings. There is a beautiful historic memorial. We have been exhibiting shot of a graceful Nuu-chah-nulth our culture to Europeans since 1778, canoe, with ten paddlers still aboard, when Captain Cook first visited our io8 BC STUDIES

shores and attended a potlatch. Witness has chosen to use these images, but the Nuu-chah-nulth woman pictured she has missed much of the very culture weaving at the 1904 World's Fair. She and history the book claims to offer. was part of a group who went to dem­ Not since John Sendey's The Nootkan onstrate various traditional skills and Indian: A Pictorial (1977) has a single to entertain the public (125). Witness publication featured so many images the Tla-o-qui-aht Ha'wiih ranged in of Nuu-chah-nulth people. That long- front of Wickaninnish's curtain in 1928 out-of-print work is a collection of (58). They were greeting Lieutenant- early illustrations and photographs Governor Lord Willingdon in Torino. interspersed with quotes from Captain Witness the truckload of Nuu-chah- Cook's journals. Furthermore, no nulth men and women decked out in other trade publication has quoted their crest masks and headdresses for Nuu-chah-nulth people so profusely. the Alberni Dominion Day parade in Despite its weaknesses, readers of BC 1929 (142). They are trying to make a Studiesj students of anthropology and point: "We are still here. In spite of history, Nuu-chah-nulth people, and all that you've done to wipe us off the many others may want to add this face of this earth, we are still here." Black book to their libraries.

Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique: Manufactured by Joseph Dufour et Cie 1804-05 after a Design by Jean-Gabriel Char vet Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales and National Gallery of Australia, 2000 Distributed in North America by University of Washington Press. 48 pp. Illus. US$18.95 paper.

Roderick J. Barman University of British Columbia

HE VISITOR to the Honolulu panoramic view, in an open-air set­ Academy of Arts, housed in ting, of different Native peoples of the Tthe former Cooke family man­ Pacific Islands and coasts. The scenes sion, will encounter a myriad of begin on the left, where a group of objects to charm the senses and to people wearing conical hats and long stimulate the intellect. In a dark capes is engaged in drying fish hung corner, shielded from natural light, from strings. The visitor from British stands what is perhaps the most Columbia at once exclaims: "Nootka striking and unusual exhibit - a set of Sound!" and that remark justifies this twenty panels, or strips, of wallpaper review of Les Sauvages de la Mer dating from the start of the nineteenth Pacifique m BC Studies. century. What fascinates are the scenes The wallpaper was produced in 1805 on the wallpaper. They represent a by Joseph Dufour et Cie (a firm located Book Reviews IOÇ

in Maçon, France), and it was first dis­ accord with this view are banished played at a manufacturing exhibition either to the background (as with in Paris in 1806. The paper sold briskly, Cook's death) or to the outer edges of and examples in situ, attached to their the panels. This interpretation of the original walls, survive in France, panels' iconography, patent from the Belgium, Germany, Sweden, and the content, is amply confirmed by the United States. The wallpaper's popu­ text of the pamphlet issued by the larity is entirely explicable. The twenty manufacturer as a key to the figures panels, composed of woodcuts hand- and as a guide to hanging the paper. painted with gouache, possess con­ "The figures arranged on each strip of siderable aesthetic appeal. The in­ this decoration are not only remarkable dividual scenes are deftly drawn and, for their costumes, but interesting for viewed as a whole, possess balance and the forms of their employment and, integrity. The diversity of the peoples at times, admirable for their customs" and landscapes, the absence of the '(3*). constant repetition that characterizes The wallpaper was designed, the most wallpaper, and the delicacy of the pamphlet proclaimed, so that "the colouring combine to delight the eye. studious man reading the history of Attractive as it is aesthetically, the the voyages or the specific accounts of wallpaper is no less interesting in the explorers used in these decorations, terms of its iconography Employing might think himself, by casting his what was still, in 1806, the innovative eyes around him, in the presence of device of the panorama, Jean-Gabriel the depicted people" (33). In fact, the Charvet, the designer, presented views iconography was intended to encircle of peoples recently revealed to the "the studious man" with images of the European world. In composing his "other" - a world possessing the sim­ figures, Charvet drew heavily on the plicity and the harmony Europe so illustrations published in the several sorely lacked. The images have little narratives of Captain Cook's voyages. to do with the peoples of the Pacific This provenance, and the inclusion in Islands; instead, they reflect what the background of Panel 9 of a distant Charvet and others wanted Europe to view of Cook's death in Hawaii, ex­ be. In dress, looks, and posture, the plain why the wallpaper has at times three female dancers from Tahiti ap­ been termed Les Voyages du Captain pearing on Panel 5 have nothing to do Cook. with that island. They are upper-class While the designs bear witness to French ladies, wearing Empire-style the profound influence of Cook's dress and performing a Neo-Classical voyages on the European mindset, they dance at an amateur production in cannot be termed copies. Charvet's Paris. Their ultimate inspiration is the imagery derives not from what Weber, Three Graces. Samuel, and others recorded on paper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (drawings later engraved) but, rather, proves once again, if proof were needed, from the vision of the "Noble Savage" that what we see is largely controlled so favoured by the Enlightenment. by our existing state of mind, by our The figures portrayed dwell in a bene­ preconceptions. The "other" depicted ficent Nature, live in harmony with it, by Charvet, and sold to the well-to- and clothe and feed themselves with do by Joseph Dufour et Cie, is benign, its products. The few images not in even admiring; but this is not so in no BC STUDIES

every instance. The pamphlet makes the attitude of Les Sauvages de la Mer plain why the "inhabitants of Nootka" Pacifique was one factor preparing the (34) are relegated to the very left way for a bitter experience. margin of the design on Panel 1. "They The University of Washington Press are not well built and have ill-pro­ is to be congratulated on agreeing to portioned bodies. ... Their ugly faces distribute this study, jointly produced do not appear in their natural colour by the Art Gallery of New South being daubed with ochre and oil ... Wales and the National Gallery of They are serious and phlegmatic but Australia (both of which own full sets also cruel and vindictive. They eat of the wallpaper), in North America. their vanquished enemies and trade While intended for an Australian the feet, hands, skulls and other parts audience, and while they are a bit dis­ of the body which cannot be con­ jointed, the contents of Les Sauvages sumed" (34). While admiration of in­ de la Mer Pacifique amply reward digenous peoples did not prevent (and careful study. Above all this work even stimulated) colonization, contempt makes widely available an important for them justified conquest and exploi­ artefact that is otherwise little known tation. In the case of British Columbia, and difficult to see.

Almost a Hero: The Voyages of John Meares, R.N., to China, Hawaii and the Northwest Coast J. Richard Nokes Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1998. 217 pp. Illus., maps. $29.95 paper.

By Bruce M. Watson Vancouver Community College

O CONTEMPORARY Frances man "of courage, energy and vision" Hornby Barkley, British who "deserves better" than the place T mariner John Meares was a in history that historians have ac­ thief who had stolen and used her corded him. Nokes, a navy veteran and husband's maps; to George Dixon, longtime Oregonian editor, sets about Meares contradicted and misrep­ to throw new light on Meares in his resented the facts, and to Robert book, Almost a Hero. Haswell he was a liar. Opinions of Nokes re-evaluates Meares through Meares by traditional maritime fur the use of narrative coupled with an trade historians such as F. W. Howay, examination of the criticisms. With W. Kaye Lamb, and even Captain the deft hand of an experienced editor, John Walbran, who examined the Nokes mines and amply endnotes the Barkley dairies, tend to agree with traditional and sometimes contra­ Meares' contemporaries. To J. Richard dictory sources (Meares, George Dixon, Nokes, however, John Meares was a Nathaniel Portlock, William Douglas, Book Reviews in

and others) to create a clear free- the first non-Native explorers in the flowing reader-friendly story. After area, Meares was the first non-Native briefly introducing the little known to found a fur trading "empire" in the early life of Meares, Nokes begins his region. He was the first to attempt to narrative in 1786 when the British carry timbers (which he had to jettison mariner first came to the Northwest during a storm) from the area thus Coast on the ill-fated snow Nootka creating an industry first. He was the and ends it with the settlement of the first to carry Chinese to Hawaii and use Nootka Affair. A short "Afterward" East Indians (Lascars) as crew mem­ sews up the rest of his life and brings bers, etc. Although Meares was only to light a knighthood bestowed on a pawn in the process, his "Memorial Meares by the British Crown. On the to Parliament" helped change the way, Nokes dedicates considerable space European imperial power structure in to the Hawaiians, Kauai chief Kiana the area. Nokes' careful examination and the Barkley servant Winee, and of the arguments against Meares does broadens the content to include men­ blunt some of the criticism leveled tion of the diversity of the crews, often against him concerning his years on overlooked by traditional historians. the coast. On the other hand, some may Periodic inserts entitled for example, feel Nokes doesn't go the full distance "Nautical Terms," "The Sea Otter," to dispel the reputation perpetrated by "Macao and Canton" as well as con­ his detractors as the records of the temporary maps and lithographs help time imply that he angered practically enrich the understanding of the nar­ everyone he met. rative. As well, an appendix which in­ Almost a Hero is a good read for a cludes an examination of Mrs. Barkley's student of Northwest Coast maritime accusations, followed by a short docu­ fur trade history for it simplifies a very ment section which ranges from the complex series of events which took 17 September 1778 "Passing Certificate place on the Northwest coast in the for Commission of John Meares" to early years of contact when the maritime his last will and testament helps flesh fur trade was in its infancy Whether out a John Meares beyond the person or not it exonerates Meares from the who plied the Northwest Coast. criticisms leveled against him is de­ Nokes forces a re-evaluation of the batable. However, given the fuller role of Meares by juxtaposing his ac­ account of his life, Meares comes across complishments achieved always under as more complex than the villain and difficult conditions, against traditional the scoundrel which emerge from the arguments held against him. Nokes records. As this is one of the first shows that Meares pulled off many books to focus entirely on the life of firsts at least from a Euro-Centric point Meares, rather than being addended of view. Although he missed finding to other events, scholars shouldn't pass the mouth of the Columbia as one of this one by. 112 BC STUDIES

Outpost: John McLoughlin and the Far Northwest Dorothy Nafus Morrison Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1999. 641 pp. Illus., maps. US$45 cloth.

By Morag McLachlan Vancouver

N 1957 THE STATE LEGISLATURE of persuaded Congress to enact legislation Oregon conferred the title "Father that deprived McLoughlin of most of I of Oregon" on John McLoughlin. his holdings. Many of the accounts Statues have been erected in his written about Oregon's early history honour, his home has been preserved, have been a mea culpa for this shabby his portrait has been painted, and treatment and, in the process, Hudson's many places carry his name. He has Bay Company policies have been vili­ become in many respects a mythical fied. figure. In this study, Dorothy Nafus Morrison In 1824 McLoughlin arrived at the has taken advantage of the wealth of mouth of the Columbia River to take material available to reveal the known charge of the commercial interests of facts about McLoughlin's life, from the Hudson's Bay Company, which had his early family history to his post­ been granted the sole British trading humous awards. She provides back­ rights to the area west of the Rockies ground information that places him in between 54'4o" and 42'N. During the his own time and place. Although the long and fractious process of defining book is a heavy tome, the print is clear the boundary between the expanding and readable, and all references are United States of America and British confined to an appendix and identified territory, this area was held in joint by page number. The large collection occupancy. This condition obtained of interesting pictures and illustrations until the border was finally settled in make it evident that this work was not 1846, a much longer period than was produced in haste. Morrison corrects originally intended when the agreement many of the exaggerated accounts that was reached in 1818. fed the myth, but even though she cites As Americans ventured into the ter­ incidents that reveal poor leadership, ritory, McLoughlin gave those in need her portrayal of McLoughlin is, on the assistance rather than following the whole, warm and sympathetic. She Hudson's Bay Company policy of sees him as a tragic hero who "shows discouraging settlement and vigor­ courage and skill but is destroyed by ously opposing all competition. When implacable fate, by his virtues, and by McLoughlin failed to implement pol­ his own character flaws" (xix). icies to Governor George Simpson's Simpson's decision to replace satisfaction, he was forced out of the McLoughlin was made easier because Company, became an American citizen, one of the members of the triumvirate and attempted to establish his own that took control was James Douglas, business. On a frontier where no rule of a man of undoubted ability. When law yet existed, some greedy Americans Douglas became governor of the Book Reviews uj

colonies of Vancouver Island and British as an outcome of the American mainland British Columbia, he was Revolution and the War of 1812 made fiercely resented by many of the settlers a hero of a man who was rejected by a who remained after the gold rush. He British company and betrayed by faced a much more difficult situation rogue Americans. Douglas, striving to than had McLoughlin. Although his­ maintain British control on a volatile torians have restored his reputation, he frontier, was perceived to be autocratic has not received the acclaim accorded by settlers from Upper Canada, who McLoughlin. The smouldering re­ had very recently achieved responsible sentment among Americans against the government.

Ranald MacDonald: Pacific Rim Adventurer Jo Ann Roe Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1997. 256 pp. Ilus., map. $28.95 paper.

The City of Yes Peter Oliva Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1999. 336 pp. $21.99 paper.

By Jean Wilson UBC Press

F YOU ARE a fur trade aficionado, Between 1848 and 1858 he wandered especially of Hudson's Bay the world as an ordinary seaman and I Company (HBC) lore and lives, you as a whaler, visiting ports in Britain, will have heard of Ranald MacDonald. Europe, Africa, the United States, His life, by any measure, was ad­ Hawaii, and Asia. He also lived for a venturous and his legacy long-lasting, year in Japan and in Australia before and references to him crop up in many returning to North America to parti­ HBC and Pacific Northwest histories. cipate in the Cariboo gold rush and The first son of HBC clerk Archibald the Vancouver Island Exploring McDonald (his children adopted the Expedition (viEE 1864), and to settle "Mac" spelling) and Koale'zoa, daughter into the roadhouse business and then of the Chinook leader Concomly, ranching near Ft. Colvile, where he Ranald lived a long life (1824-94) died. during which he spent time as a child It is MacDonald's experience in and young man at Ft. George and Ft. Japan that is perhaps most noteworthy Vancouver in the Columbia District and that is the focus of Jo Ann Roe's as well as at Red River in Rupert's biography and a parallel theme to the Land and St. Thomas, Upper Canada. main narrative in Peter Oliva's novel. 114 BC STUDIES

Roe is a travel and history writer based as are other statements about North­ in Bellingham. Her biography is west Coast Aboriginal peoples. somewhat disjointed and occasionally My greatest frustration with Roe's simplistic or inaccurate, but it is also book is its idiosyncratic organization a fascinating reconstruction of a and lack of documentation. I fully ap­ remarkable life. Her enthusiasm and preciate that RanaldMacDonald is in­ fascination with her subject are evident, tended primarily for a general audience, and she succeeds in describing Ranald and that is commendable, but readers MacDonald's full history. would have been better served by a In a life of many adventures, pro­ proper bibliography than by only an bably MacDonald's greatest was to be unkeyed list of references pertaining the first known White foreigner to to each chapter at the back of the gain entry into Japan and to survive book. There are few notes, so on the as well as to leave a mark. He entered whole it is difficult to determine what by faking shipwreck off the Hokkaido the sources are for most of Roe's ob­ coast of northern Japan in 1848, being servations, though much of her material rescued by Japanese villagers and then, obviously is based on MacDonald's subsequently, being interned by high- story as written up by his friend ranking officials. MacDonald had been Malcolm McLeod between the 1860s fascinated by Japan since he was a boy and 1890s. As well, chapters are often and had heard of three Japanese sailors short (the first chapter is a mere four shipwrecked off the Olympic Peninsula, pages) and would have been better imprisoned by Natives, and later re­ combined, and there is a disconcerting leased by HBC officials. MacDonald disjuncture in the narrative about half became determined, despite the risks, way through the book when Roe to see this "forbidden" country. During abandons MacDonald in Canada in the year he spent as a relatively com­ order to insert two chapters about the fortable prisoner, MacDonald taught completion of Perry's mission. They're English. The men he taught were later interesting, but the Perry story could instrumental in effecting treaty nego­ have been condensed, even summarized, tiations between Commodore Matthew in a note. Perry and Japanese officials in 1854. Peter Oliva, who is a well established My frustrations with Roe's bio­ Alberta writer and owner of the Calgary graphy have to do with a rather cavalier bookstore Pages on Kensington, ob­ approach to justification for statements viously became as fascinated by made and some obvious inaccuracies MacDonald's story as did Roe {The — for example, E. Herbert Norman City ofYes was shortlisted for the Giller was not an American historian, he was Prize). Although Ranald MacDonald a Canadian diplomat who also wrote is not the focus of Oliva's story, his one of the most important books about life provides an interesting parallel to Japan subsequent to his posting there the anonymous narrator's, he being a (Japans Emergence as a Modern State young Albertan hired to teach English [1940]); Toronto did not, as far as I in contemporary Japan. While there can determine, ever have a newspaper he learns of MacDonald's adventure called "the Toronto Press"; and surely and success in teaching men who the statement that "slaves of coastal became well established translators. Indians lived a miserable life, indeed" The novel gets its title from the an­ is something of a gross generalization, cient name for Hokkaido - Yesso - Book Reviews 115

and from a poem by Yevgeny he has adopted, even if only for the Yevtushenko: term of a one-year teaching contract. His life as an English teacher, his in­ I am like a train teraction with other teachers and rushing for many years now students, his portrayal of Santa Claus between the city of Yes and other attempts to portray North and the city of No. American customs, his whimsical "Yes" was also the name of the VIEE'S tending of a colony of praying mantises, last camp on Vancouver Island, his sexual relationship with the char­ MacDonald's journal of the trip ismatic Hiroko - all these experiences being the only one to mention this are interspersed with lyrical descriptions fact. of MacDonald's experiences. Oliva's narrator is as curious to Reading these two books in tandem learn more about the alien Japanese is yet another parallel complementing culture as was Ranald MacDonald, those in The City of Yes. It was parti­ and when he learns about MacDonald cularly interesting to read first the bio­ and his experience in the country graphy and then the novel. Peter Oliva almost 200 years earlier, he is struck dextrously weaves fact and fiction; Jo by the parallels in their encounters Ann Roe assiduously presents all the with the Japanese. MacDonald's ex­ facts of MacDonald's life, from which perience becomes a metaphor for the Oliva so successfully draws. There is narrator's own search to become more certainly still room for a scholarly ver­ than just "an outside person - an ap­ sion of MacDonald's life, but in the parition made real" (57) and for Japan meantime Ranald MacDonald: Pacific itself to become more than "an affec­ Rim Adventurer and The City of Yes tionate prison" (287). He is trying, bring this attractive and venturesome instead, to become part of the world man vividly to life.

The Burden of History: Colonialism and the Frontier Myth in a Rural Canadian Community Elizabeth Furniss Vancouver: UBC Press, 1999. 237 pp. $29.95 paper.

By Jo-Anne Fiske University of Northern British Columbia

MAGES OF PIONEERS figure largely and mark a pioneer era as both heroic in the identity of central British and the foundation of a stable and I Columbia communities. Tales of meaningful rural culture. In Burden of extraordinary self-reliance, unparalleled History, Furniss unravels the under­ feats of courage, personal sacrifice, and lying assumptions and symbols of these enviable economic success saturate local narratives, conceived as "the frontier histories and community celebrations myth," in order to demonstrate how n6 BC STUDIES

this historical discourse has come to The frontier myth of benevolence shape, and be shaped by, contemporary frames both (i) the historic Euro- racialized politics in the central Interior Canadian conquest of Aboriginal peoples community of Williams Lake. Con­ and lands and (2) contemporary op­ temporary political culture, she as­ position to Aboriginal rights and treaty serts, is rooted in a "frontier cultural settlements as being in the best in­ complex"; thematic analysis of the terests of the colonized peoples. Inter­ frontier myth "reveal[s] how deeply woven with a consciousness of pioneer imprinted it is by Canada's colonial sacrifice, hard work, and a faith in legacy." Furniss seeks to offer "a worth­ evolutionary principles of progress, while and interesting critique of our which justifies a sense of Euro- own society" that will reveal the nature Canadian entitlement and inheritance, of racial tensions between Aboriginal perceptions of Canadian benevolence and non-Aboriginal (primarily Euro- allow an overt anti-Aboriginal stance Canadian) residents of this hinterland to be voiced as a defence of a demo­ city. She argues the assumptions of cratic equality that is to be achieved frontier culture work to displace and through assimilation and the rule of marginalize the First Nations of the individual rights over collective rights. region — the Carrier, Secwepemc, and Furniss develops her argument in Tsilhqot'in - and to affect the daily lives stages: She opens with a critique of of all the residents of the region, both the "landscape" of public history and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. identifies prominent racial stereotypes The "frontier" is characterized not and cultural values in secondary school as a place or historic point but, rather, history texts and popular histories. as a sensibility of difference that is dis­ She then moves to a discussion of how tinctive from urban culture both in its ordinary life and political discourses pioneer history and in its contemporary of the Cariboo-Chilcotin region, within culture, which Furniss marks, inter which Williams Lake is located, re­ alia, by a preference for driving pick­ inforce and are reinforced by the dom­ up trucks rather than cars, veneration inant historic narratives of the frontier. of the "self-made man," working-class Through interview data and anecdotal values, and right-wing populism. The description, Furniss illuminates the frontier myth is a selected historical ways in which "commonsense" racism discourse, a manifestation of colonial emerges in daily living. Public meetings culture that, in turn, is marked by "in­ held by the Reform Party to debate tense energy devoted to contemporary the merits of the current BC Treaty Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal relations process are presented to further illustrate either through the assignation of the complexities of racialization and difference ... or through the denial of its foundation in the frontier myth. difference." Political discourses that view conquest While the frontier myth is shown as natural, she argues, reduce history to be highly flexible, it is sufficiently to the "axiom of'survival of the fittest' cohesive to be capable of containing and rationalizes arguments that Abo­ contrary historic accounts and per­ riginal peoples themselves are responsible ceptions and, thus, is able to sustain for their economic dependency, social an enduring narrative of racial super­ problems, and marginalization. iority and a taken for granted historic Finally, Furniss turns to cultural benevolence towards a vulnerable race. spectacle, the Williams Lake Stampede, Book Reviews uj

to illustrate the popular enactment of Examples are commonplace injudicial the frontier myth as a historic hybrid history (Justice McEachern's specious of the American myth of "regen­ reference to a "vast wilderness" is per­ eration through violence" and the haps the most commonly cited in­ Canadian myth of benevolence. Abo­ stance), in national political discourse, riginal peoples take up paradoxical and in the resource industries, with positions in this spectacle as they seek the corporate elite and the "working to represent themselves as culturally man" both speaking against "race" unique, often by strategically de­ privileges while extolling the virtues ploying symbols that have accum­ of individualism and the "self-made ulated the moral stigma of cultural man." Symbols and performances of stereotypes under the gaze of colon­ the frontier cultural complex are ialism. Symbolic representations of powerful because they resonate with, "Indianness" through Indian Princess rather than oppose (or differ from), a pageants, colourful parade floats, and national sensibility of benevolence, cultural sites at the stampede grounds progress, and "equality." While Furniss complement the struggles embodied does not ignore this, she does underplay in the "strategic equivalences" rhetoric it and, in consequence, tends to over­ of First Nations leaders. Through this state the differences of rural and urban rhetoric they make common claim to racial identity formation. What I hear mainstream values while showing how said in Williams Lake and other hin­ the dominant society has either ig­ terland communities regarding racial nored this commonality or has failed relations and Aboriginal rights, I also to uphold the social values of demo­ hear in urban/suburban private and cracy and equality. public spaces. The ubiquity of the myth However, as the political manoeuvres of conquest by benevolence empowers of the Reform Party's opposition to the political manoeuvres of the hin­ Aboriginal rights treaties attests, racist terland. This aside, The Burden of discourses of benevolence and assim­ History is compelling reading. Its ilation are by no means restricted to ethnographic insight into racial the local politics of the economic and tensions and national politics provides geographical hinterland; rather, be­ an important contribution to our un­ nevolent paternalism imbues national derstanding of life in a hinterland myths of social progress and Canadian community and to our efforts to identity The thematics of the frontier theorize the origins and consequences myth prevail in urban racist discourses of settler society. just as they do in rural racist discourses. n8 BC STUDIES

Power and Place in the North American West Richard White and John M. Findlay, editors Seattle and London: Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest in association with University of Washington Press, 1999. 312 pp. Maps. US$19.95 paper

By Robert A.J. McDonald McGill University and University of British Columbia

HE PUBLICATION in 1987 of anthology of eleven essays loosely Patricia Limerick's The Legacy connected by the conference theme of T of Conquest: The Unbroken Past exploring "the power of some places of the American West was a benchmark over others" (ix). The volume brings in the writing of the history of the together work by some of the finest American West. Rejecting the influence young scholars in the American West of Frederic Jackson Turner, Limerick field, and it is edited by two of the asserted boldly that the old emphasis field's leaders, Richard White, who has on the uniquely American "process" by written the definitive general history which the west was settled must give of the American West, and John way to a new emphasis on the west as Findlay, the author of Magic Lands: a "place," a place that should be studied Western Cityscapes and American Culture in its own right and within a broadly After 1940 (1992). comparative context. Writing what In the Introduction to Power and became known as the "new western Place the editors attempt to identify history," she and others proceeded to the contribution that the various explore a variety of neglected themes chapters make to our understanding such as gender, racism, ethnic relations, of power, but the eclectic range of and the environment. For Limerick meanings that are accorded the con­ the new approach, explored from a cept of power throughout the col­ western perspective, suggested not a lection precludes easy generalization. narrative of triumphant nation building In addition, while the editors note that but a "contest for property and profit several authors draw upon theoretical ... accompanied by a contest for contributions by Michel Foucault and cultural dominance" (27). At the heart Anthony Giddens to the study of of western American history was a power, such theoretical influence is "legacy of conquest." limited. Indeed, theories of power are Power and Place in the North American employed much less creatively in this West is a product of this new en­ volume than they are by Tina Loo, thusiasm for the study of western Cole Harris, and Bruce Stadfeld, all American history. Originating as of whom write in the field of British papers delivered at a symposium Columbia studies. hosted by the Center for the Study of The volume is more effective when the Pacific Northwest at the University its analytical focus is on place. In of Washington in November 1994, this "Violence, Justice, and State Power in book emerged five years later as an the New Mexican Borderlands, 1780- Book Reviews up

1850," for example, James Brooks sug­ He takes as his starting point Judge gests that a borderlands political Dwyer's 1991 decision to nearly halt economy "organized around the sei­ timber sales from the GPNF until a zure and exchange of human lives and credible plan was put forward to pro­ livestock between New Mexicans and tect the spotted owl. Hirt proceeds to neighboring Indians" (24) dominated present a compelling case that the real greater New Mexico for more than a cause of the shutdown was not the century and a half. It ended when the court decision about the spotted owl American military and free-labour but, rather, the liquidation of the forest capitalism arrived. Place, Brooks during a forty-year "conquest" - a suggests, is crucial to an understanding period during which economic thinking, of the violent and competitive nature and "the grandly optimistic assumptions of this multiethnic borderland exchange by scientists and technicians regarding economy. In another piece, William their ability to control nature in order Deverell and Douglas Flamming give to maximize productivity," prevailed a new reading to an old subject when (207). While the spotted owl litigation they explore the racial dynamics of may have brought down the house of boosterism in Los Angeles in the period cards, Hirt concludes, the industry was to 1930. While promotional narratives "destined to collapse on its own in due about the city "often shared a language course" (224). common to all western boosterism," Finally, the essay by Joseph Taylor they argue, "black and white boosters III presents a compelling analysis of offered markedly different inter­ the spatial relations of power in the pretations of Los Angeles and the management of the Oregon salmon American West" (118). fishery in the late nineteenth and early The strongest cluster of essays falls twentieth centuries. In doing so, it within the category of "Environment offers the book's most sophisticated and the Economy." Hal Rothman exploration of the relationship be­ studies tourist development at Sun tween power and place. Taylor sug­ Valley, Idaho, where the Union Pacific gests that Oregonians fragmented Railway Company opened a resort naturally integrated water systems hotel in 1936. Sun Valley redefined into parts that were exploited by com­ itself in the 1960s when a new form peting segments of the salmon industry. of ski resort (based on seasonal homes) Fishing and cannery interests in a emerged. The study explores how highly overcapitalized industry re­ tourism can transform meaning at­ sponded to the rush for spoils by tached to space and concludes that, attempting "to claim and regulate the while "many locals become materially spaces of rival interests" and bolster better off as a result of the tourist the declining fish stocks by embracing industry ... the benefits are often the panacea of hatcheries (234). The negated by the changed perceptions "spatialized politics of the salmon of themselves and their community" fishery" and the resulting fragmen­ (198). By exploring timber management tation of nature predestined the col­ in Washington State's Gifford Pinchot lapse of yet another major resource National Forest (GPNF), Paul Hirt extractive industry in the American seeks to explain "the dramatic decline Northwest. of timber harvesting of the national There is much in Power and Place to forests of the Northwest in the 1990s." inform British Columbians, particularly 12o BC STUDIES

those with an interest in issues of Chris Friday(OrganizingAsian American racism and the construction of racial Labor: The Pacific Coast Canned-Salmon identities, the history of tourism, the Industry, 1870-1942); Hal Rothman role of the state, and environmental (Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the history. The essays centre on the parts Twentieth Century American West); of the American West of most interest Paul Hirt (A Conspiracy of Optimism: to British Columbians - the North­ Management of the National Forests west and the Pacific Coast. And one Since the Second World War); and Joseph essay is specifically about British E. Taylor III (Making Salmon: An Columbia: John Lutz's study of the Environmental History of the Northwest "Importance of Place" in the social Fisheries Crisis). Only one essay in construction of race. The volume offers Power and Place focuses on gender, a a useful introduction to the work of a curious fact given its importance as number of relatively new scholars who, one of the categories of analysis that in the last few years, have published defines the "new western history" as major studies in the history of the "new." This is, nonetheless, an im­ American West. These authors include portant book that merits the attention James Brooks (Capfives and Cousins: of readers interested in thinking about Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the British Columbia's past from a com­ Southwest Borderlands, 1660-1880); parative perspective.

Women Who Made the News: Female Journalists in Canada, 1880-1945 Marjory Lang Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999. 371 pp. Illus. $32.95 cloth.

Veronica Strong-Boag University of British Columbia

HIS LIVELY, intelligent history media for cues as they too were swept of Canada's women journalists into the mainstream of consumer cul­ Tis a pleasure to read; it is packed ture" (7). While the scribbling sis­ with fascinating information and pro­ terhood occasionally laboured as jour­ vocative speculation. While few press nalists and editors earlier, the late histories acknowledge their significance, nineteenth-century press's turn to media women have been powerful in­ commercial advertising and female fluences, "integrally involved in de­ consumers created unprecedented op­ fining normative roles for Canadian portunity. Pioneers, often well edu­ women - and not only for anglophone cated, single, Canadian-born refugees middle-class women like themselves from their sex's limited employment but also ... for working class and im­ options, encountered active resistance migrant women who looked to the even as they contributed to newspaper Book Reviews 121

profitability. Created in 1904, the the suffrage struggle. Later gener­ Canadian Women's Press Club (CWPC) ations of presswomen were hard put (the Media Club of Canada, 1971-93) to maintain that early ardour, which, invoked the strong sense of community like the quest for professional status, and commitment to women's advance faltered in the post-suffrage decades. that typified so many journalists. Its Unionization offered another route to "strong sense of making history" (20) community and power, but employer served it well, especially in the lifetime opposition and their own mixed feelings of the suffrage generation. Today it kept women a minor force in Canada's has served Marjory Lang and other newspaper industry. Canadians well by allowing the telling Chapter 4 employs a lifecycle ap­ of an extraordinary story of initiative proach to charting the "patchwork and dedication. quilt" of domestic and paid work that Chapter 1, which sets forth the journalists, like working women in significance and the demographics of general, sought to maintain. A model female journalists, is followed by eight of professionalism founded in male chapters and an epilogue. Chapter 2 experience, albeit often a highly introduces key figures among the romanticized version, did not readily thirty-five "women editors, reporters, serve women. Married women had and journalists" reported in the 1891 particular difficulties, regularly con­ census (29). While many were help­ demned by male colleagues, and mates to other family members, other sometimes by their single sisters, for such "new women," like the globe­ "double-dipping." While a certain trotting Sara Jeannette Duncan, struck number of women, like Cora Hind of out on their own, attracting both envy the Winnipeg Free Press, created lives and criticism for their supposed de­ of influence and comfort, more grew viation from respectability. Anxious for old with few financial resources. Not larger markets, newspapers reluctantly surprisingly, as Chapter 5 tells us, embraced and meagrely repaid new re­ many journalists made their careers cruits. A mix of British and, more writing for "women's sections." Often often, American influences, Canadian dismissed by critics suspicious of female papers and magazines soon recognized and popular enthusiasms, these pages the sales potential of strong female exhibited an unprecedented interest in columnists. Their popularity did not, female lives, both domestic and public. however, ensure a decent income for Sometimes feminist, especially in the most women writers, who regularly early days, they supplied critical oppor­ cherished ambitions as novelists and tunities for paid employment. As poets. Chapter 6 suggests, these sections Chapter 3 considers the CWPC and regularly tackled the changing roles of its "quest for professional status" (65). women. Experts in everything from The first nationally organized women's beauty to child psychology, women press club in the world, its intention such as Kate Aitken coached readers was to have well educated female on the critical consumption of modern professionals serve the public good. information and products. Such ad­ Such sentiments reflected the feminist vice helped bankroll newspapers. sympathies of many of its early mem­ Chapter 7 recalls the history of the bers. Indeed, the CWPC provided key often vilified society section. Influential actors, including Nellie McClung, to in the establishment of social rank, 122 BC STUDIES these pages provided many writers' Parliamentary Press Gallery, they had bread and butter. They also inspired few successors. nausea among those who recognized As Lang's Epilogue makes only too pretension even while they celebrated clear, the fate of the CWPC mirrored or, more occasionally (as with Madge the fate of presswomen. Once the Macbeth), lampooned it. Not sur­ activist heart of Canada's female jour­ prisingly many pioneers, as Chapter 8 nalists, its beat slowed as ambitious suggests, turned with relief to re­ young women rejected older same-sex cording and contributing to the reform communities. In the course of their efforts of turn-of-the-century women's search for equality, however, they also clubs such as the National Council of lost an earlier generation's history of Women. For a few, their enthusiasm struggle. Only with the renewal of proved a springboard to elective office; feminism at the end of the twentieth but, as feminist inspiration dissipated, century would Canada's female jour­ the club world lost much of its reason nalists begin to recover and appreciate for existing and so, too, its interest for their predecessors. Only one regret thoughtful presswomen. For those marred my appreciation of this volume: committed to social change, no ready E. Pauline Johnson, the Mohawk- alternative to the support provided by English Canadian writer, was a member activist women's associations emerged. of the scribbling sisterhood but she Elsewhere discrimination remained the does not appear in this volume. That order of the day, as may be seen in omission cost Lang an important Chapter 9's description of the con­ opportunity to consider how race tinuing barriers in the conventional politics shaped the writers who sought male specialties of "war, politics, eco­ to influence the ways that other nomics and finance, and general re­ Canadians lived. In every other way, porting" (249). While some, like Women Who Make the News provides a Genevieve Lip sett-Skinner, challenged crucial reminder of how much we lose such haughty male preserves as the when our history is not remembered.