82 BC STUDIES

Canadian records. It might have been his store to the HBC in 1866, although preferable to detail a broader spectrum the offer was declined because of the of chiefly practices and many restrictions he placed on the sub­ accomplishments. The author's exam­ sequent operation of the venture. How ination of the sale of Ligeex's mono­ ever, the Ligeexes are manifestly vital poly (and subsequent ) in 1866 actors within both Tsimshian adawx may give rise to some discussion, as and Euro-Canadian scholarship. there appears to be no mention of This is a significant book and an im­ either in the Hudson's Bay Company portant contribution to the field, and it (HBC) records or Duncan's writings of will be valued for its innovative analysis the 1860s. Duncan did attempt to sell of Tsimshian culture "through the ages."

The Heiltsuks: Dialogues of Culture and History on the Northwest Coast Michael E. Harkin Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press in cooperation with the American Indian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University, 1997. r95 PP.- Maps. US$40 cloth.

BY MARGARET SEGUIN ANDERSON Universitiy of Northern

he dust jacket on this volume of society. This argument is presented informs readers that "what through a chapter reconstructing the TMarshall Sahlins has done for culture of the Heiltsuks in the nine­ the Hawaiians, Michael Harkin has teenth century and one summarizing done for the Heiltsuks," and indeed the current contexts of the Heiltsuks, the book inside the cover is very much followed by three chapters on theory in the tradition of theoretically minded ("Narrative, Time and the Lifeworld," anthropology. It is thoroughly researched "Contact Narratives," "Dialectic and and careful of the details of the Dialogue") and three chapters ap­ presentation of Native cultures, but its plying that theory to specific Heiltsuk real topic is disciplinary theory. In this cultural discources: bodies, souls and case the theory that Harkin explores goods. A short final section highlights very effectively melds and extends conclusions about "Worlds in Col­ several strands of postmodern theory lision." The various chapters are quite to argue that cultures, specifically the self-contained, and in fact three of cultures of the nineteenth-century and them were previously published as contemporary Heiltsuks, should be articles. The remarkable total absence seen as a series of dialogic discourses of photographs of Heiltsuk people, about power, playing put the dialectic places, or artefacts in the volume is not between uncontrolled exogenic forces surprising if it is understood that its and the intrinsic ordering principles main thrust is theoretical. Book Reviews 8j

Given Harkin's focus on the central position between two dance series, in significance of dialogue and discourse, which the forces of chaos are subdued it is peculiar that he gives scant con­ and appropriated by forces of structure" sideration to the significance of the (159, n. 2). He is incorrect. Halpin's 1973 millennia of intellectual and material study of Tsimshian crests made a sim­ exchanges that shaped all of the groups ilar argument, showing the tension be­ on the Northwest Coast, including the tween the series of Naxnox masks and Heiltsuk, long before the arrival of Halait performances expressing the Europeans. In fact, Harkin seems to power of chaos, which is opposed to fall into a generalized Heiltsuk-cen- the chiefly system that tames and con­ tricity. He argues that the Heiltsuk trols it. While elements of the Tsimshian were the most feared group on the BC Halait system may well have been Coast (x), unparalleled in ferocity (2), borrowed from theTlingit and Haida, and that they experienced perhaps the or for that matter from the Bella Bella, most rapid cultural transformation of the complex as a whole is clearly ancient any tribal group in the history of among the . The Tsimshian Western colonialism (ix, 2). He states Halait performances are obviously that the Heiltsuk were the dynamic analogous to parts of the Heiltsuk centre of diffusion of masks, dances, dance cycle, and it is likely that these myth, and other elements of culture (1); were borrowed back and forth several speculates that they may have invented times, with the most recent exchange the Winter Ceremonials (159, n. 2); and just before the time of European con­ argues that when they received mis­ tact bringing the Tsimshian the "secret sionaries they became the most pro­ society" dances developed by the gressive nation on the Coast, embracing Heiltsuks; but it is crucial to under­ the evangelical message and trans­ stand that these imported Heiltsuk per­ forming themselves into paragons of formances may equally well have been the Victorian virtues of hard work, made from the stuffof earlier borrowings prosperity, and progress (x). from the Tsimshian Hailait. The It seems more plausible that Harkin dialogue is very old. is dead on about the dialogic nature Despite its theoretical orientation of cultural change and that this was and Heiltsuk-centricity, this volume the case long before the Europeans ar­ will be a valuable to BC specialists: rived on the scene - there was certainly there are few other sources as detailed a constant ebb and flow of ideas, and on Heiltsuk culture and ethnohistory, the fascination of the Heiltsuks may and the theoretical arguments are lie not in their sui generis inventiveness worth the trouble to follow through. but in their location on the cutting Readers in British Columbia will note edge of cultural exchange between the several anachronisms in the volume: matrilineal nations to the north and though the publication date is 1997, their southern neighbours, whose sys­ three of the seven chapters were tems were based on flexible bilateral originally published as journal articles patterns of kinship. For example, between 1988 and 1994, and the Harkin enthuses that the Heiltsuk volume as a whole was apparently not may have been the inventors of the thoroughly updated prior to printing. Winter Ceremonial: "Only in the Specifically, the discussion of BC pol­ Heiltsuk case do we find a strong and itics indicates that the long-defunct clear example of a dialectical op­ Socreds are in government, there is no 84 BC STUDIES

mention of the BC Treaty Process, and migration of young people to the the Supreme Court decision in the suburbs of , where solidly Gladstone case affirming the rights of middle-class housing is available. But the Heiltsuks to sell herring roe is there is no documentation provided to mentioned only in a note. While the show that the migration of Heiltsuks chapter on the nineteenth century is to the Lower Mainland is primarily specific and detailed, the material on to middle-class suburbs, and this the present context is marked by a seems to be a rather surprising claim. remarkable lack of specific actors: a Despite minor flaws this is an ex­ chapter dealing with the Heiltsuk cellent addition to the literature. The people in the present day with not so chapter on contact narratives is inter­ much as a mention of such people as esting and well developed, as are the Chief Ed Newman will seem very detailed substantive chapters on the dia­ peculiar to readers who are familiar lectics between Heiltsuk and European with the BC scene. Another jarring understandings of the body, souls, and note is the argument on page 26 that material goods. The Heiltsuks vn\\ take the shortage of newer housing on an important place on our bookshelves reserve is a factor contributing to the - and not only in the theory section.

Childreriy Teachers and Schools in the History of British Columbia Jean Barman, Neil Sutherland, and J. Donald Wilson, Editors Calgary: Detselig, 1995. 426 pp. Illus. $28.95 paper.

BY DIANNE M. HALLMAN, University of Saskatchewan

his text is valuable because it in favour of free non-denominational brings together the fruits of schooling had developed, which Textensive research on edu­ formed the basis of an education cation in British Columbia in a system that was not fundamentally convenient collection. It joins the work altered for over a century. of new scholars to the field with that The first group of essays documents of established academics in three broad some aspects of the experience of areas: "childhood and pupilhood," "be­ pupils and children within this stable coming and being a teacher," and system. The editors are to be com­ "organizing and reorganizing schools." mended for this focus; educational Jean Barman's introduction pro­ historians have typically given scant vides a thumbnail sketch of formal attention to the children for whom educational structures as they emerged educational structures are set up. in the mid- to late-nineteenth century While the essays in this section do not as the British colony attained pro­ provide an all-encompassing history vincial status. Focusing on the settlers of schoolchildren, the discrete research to this area, she argues that by the projects give insights into important mid-i86os an educational consensus aspects of this history. Timothy