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DR JOHN RAE. By R.L. RICHARDS. Whitby: Caedmon of Whitby (9 The sixmaps are helpful, but they omit a few of the important place John Street, Whitby, England YO21 3ET), 1985.231 p. +6 maps, namesmentioned in the text. An additionaloverall map of the 31 illus., bib., index. f16.50. Franklii search expeditions would have been helpful. Richards made animportant geographical error on page 44: Theone-mile-wide John Rae was one of the most successful arctic explorers. His four isthmus seen byRae joined the Ross Peninsula, not the Penin- majorexpeditions mapped, by his reckoning, 1765 miles of pre- Boothia viously unknown arctic coastline. He proved that Boothia was a penin-sula as stated. I would have liked more detailed references in the names sula and that King William Land was an island. He was the first to already numerous footnotes, indexing of important that appear only in footnotes, and a list of the maps and illustrations. Richards obtain definitive evidence regarding the fate of the third Franklin fails to mention that modern Canadian maps and the officialGazeteer exetion. give inadequate credit to Rae, sometimes giving his names to the Rae was prepared for his later achievements by his childhood in thewrong localities and misspelling Locker for LockyerWdbank and for Orkneys and by ten years with the Hudson’s Bay Company at MooseWelbank. One of Rae’s presentations to the British Association has Factory. Of his Orkney activities Rae later said: been omitted. In a few places it would have been helpfulto have given By the time I was fifteen, I had become so seasoned as to care little modern names of birds and mammals (Rae’s “deer” are of course about cold or wet, had acquired a fair knowledge of boating, was a caribou). moderately good climber among rocks and not a bad walker for my This excellent, long-overdue biography of an importantman is fun age, sometimes carrying a pretty heavy load of game or fish on my to read and a valuable reference work. It is highly recommendedto back. All of these acquirements, often thought useless, were of great everyone interested in the geographyor history of northern Canada, a service to me in after life. country in which Rae lived for 22 years. Upon completion of his medical training,Rae signed on as surgeon on the Hudson’s Bay Company supply ship Prince of Wales. On its C. Stuart Houston return voyage, this ship was detained by early ice conditions and 863 University Drive forced to winter in James Bay. Towards springRae gathered cranber- Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada ries from beneath the snow to cure the scurvy prevalent among the S7N N8 crew.He then stayed on as surgeon at Moose Factory. Here he learned the Indian methods of hunting, fishing, sledge hauling and camping; he made snowshoe walking his personalforte. Once after a HOME AND NATIVE LAND: ABORIGINAL RIGHTS AND THE house call to Fort Albany, he made the return trip of about 100 miles CANADIANCONSTITUTION. By MICHAEL ASCH. Toronto: on snowshoes in less than 48 hours. In 1845 he studied surveying Methuen Publications, 1984. ISBN 458-973807. 109 p. + appen- under J.H. Lefroy in Toronto. dices, suggested readings, bib. Cdn$9.95. Rae’s firstarctic expedition in 184647 mapped 625miles of coastline from the northwest comer of Melville Peninsula to Ross necloser you are, the farther it gets. Peninsula overlooking Lord Mayor’s Bay. On his second exwtion section 35 of the Canada Act, the defmition of aboriginal rights, in 184849 he accompanied Dr. John Richardson in search of the and the claims of Canadian native people to self-government are missing third Franklin expedition; no new miles weremapped. among the most complex issues facing the country’s recently elected After a year as chief trader at Fort Simpson, Rae set out to map theConservative government. Their importanceto the new government south coast of Wollaston Peninsula by sledge and then the southern remains to be seen. We have, todate, mixed messages - a proposed shore of Victoria Island to its eastern extremity by boat. Here he had amendment to section 35, much watereddown through provincial no way of knowing that he was only about 50 miles from the aban- pressure and leaked reports that suggest fundamental changes in the doned Erebus and Terror near the west shore of King Wiuiam Land, relationshipbetween the federal government and Indian nations. which he was unable to reach. Canadians still need to become familiar with these issues- and per- On his fourth expedition, in 1853-54, Rae obtained third-hand in- haps to consider or reconsider their attitudes and opinions. A good formation from Inuit concerning the fateof the third Franklin expedi- book on the subject would certainly help. tion, purchasing plates, forks, and spoons with the initials of officers The issues of treaty and aboriginal rights and self-governmentare of fromthe Erebus and Terror. He also explored200 miles of the concern to Treaty Indians, those who have never signed treaties and Quoiche River and about 200 miles of Arctic coastline. He discoveredwho have outstanding claims, the Metis, the Inuit of the Northwest that King William Land was an island, separated from Boothia by a Territoriesand Quebec, and northern, southern, rural, and urban strait now called Rae Strait. native people. It is, therefore, no surprise that there are different On all his explorations, Rae travelled light, building his own igloos strategies and positions on native self-government. areThese reflected and shooting game. He could average20 miles a day while dragging a in the positions of the Assembly of First (AFN),Nations several Metis sledge along the ice. He was innovative and resourceful, showing in- organizations, and the Prairie Treaty Nations Alliance, which tried credible stamina and superb markmanship. unsuccessfully to get a seatat the last First Ministers Conference and Dr. RobertL. Richards, a consultant physician at the WesternInfir- which is still not affiliated with the AFN. Yet there is considerable mary, Glasgow,completed this well-organized and interesting agreement among native people in Canada on the ultimate objective: biography shortly before his death in 1983. It is a pity that Richards the recognition of distinct cultures, histories, and traditions and rights did not live to see publication of his scholarly work. in the governing of their own affairs. Richards has uncovered valuable new information, including letters Asch has established a reputationas a major scholar writing about and unpublished manuscripts in various repositories in London, Cam- the South SlaveyIndians and has worked with theDene Nation for the bridge, Edinburgh, Taunton, and elsewhere. He provides the most past decade. However,as he acknowledges, in the process of writing complete bibliography yet available of Rae’s own writings, consistingHome and Native Land his horizons expanded and he included pro- of 26 published papers, 8 presentations to the British Association for posals and positions put forth by other groups. Despite his attempts to the Advancement of Science, and 42 letters Nature.to deal with aboriginal rights in general, the Dene come across as the Richards has been objective in presenting both sides of the con- main focus of Asch’s attention. Knowing Asch’s background in an- troversies in which Rae was embroiled. Richards explains why Rae thropology and experience with the Dene, I am left wishing that he did not go himself to the scene of the Franklin tragedy and discusses had restricted himself accordingly and given us an indepth assess- the controversy over the best methods of sledging. Clearly Rae’s ment of aboriginal rights and self-government as advocated by the reputation should not have suffered as it did, simply for relaying Dene nation. The book is stronger in the sections dealing with the evidence that Franklin’s men were involved in cannibalism. Dene claims and less satisfying inits discussion of other groups. The 158 REVIEWS book, therefore, opens a useful discussion that could lead to more cent Ontario SupremeCourt decision rejecting claims of the comprehensive debate. Temagami Band to 90oO km2 in northern Ontario. As Band Chief Any publication that attemptsto provide background information on Gary Potts noted, “the judicial system is incapable of protecting the issues of aboriginal rightsand the Canadian Constitution in a mereaboriginal rights” - and inthis, I would argue, he is far more 109 pages is bound to have certain shortcomings. These might have realistic than Asch. been overcome by focusing on a clearly defined audience and dealing The limits to Asch’s analysis arealso obvious in thecase of Treaty with the position of a specific group or groups sharing common Indians. In order to argue that Treaty Indians still have aboriginal wcal or other considerations. Asch attempts to deal with a rights and a rightto self-government, one must first establish that the complex subject and all native groups concerned with these issues. treaty-making process was highly questionable- even fraudulent - The result is lessthan satisfactory: a book, the style of which will not and that Indian nations did not surrender all their rights to Her Ma- appeal to the general public - which badly needs to be better in- jesty. Asch neglects this consideration entirely, leavingopen the sug- formed - and which, for the knowledgeable reader, presents not onlygestion that Treaty Indians surrendered their rights,as well as lands, little new information but some questionable assumptions, analyses, to the Crown. Asch does consider treaties later in his text but primari- and conclusions. ly in the context of emerging federal government policy. The matter Asch states that his book is for “individuals interested in the subjectof whether or not Indian nations did surrender their rights, and their but who feel a lack of background information necessary to form firmperspective on the numbered treaties in Alberta, is the subject of opinions” @.vii). He acknowledges that the book originated from a Richard Price’s % Spirit of the Alberta Indian Treaties (1979), an course on aboriginal rights and the Dene.As a text for undergraduate important work missing from Asch’s bibliography and suggested list students, Home and Native Land will serve to raise questions and of readings. createinterest in the aboriginal rights of native people. But the Asch’s third major pointis to argue that federal government policy absenceof visual aids - includingmaps, charts, and photos - has evolved, through the’70s and following the introduction (and re- restricts itsappeal. Many Canadians are still unfamiliarwith the jection) of the now infamous White Paper of 1969, toward a greater Dene, their homeland, and the location of other extensive geographi- recognition of aboriginal claims. Asch holds out the possibility that the cal areas to which native people have claims. momentum will continue - a possibility that, he argues, hinges on Asch develops four basic arguments in support of his thesis that whether or not self-government is inimical to the concept of liberal self-government for first nations is feasible and desirable. He ad- democracy. His final argument is, therefore, that the conceptof self- dresses the image and integrity of Indian nations and native people, government for aboriginal people is not inimical to liberal democracy. arguesthat the law appears to be recognizing their claims, that It is here, I believe, that Asch gets himself into serious trouble. government policyis slowly changing in favourof native aspirations, In order to make his point, Asch plunges into a somewhat academic and that we can take things a step further. Self-government is not, discussion of liberal democracy and the concept of equality associated Asch argues, inimical to liberal democratic tradition. with the liberal democratic tradition. This he accomplishes in two Asch does a crediblejob in claiming that native society is thanmore pages before moving on to examine the protection of minority and a culture of welfare and dependency. He uses the Dene nation as a ethnic rights in the liberal democracies of Belgium and Switzerland. case for his argument and relies on data with which most experts inThe the argument that ethnic minorities in both Belgium and Switzerland field will already be familiar. He references other studies that suggestenjoy a certain degree of political autonomy and protection from the that the claim for the Dene as a relatively intact hunting and trappinglegislative power of the majority does little to convince the reader that culture can be extendedto other Indian nations. He further argues thatthe Swissor Belgian experienceis relevant to granting aboriginalpeo- native culture is, to a considerable degree, still intact in urban settingsple in Canada the self-government they seek. Canadians need to be - a claim that experience confirms but which needs more substantia-convinced that self-government for aboriginal people is both a necessi- tion and attention than Asch provides. However, his brief mention of ty and workable within the confines of Canadian history, geography, urban native populations raises an important question in the mind of and political economy. Canadais not Switzerland, nor is it Belgium. the reader. What are the implications of self-government and the A close examinationof Belgium reveals that thereare on-going racial definition of aboriginal rights for urban native people? Having sug- andlegislative problems with its democratic structure. The ethnic gested the question, it is a subject Asch ignores in the remainder ofminorities his of Belgium and Switzerland do not occupy the same book. Frideres (1983) indicates that about 27% of registered Indians historical,economic, and material circumstances as Canadian lived off reserve in 1976, and recent estimates are that 40% of all aboriginal people relative to a colonizing power. native people in Ontario - status, non-status, and Metis - live off Asch, therefore, appears to be a philosophical idealist, ignoring the reserve (Taylor et al., 1981). The unanswered question is an impor- role that aboriginal land and resources played and continue to play in tant one. the development of the Canadian economy and the accumulation of Following a presentationof aboriginal peoples’ views of aboriginal capital. Liberal democracy is far more than a set of philosophical rights - based primarily on the Constitutional Conference1983 of - idealsand organizational arrangements. It is also a collection of Asch examines aboriginal rights and the law. This is a complex sub- economic relationships and structures, which Asch, in his analysis, ject to which Asch cannot do justice14 inpages. Asch’s optimism that has chosen to ignore. Canadians not only need to be convinced that there is something in the law for native people exceeds that of many self-government is not inimical to liberal democracy but that liberal lawyers. To date, the sad truth is that native people have won little democracy hasbeen exploitive of the interests and resources of people from the law other than acknowledgement that aboriginal rights- did living in “frontier” regions - including, and especially, aboriginal or do- exist. However, where courts have suggested their existence, people. Paradoxically, Asch’s arguments in Home and Native Land they have refused to define them or, as in the Baker Lake case, have suggest the real limits to traditional liberal democracy- limits native claimed that aboriginal rights were extinguished by subsequent actionspeople face in defining aboriginal rights and in achieving self- of the colonizing people. Asch acknowledges this but holdsforth the government. Calder case- which the Nishga lost on a technicality- as “defining forCanadian law the fundamental principle of aboriginal rights” @. 54). It is arguable that the Calder case did anything quite so definitive. The experience of the Lubicon Lake Band in northern REFERENCES Alberta in trying to secure their rights to land in the face of oil and gas exploration and development further diminishes Asch’s claims. Asch FRIDERES, J.S. 1983. Native People in Canada, Contemporary Conflicts. appears to havea linear and “progressive” view of historical 2nd edition. Scarborough, Ontario: F’rentice-Hall Canada. developments with respect to the law- a view unsupported by a re- TAYLOR, C., HOWARTH, R., KUZMOCHKA, K., and SVENSON, K. ‘ REVIEWS 159

1981. Demgraphic Studies of Native People in Urban Settings. Ontario guidance to reindeer grazers, Hoefs’sto managers of trophy hunting, Task Force on Native People in the Urban setting. Archibald’s and Jessup’s to managers of a furbearer, and so on. PRICE. R., ed. 1979. The Spirit of the Alberta Indian Treaties. Montreal: In- With regard to industrial impacts, what canbe concluded? Where stitute for Research on Public Policy. oil was spilled, gravel excavated androads built, on the CANOL, im- Frank J. Tester pacts are discernibleafter four decades; the original plant com- Assistant Pmfessor munities are not reestablished. More lightly disturbed sites show Native Canadian Relations lheme Area varying degrees of recovery.In the northern Yukon, priorto imposi- Faculty of Environmental Srudies tion by the Department ofIndian Affairs and Northern Development York University of the Territorial Land Use Regulations in 1971, industry’s opera- Downsview, Ontario, Cad tional procedures were not suchas to protect the landscape from long- M3J 1P3 term alteration: since then, the situation has improved. Polar bear populations have been seento recover already from one serious (but natural) reductionin arctic Canada, and,though individuals are demonstrably killed by exposure to oil, populationscan probably recover, in time, fromlocal catastrophes. NORTHERNECOLOGY AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. As the volume lacks a synthesis,one may be tempted to read one in Edited by ROD OLSON, FRANK GEDDES and ROSS HASTINOS. Edmon- less narrowly scientific, more broadly ranging papers. For ex- ton: The University of Alberta Press, 1984. xviii 438 p., maps, the + ample, the lessonto be learned from Aklavik, “The Town that did not illus., 13 coloured photos by George C. Calef. Hardbound. Cdn Die,” isthat residents must be “involved before the fact.” The $30.00. development of a land use planning process for the Northwest Ter- This impressive volume is subtitled “Memorial Essays Honouring ritories must include planning for full participation by local publics. Don Gill,” a captivating, energetic professor at the University of On a perhaps more equivocal note, “pragmatism and compromise are Alberta and director of the Boreal Institute there until his accidental the key characteristics ofnature conservation in Iceland.” death in 1979.(Its editors were his graduate students at the time of hisThis wide-ranging volume willbe a useful reference to scientists in- death.) Following a warm appreciation of Gill by Professor Emeritus terested in northern ecosystemal components. The review papers, of the University of British ColumbiaJ. Ross MacKay , it contains 17 such as on snow ecology, moose and caribou, will prove of great in- invited essays arranged in four groups: Abiotic Components,Animal terest to northem naturalists. The impact papers, on the CANOL Communities, Plant Communities and Land Use. revisited, and on exploration in northern Yukon, will directly advance Seven of the 17 essays could best be described as review articles. the aims espoused by Don Gill and his commemorators. One is a comprehensive update on snow ecology and terminology by A. H. Macpherson William 0. Pruitt. Another, by J. Stan Rowe, examines aspects of Regional Director General lichen woodland ecology. Four are extensive accounts of prominent Environment Canada wildlifespecies: E.S. Telfer on moose, D.E. Russell and A.M. Western & Northern Region Martell on caribou, Manfred Hoefs on Dall sheep, and Ian Stirling, 804, 9942 - IO8 Street Wendy Clavert andDennis Andriashek on polarbears. The seventh is on the impact of hydrocarbon exploration in northern Yukon, by Edmonton, Alberta H.M. French. TSK US Of the remaining ten, fourare essentially research papers, present- ing original data on recent projects. These are C. Tarnocai on soil temperatures inthe Inuvik area, Matti Seppala on deflation (removal of surface materials by wind) in esker country in Finnish Lapland, W.R.Archibald and R.H. Jessup on pine marten populations in THE 1823 LOG BOOK OF THE SHIP BAFFIN FROM LIVER- Yukon, and G.P. Kershaw on floristic characteristics of disturbed POOL.By WILLIAM SCORESBY, JR., F.R.S. Whitby: Caedmon Of CANOL Project sites. M.C. English’s paper on the Slave River delta Whitby (9 John Street, Whitby, Yorkshire, England YO21 3ET), is at once a descriptive analysis and a prediction of impacts if an im- 1984. 136 p. E14.95. poundment is built upstream. The other five are commentaries: oneby W.A. Pettapiece a scien- If we were to bring back one of the Greenland and Davis Straits tificcommentary on soildevelopment processes in northwestern whaling masters of a centuryor more ago, all our questions would be Canada; then three historical commentaries- by George W. Calef on answered in an hour.Lloydr List sometimes gave details of sailing and the growth of a wood bison population introduced into an area north- return, and perhaps speakings and catches, with occasional comments westof Great Slave Lake in 1963, by William C. Wondersand about ice and weather. Otherwise, apart from The Arctic Regions, Heather Brown on the recent history of Aklavik, and by Edgar L. 1820, by William Scoresby, Jr., and his account of his exploration of Jackson on resource conflicts in Iceland. Finally, there is a policy Scoresby Sound in 1822, there is little printed material. commentary, on the initiation of a land use planning program in the The ultimate source now is the log books or journals kept by the Northwest Territories, by Norman M. Simmons, John Donihee, and masters at the time, and they are few enough in Britain. In 1916, the Hugh Monaghan. Explorers Club, New York, published facsimiles of 14 logs kept by The editors state that the book is meant “to present information William that Scoresby , Sr., from 1786 to 1823. When the facts are ex- will enable us to proceed in a manner that does not seriously com- tracted, tabulated and analysed, they provide an account of weather, promise the fragile and unique northern ecosystem,” implying thatice, in- fishing grounds, and catch that cannot be found elsewhere, show- dustrial growth is the basis of their concern. Kershaw’s studies of ing the differences between one season and another, besides recount- disturbance sites from the CANOL Project are relevant to and indeeding the events usual to such voyages. The 1806 log of William focussed on thisobjective. So arethose reported by French, on Scoresby, Jr., mate under his father in the Resolution, a successful hydrocarbonexploration in the Yukon. Jackson’s observations on voyage in spite of an unfavourable season, was published in 1981, and Iceland also relate. Stirlinget al. provide a description of over three that is equally informative. pages on possible impacts on polar bears, and English discusses the Here we have the journal kept by William Scoresby, Jr., on his potential impacts of a Slave river hydro project. In a somewhat dif- voyage as master of theBafin of Liverpool; it was his last voyage and ferent area, the management of renewable resources rather than the it was not a success. The future for the trade was not promising, and regulation of industrialresource projects, Seppala’s work offers he left the sea. It tells the story of aof voyagejust over five months. It