BOOK REVIEWS

The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity Jill Lepore New York: Knopf, 1999. 337 pp. Illus., maps. $42 cloth.

By Christopher Hannibal Paci University of Northern British Columbia

To question the carnivalesque Nipmuck, Pocumtuks, Narrangansetts, mood is a graceless role ... But and Abenaki Algonquians against New the alternative is to participate in Englanders allied with Pequot, the postmodern carnival without Mohegan, and Mohawks. The war was understanding its rules, impli­ triggered in 1675 after three Wampanoag cations, origins or consequences men were hung for the death of John ... understand the rules governing Sassamon. Metacom was killed in 1676, the exchange between the modern and there were a number of deaths on West, the postmodern West, and both sides, along with loss of property. the versions of the primitive they Lepore's writing reflects a new school have created or endorsed ... to of revisionist history, and, character­ make impossible innocent reen- istically, it reads well as literature. actments of the dramas of us and What made me hesitate to read this them that have been staged and book was its topic: war. However, restaged in the modern West's spring was beginning to take hold encounters with primitive Others. along the Fraser River, so I felt I was Marianna Torgovnick ready. Given the war waging in Kosovo Gone Primitive: Savage and the peace treaty making in British Intellects, Modern Lives Columbia, The Name of War is relevant (1990, 41) and can tell us something about our postmodern condition. It is "a story PUT OFF READING Jill Lepore's about war, and how people write about much acclaimed The Name of War: it" (ix). Lepore's retelling of the con­ I King Philips War and the Origins flicts between Algonquians and New of American Identity, even though I Englanders, through analysis of had heard it was well written, which published accounts and literary it is. I was afraid that this would be documents created by New Englanders an "innocent reenactment." Lepore, in (the story being recast, for instance, her telling of Indian wars, ' is turning in the forms of theatre and monu­ blood into ink and delving into the ments), is about more than war stories. rules that governed this exchange. It It is also about the negotiations of is a study of King Philip's (Metacom's) colonization, the resulting uneven War, fought by Wampanoag, clash of cultures, uncertain com-

BC Studies, no. 123, Autumn 1999 77 78 BC STUDIES petition between new/old/hybrid, and Chunlac, avenged the attacks by fears released by transmuting identities. Khalhpan (Khalhban). War stories tell The bloody and wordy events carry much about a people. A secondary forward and reverberate. "Wounds effect of the treaty process in British and words - the injuries and their Columbia is compiling documentation interpretations cannot be separated, that shows that traditional land use the acts of war generate acts of nar­ was based equally on access to rich ration, and that both types of acts are resources and on war. often joined in a common purpose: Lepore's subject is post-contact defining the geographical, political, cross-cultural conflicts: cultural, and sometimes racial and national boundaries between people (x). The colonists' dilemma between But what does American history peacefully degenerating into bar­ have to say to our postmodern identities barians or fighting like savages: this side of the Rockies? There is a wage the war, and win it, by what­ lingering myth that British Columbia ever means necessary, and then coastal history and identity did not write about it, to win it again. The begin until after 1750 (with the Russians) first would be a victory of wounds, or after 1793 (with Captain Vancouver) the second a victory of words. and that the Interior was not dis­ Even if they inflicted on the covered until after Simon Fraser's Indians as much cruelty as the party charted it in 1806. If this is era­ Spanish had, New Englanders sure then it is attributable, perhaps, could distance themselves from to a history without ears for First that cruelty in the words they Nations orality. Native history has used to write about it, the same been silenced by an erected "western way the English had when stage front" that presents an idyllic writing about the Irish. (11) and romantic past and that is priv­ If the roots of war creep somewhere ileged by a history defined almost between justice and tyranny, then its exclusively through colonial filters. fruits fall somewhere between history One aspect of BC identity is war, but and myth. The Name of War is about a what do we know of war in British specific war, demarcated by time and Columbia? Compared to what has space, but it is also more than that been written concerning the armed because it is a retelling of the roots of conflicts in eastern Canada, such as colonial wars and American identity. the Iroquois and Huron wars (now The face of war remains human. A made famous by the movie Black slightly critical gaze into the eyes of Robe), and Métis warfare at Red River the past reveals our own eyes. The and Batoche, little has been written voice of war holds the same resonance on what occurred in British Columbia. over 300 years later. Lepore's point is Father Adrian Gabriel Morice (in that the language of war is constantly Historical Essays on British Columbia, shifting, as the similarities/differences ed. J. Friesen and H.K. Ralston, 1976, of aggressors and victims are ne­ 9) wrote that at Chinlac (Chunlac), at gotiated. According to Lepore, "words the confluence of the Stuart and are at the center of the encounter Nechako Rivers, in 1745 the Chilcotin between the Old World and the New, raided the Lower Carrier camp. between the European 'self ' and the Khadintel (Canadiendell), chief at Native American 'other'" (xiv). The Book Reviews jg security of American identity faltered to be burned, prisoners to be enslaved. amidst the colonizing English (more Interestingly, Englishmen who could civilized then the Spanish), the English read and write Algonquian were not who were afraid of becoming savage treated this way, perhaps because their (i.e., becoming Indian), the formation social status was not suspect. of an American identity that took into The final part of the book throws account an Indian past, and an back the veils of war to reveal issues American identity that was a product regarding memory, reminding readers of the melting pot. that battles, victories, and defeats are This skillfully structured war of not simply products of a moment in words is set in four parts. In the first time but continue to resonate in each part of the book, Lepore exposes the re-telling. War stories are recast for/by language of war, focusing on the conquest cultures. Stories, like objects dominant methodological practices of of war, are worn to adorn and denigrate. linguistics and documents. The cul­ If Algonquians have the rich oral tural roots, tensions, and literary con­ tradition of King Philip, then Lepore ventions of war are attacked. Writings has not tapped more then a pedestrian about Philip's war flourished in the view of how they saw things. Reading eight years after 1675 (twenty-one Lepore with the blue sky in Hope (city published accounts, not one of which of peace), British Columbia, gave me was Algonquian). Resistance has pro­ the strength to seek some meaning in duced alternative versions of the war. this history for here and now. Overall, In part two, Philip's war is exam­ the writing in this book wavers be­ ined as mostly English misinter­ tween history and prose, though it is pretations of Algonquians. As well as not as extreme as what Linda Hutcheon, Lepore's explanations for Algonquian in The Politics of Postmodernism (1989), defences against incursions of colon­ defines as historiographie metafiction ialism, I would posit that Algonquians (e.g., Rudy Wiebe's The Temptations were equally provoked by English of Big Bear [1973]). An interesting materialism and stinginess. The war rhetorical device used by Lepore is is explained through various combi­ repetition. She tells a story, for instance nations of religion, politics, and lan­ about the captivity and return of Mary guage, and it begs the unanswered Rowlandson and the amnesty of James question: was this a holy war? Read Printer, from several different per­ and you can be the judge. spectives. This repetition serves to re­ Part three introduces bondage into inforce her arguments from multiple the discussion of war. To the already perspectives, which avoids becoming diverse collection of source materials too much of an annoyance. While is added the captivity narrative. What Philip's War is placed into a larger legal it meant to be "captivated" by Algon­ context, with a sketch of the inter­ quians depended on gender and race. national legal debates of de Las Casas Transfixed by war are, among other and Sepulveda, North American politics things, social categories and bound­ are unaccounted for. Reading New aries; for instance, "praying Indians" England history could have been made became "preying Indians." Both English stronger, for instance, by at least refer­ and Algonquian paranoia treated such encing what was happening in New cultural mediators as Algonquians who France, which would have been readily could read and write English as bridges available to Lepore in fat Jesuit Relations. 8o BC STUDIES

With impressive endnotes, The Name Identity is well worth reading. The sub­ of War and the Origins of American ject matter is both relevant and interesting.

The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty y Treaty 7 Elders and Tribal Council with Walter Hildebrandt, Sarah Carter, and Dorothy First Rider Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996. 408 pp. Illus, maps. $19.95 paper.

By Kenichi Matsui University of British Columbia

N 1991, THE TREATY 7 TRIBAL of Canada and other First Nations Council of southern Alberta peoples. The Blackfoot call Treaty 7 I began extensively collecting elders' istsist aohkotspiy translated in this book oral accounts concerning their an­ as "the time when we made a sacred cestors' "true spirit and original intent" alliance" (4). The Native leaders who in signing the 1877 agreement. Adding signed the treaty believed that their interviews of elders collected in the people would benefit politically and 1970s, this significant effort enabled economically from making peace be­ The True Spirit and Original Intent of cause it would secure their physical, Treaty 7 to provide the voices of nearly cultural, and spiritual survival after the ninety elders from the Blood Tribe disappearance of the buffalo. It would and the Peigan, Siksika (Blackfoot), also bring alternative ways of life with Stoney, and Tsuu T'ina (Sarcee) new farming technology, medical care, Nations. The elders of these First and education. They initially welcomed Nations have passed on the memories the newcomers, being willing to share of the treaty-making process to their the land for harvesting crops. However, people for more than a century. Now as Red Crow, a prominent leader at they have decided to publicize their the treaty negotiation, stated clearly voices for the education of their youths to government commissioners in 1877, and non-Indian people. The elders the land was not for sale because "it and the tribal council believe that the was put there by the Creator for the elders' accounts should be an im­ Indians' benefit and use" (114). portant part of our understanding of The testimony of the elders also in­ treaty-making history in Canada. dicates that poor communication led In the book, the elders' voices are the First Nations and the government fragmented according to topics, but to interpret the treaty differently. The they all persistently indicate that their problems translators had in attempting ancestors never meant to surrender to explain the Western legal concept their land by signing Treaty 7. The of land surrender made it more elders contend that it was a sacred difficult for First Nations peoples to alliance of peace with the government comprehend what treaty commis- Book Reviews 81 sioners said to them. For example, chapters, however, is that they include they did not understand the concept many redundancies and fail to use im­ of "cede" or "surrender," nor did they portant historical documents. In addi­ understand the idea of measuring land tion, Chapters 4 and 5, which analyze by the square mile. In addition, the the effect of Treaty 7, should have commissioners did not deal with oral examined the impact of implementing culture properly when they asked the the Indian Act, the Dominion Lands tribal leaders to sign the treaty. Ac­ Act, 1872; the North-West Territories cording to the elders' recollections, the Act, 1886; and the Natural Resources commissioners had already written X's Transfer Agreement, 1930. This would on the treaty document and asked the have been especially helpful to readers elders simply to touch the pen to them because some elders mention that the to acknowledge the signature. After conflicts between the treaty and these signing the treaty, the practice of acts affected the lives of the Treaty 7 favouritism by Indian agents resulted Nations. The North-West Territories in the unequal treatment of Native Act and the Natural Resources people with regard to the distribution Transfer Agreement, for example, had of government aid as well as to White a grave impact on the rights of the ranchers further encroaching upon re­ Treaty 7 Nations. They are currently serve land. Today the elders still bitterly challenging these acts in court. In and vividly recall these experiences. spite of these problems, this book The True Spirit and Original Intent makes readers aware of the im­ ofTreaty y serves its original intent portance of listening to First Nations well, giving readers a First Nations voices in order to gain a more balanced perspective on the treaty-making understanding of the history of process. Chapters in Parts 2 and 3 also Indian/non-Indian relations in provide scholarly interpretations of Canada and the origins of current the treaty. The problem with these legal disputes.

On the North Trail: The Treaty 8 Diary of O.C. Edwards David Leonard and Beverly Whalen, editors Edmonton: Historical Society of Alberta, 1998.122 pp. Illus., maps. $19.95 paper

By Melinda Marie Jette University of British Columbia

N THE SUMMER OF I9OO, the by James Ansdell Macrae, inspector of federal government sent a third Indian agencies, the commission of I commission to the District of 1900 also included Dr. Oliver Athabaska to secure additional treaty Cromwell Edwards. On the North adhesions and scrip arrangements Trail is O.C. Edwards' diary of the under the provisions ofTreaty 8. Headed commission's travels in the Athabaska 82 BC STUDIES

country. Here published for the first capitalism into northwestern Alberta. time, Edwards' diary is the only He also remarks on the daily life and existing detailed account of the work patterns of the local inhabitants. expedition. Editors David Leonard Throughout, Edwards evinces the and Beverly Whalen note that On the patronizing racial attitudes of an North Trail is comparable to Charles Anglo-Canadian civil servant. What Mair's diary of the 1899 Half-Breed is perhaps most striking is the limited Commission, which was published in information in the diary as to 1908 under the title Through the discussions with Native and Métis MacKenzie Basin. If Edwards lacks peoples about treaty and scrip some of Mair's literary flair, the doctor agreements, which raises the question does provide the particulars on peoples, of how much communication actually places, and conditions not recorded by took place between Macrae and local Mair. communities. Leonard and Whalen have done Drawing on a wealth of knowledge their best to remain faithful to the of the Peace River Country, Leonard spirit of the original manuscript, which and Whalen have produced a readable is housed at the Glenbow-Alberta 120-page volume that will be of Museum and Archives. In the brief interest to professional historians as but informative introduction to the well as to the general public. The pub­ diary, the editors place the document lished text includes detailed footnotes in its historical context, provide an on the local history of the Athabaska overview of the journal, and introduce region and the numerous personalities readers to the main protagonist, Dr. O.C. Edwards met in his travels. For O.C. Edwards (1850-1915). The in­ readers and researchers wishing to clusion of Dr. Edwards in the 1900 supplement their knowledge of the party stemmed from the government's region, Leonard and Whalen also pro­ traditional treaty responsibility to vide a series of useful bibliographic provide medical care for Aboriginal citations. peoples. Edwards was a native of Another notable strength of this Ottawa, a member of a wealthy liberal published diary is the editors' decision family, and husband to the well-known to combine the textual and the visual. feminist Henrietta Muir Edwards. In By including a large selection of 1900 he was fifty years old and had photographs taken by Edwards during spent several long periods working in the expedition, Leonard and Whalen private practice at Qu'Appelle and complement Edwards' commentary Regina as well as in the service of the on arduous overland travel, local Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) in personalities, and socio-economic the Treaty 4 region. conditions/The photographs include In the diary, Edwards devotes con­ landscape scenes, snapshots of life on siderable space to descriptions of the the trail, and individual portraits, daily grind of travelling. Edwards some of which are drawn from the comments on socio-economic realities, Glenbow archival collections. Many of especially regarding the shift from a the pictures also represent Native and barter system to a cash economy that Métis people (especially women) who accompanied the Hudson's Bay are far less prominent in his narrative. Company's loss of its trade monopoly If the editors' attention to detailed and the penetration of industrial historical and photographic research Book Reviews 83

is laudable, their lack of attention to have provided a better geographical geography should be noted. On the perspective on Edwards' narrative. North Trail contains five maps, all of Nevertheless, this is but a minor which apparently date from the period. critique given the overall quality of the These maps are either too small, editing and presentation of the docu­ making them difficult to decipher, or ment, which makes an important they are of questionable value to the contribution to the history of north­ reader. A modern, high-quality map western Alberta. showing the commission's route would

Researching the Indian Land Question in BC: An Introduction to Research Strategies and Archival Research for Band Researchers Leigh Ogston, editor Vancouver: Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, 1998. N.p. Illus. (500-342 Water St., Vancouver, V6B IB6)

By Ken Favrholdt Secwepemc Museum and Archives, Kamloops

LTHOUGH DIRECTED AT BAND This resource takes for granted a researchers, this recent pub­ fair knowledge of the history of British Alication is of general interest Columbia as it relates to First Nations, and use to anyone studying First but each chapter is helpful, containing Nations history, land claims, or related relevant definitions, lists of documents topics. The editor claims this work is and useful Web sites, and chronologies just a starting point, but it is much of significant dates relating to different more than that. There are a few other topics, thus providing hooks into spe­ publications of a similar nature, but cific areas of research. Chapter 1 defines Researching the Indian Land Question archival research and how to begin to in BC> produced by the resource staff research, including how to make con­ of the Union of British Columbia tact with sources of information. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), is likely the Chapter 2 provides an alphabetical most comprehensive and readable survey of the major repositories for re­ book of its kind for both novices and search materials from the band level experienced researchers. Actually a to tribal council offices to archives, manual, the book is well laid out in libraries, and museums, including twenty-six discrete chapters on foreign (mainly American) reposi­ various themes around the general tories. Unfortunately, a few notable topic of Indian land research, which sources, such as the British Library, is further divided into many sub­ are missing. Addresses for bands need sections. A selection of illustrations to be obtained elsewhere (the British highlights different sections. Columbia Ministry of Aboriginal 84 BC STUDIES

Affairs directory is a good companion hunting and trapping records, while book to have). Chapter 3 provides a Chapter 11 deals with genealogy great deal of general history as well as (family history) - an increasingly an in-depth description of the his­ important area of research relating to torical events that have resulted in issues of status. Chapter 12 offers an documents. Sources listed include introduction to legal research and re­ publications that have stood the test sources, emphasizing issues of Abo­ of time (and provide the basic riginal title. historical background one should have The later chapters are short and con­ before conducting further research). cise. Chapter 13 deals with settlement Chapter 4 describes research materials, and village sites not included in re­ including, to name a few, annual serves; Chapter 14 discusses graveyards reports, colonial correspondence, and sacred sites, a very interesting area gazettes and government files, the that has not been fully researched. Sub­ Hudson's Bay Company records, sequent chapters deal with surrenders Indian Reserve Commission materials, and sales resource extraction, rights-of- photographs and pre-emption records, way, cutoffs, fishing, the Douglas (pre- and the well-known RG 10 (DIA Confederation) reserves, certificates of Record Group at Indian and Northern possession, water rights, accretions, Affairs Canada). Chapter 5, on land commonages, government reserves, and use and occupancy (commonly known treaty land entitlement. As the treaty as traditional use studies in British process in British Columbia unfolds Columbia), provides strategic and (or doesn't), every aspect of Aboriginal planning considerations for this type land use takes on significance. of research. Chapter 6 describes oral On the whole, this book is compre­ history and how it is used as evidence. hensive and well presented. Here and As a result of the Delgamuuk'w case, there the text and Appendix A (a oral history has attained a legal status timeline of events affecting the Indian that has made this area even more peoples of British Columbia) are important than it was in the past. slightly flawed by typos (but nothing Chapter 7 is about mapping and de­ too distracting). Appendix B lists all scribes both different survey systems the documents available at the UBCIC used in British Columbia and where Resource Centre. The book also con­ maps are found. Maps can be difficult tains a glossary of terms used in lands for the beginning researcher to com­ research, an index of abbreviations, prehend and interpret, but this chapter and a general index by section number. offers a fair overview of the process. The cirlox binding and lack of pagi­ Chapter 8 deals with archaeological nation suggests that some pages could research, including gaining access to be revised. Undoubtedly, there will be the records of the provincial archae­ subsequent additions that will allow ology branch and such relevant legi­ for the addition of more materials, up­ slation as the Heritage Conservation dates, and corrections. In the mean­ Act. Chapter 9 covers anthropological time, this is the most accessible book research and provides a long list of on the subject and a must for researchers anthropological journals, revealing the of the Indian land question in British breadth of this field. Chapter 10 covers Columbia. Book Reviews 8$

Plateau Deward E. Walker, Jr., editor Volume 12 of Handbook of North American Indians Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. 791 pp. Illus., maps. US$61 cloth.

By Wendy Wickwire University of Victoria

N 1965, THE SMITHSONIAN ship, life cycle, and religion), "history," Institution launched a proposal "synonymy," and "sources." Contri­ I for a twenty-volume Handbook of butors, according to Walker, were told North American Indians under the explicitly to "avoid the present tense, direction of anthropologist William where possible" (xv), which accounts C. Sturtevant. This was an ambitious for the prevalence of past tense project intended to present an "ency­ throughout, along with statements clopedic summary of what is known such as: "the following cultural de­ about the prehistory, history, and scription is ... intended to describe the cultures of the aboriginal peoples of culture as of the mid-nineteenth North America north of the urban century" (284). Only in the "history" civilizations of central Mexico" (xiii). sections were authors given some Last year, it released Volume 12 in the liberty to cover current issues. Most series, Plateau. According to its editor, adhered closely to this formula. Deward E. Walker, Jr., Volume 12 was Indeed some, such as David H. French a long time in the making (iv). He first and Kathrine S. French ("Wasco, began accepting draft submissions Wishram and Cascades"), took this to from invited authors in May 1972, just an extreme, including only one para­ over a year after the first planning graph on recent historical change (374). session for this volume held in Reno, Others, for example, Helen Schuster Nevada, in March 1971. With a team ("Yakima and Neigbouring Groups"), of editors, he then spent nine years, included a more substantial "history" from 1990 to 1997, moulding this chapter, perhaps to counter the effect volume to its current form - forty- of such an editorial convention. The three essays by forty-one authors, bibliographic summaries at the end of totalling 790 pages (iv). each cultural overview provide a state- The core of Volume 12 is a series of of-the-art historical/ethnographic guide nineteen summary overviews of indi­ to the entire plateau region. There is vidual plateau cultures. Each overview no better reference tool for this large is similar in style, design, and length, region under a single cover. and follows roughly the same list of "Synonymy" is one of the more in­ topical subheads - "environment," teresting topics covered in the cultural "territory," "origins," "culture" (which summaries. Walker describes "syn­ is further subdivided into subsistence, onymy" as a description of the various technology, clothing and adornment, names applied to the Indigenous social and political organization, kin­ cultural groups. Volume 12 offers some 86 BC STUDIES excellent historical, linguistic, and North America, it has one serious ethnographic data on this topic for flaw. It ignores entirely the post­ each plateau group. As outsiders modernist turn in the social sciences. (traders, travellers, missionaries, and Over the past fifteen years, critical others) encountered various plateau theorists such as James Clifford and peoples and their neighbours, they George Marcus {Writing Culture: The often had difficulty pronouncing their Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, names. Volume 12 explains the origin 1984), Johannes Fabian {Time and the of such terms as "Thompson," "Pend Other: How Anthropology Makes Its d'Oreille," "Nez Percé," "Flathead," Object, 1983), Edward Said {Orientalism, and "Colville." 1978), and others have systematically It is curious, however, given their deconstructed the central tenets of interest in synonymy, that the editors social scientific research - participant/ and authors of Volume 12 opted for observation, data collecting, and cul­ foreign, often anglicized, terms over tural description. At the core of their Indigenous names. David Wyatt, for critique is salvage ethnography, the example, used the term "Thompson" assumption that "the other society is even though he knew that this term weak and needs to be represented by had been replaced locally by the term an outsider (and that what matters in "Nlaka'pamux." Marianne Boelscher its life is its past, not present or future)" similarly used the term "Shuswap" (Clifford and Marcus, 113). Clifford throughout her essay, even though she noted some years ago that "few an­ knew that the people about whom she thropologists today would embrace wrote preferred to be called "Secwepemc." the object of ethnography in the terms In addition to these nineteen indi­ in which it was enunciated in Franz vidual cultural overviews are chapters Boas's time, as a last-chance rescue on a variety of special topics, ranging operation" (113). And yet, Volume 12, from archaeology, demography, reli­ released in 1998 by one of North gious movements, music, and myth­ America's leading anthropological re­ ology to basketry, ethnobiology, rock search centres, does just this. It is sal­ art, trade networks, and fishing. Several vage ethnography written in the classic of these, for example, Robert Boyd's realist style; that is, "an author- "Demographic History Until 1990," proclaimed description and something and Deward Walker's and Helen of an explanation for certain specific, Schuster's "Religious Movements," bounded, observed (or nearly observed) offer a refreshing break from the his­ cultural practices" (John Van Maanen, torical focus of the volume. Others, Tales of the Field, 1988,45). In contrast such as "Ethnobiology and Sub­ to most recent works of anthropology, sistence," by Eugene Hunn, Nancy there are no Indigenous authors rep­ Turner, and David French, are rich resented in this volume; there is no with specialized ethnographic detail. questioning of the authority of its tex­ "Mythology," by Rodney Frey and tual material; and there is no experi­ Dell Hymes, offers an intimate study mentation with different styles of of plateau storytelling traditions, in­ textual presentation. That any anthro­ cluding a detailed analysis of a single pological work today, but especially Kalispel myth. one of the stature of the Smithsonian's Volume 12, can ignore an intellectual Although Volume 12 is a "must-have" movement as pervasive as the post- for anyone interested in Indigenous Book Reviews 8j

modernism of the 1980s and 1990s is not surprising that it exudes a 1970s, somewhat surprising. One explanation rather than a 1990s, feel. is that Volume 12 experienced a time- Despite this shortcoming, Volume warp. Written material was dutifully 12, Plateau, is an important work. It is submitted in the 1970s, after which it richly illustrated with a range of maps, was put on hold until given the green photographs, sketches, and drawings, light for publication some time in many of which have not appeared 1990. If this is the scenario, then it is elsewhere.

The Potlatch Papers: A Colonial Case History Christopher Bracken Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. 276 pp. Illus., maps. US$16.95 paper.

Hamatsa: The Enigma of Cannibalism on the Pacific Northwest Coast Jim McDowell Vancouver: Ronsdale, 1997. 299 pp. Illus. $17.95 paper. By Margery Fee University of British Columbia

IVING A GIFT is always a at all? Christopher Bracken examines tricky proposition; we all the clash between European concepts G know the perils of the re­ of the gift and those of the First Nations dundant gift, the too expensive or too of the west coast of British Columbia cheap gift, the gift we really wanted - a clash that marked the conquest and ourselves. Giving is a site of social an­ colonial oppression of the area. xiety: if the gifts given to us by com­ Accounts of Aboriginal gift-giving mercial enterprises are called "free practices on the west coast of British gifts," then what are the other kind - Columbia influenced European thought. those given by friends and relatives - The Chinook jargon word, "potlatch," called? In what way are they not free, which derived from the Nuu-chah- since a gift, by definition, is given nulth word for gift, was used by without expectation of repayment? Yet Europeans on the coast as a name for we know better, for the people we give their construction of Aboriginal gifts to, in fact, are those who give ceremonies in which blankets, food, gifts to us. If we give in expectation of clothing, and other items were given return, then, strictly speaking, our gift away to confirm status. The potlatch is not a gift but part of a social economy. entered European discourses about the Perhaps the "pure gift" does not exist gift, which centred on the impossible 88 BC STUDIES

distinction between the gift and eco­ gift was unclear. Was what was wrong nomic exchange. Thus the potlatch with the potlatch, its "waste" or the became the textual creation of European fact that it represented an economic anxiety about European practices, system that rivalled the colonial one? Bracken argues. The Potlatch Papers is Not only did the government try to both a detailed account of the textual suppress what it called the potlatch, archive surrounding the potlatch in it also tried to suppress dances that British Columbia and an account of were (in its view) associated with the its theoretical resonances and impli­ potlatch (as it had banned the sun and cations. For example, he discusses how the thirst dances on the Prairies). These Franz Boas's accounts of the Kwakiutl dances were given a variety of names: (now the Kwakwaka'wakw) were the Kwakwaka'wakw dance was called picked up by Marcel Mauss in his Essai hamatsa, or "cannibal dance." The sur le don, later discussed by Jacques European discourse of cannibalism Derrida, who also draws in Hegel and arose with Columbus and was sus­ Heidegger. For Boas, the potlatch, tained by anthropology as a way of represented by missionaries and gov­ both distinguishing Europeans and ernment agents as an act of waste, was justifying their colonial atrocities. in fact an accounting system: "In all Although scholarly debates about his undertakings the Indian relies on cannibalism centre on the issue of the help of his friends. He promises proving or disproving that in some to pay them for this help at a later date cultures it was a regular and condoned ...The Indian has no system of writing, practice, lately scholars have turned the and therefore, in order to give security debate in another direction. Whether to the transaction, it is performed cannibalism "exists" is less relevant than publicly" (cited 140). Derrida expands the ways the discourse of cannibalism upon the notion that the potlatch is a has been so consistently deployed to form of writing, since what was given draw the line between civilized and in front of witnesses at one feast would barbaric, European and Aboriginal, us be remembered and returned at a later and the cannibals. one. Boas, in his The Social Organization Bracken pays particular attention to and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl the ambiguity of the laws that helped Indians (1897), describes the hamatsa to construct the potlatch and then dance; Bracken's detailed analysis proscribed it. Both Chief Justice Sir shows how the description moves back Matthew Begbie of the Supreme Court and forth between stating that the of British Columbia and First Nations dance contained acts of cannibalism defendants pointed out that the defi­ (eating of corpses, biting of spectators, nitions of the forbidden "potlatch" were and self-mutilation) and that it only unclear. "Until a defendant knows what represented it. Bracken strategically those forbidden Acts are, how can he situates quotations in his book's mar­ say whether he has committed them gins from Boas's contemporary letters or not?" wrote Begbie, who further and diaries, which recount the latter's added that he had heard the origin of quest for human remains in the area, the potlatch attributed to "white pur­ particularly skulls: "It is most un­ veyors of blankets and clothes" (93-4). pleasant work to steal bones from a What was forbidden was unclear in part grave, but what is the use someone has because the European concept of the to do it" (6 June 1888,176). The most Book Reviews 89 telling quotation is this one, dated 1 tracks here is this: if ritual cannibalism December 1894: "The Hamatsa danced does not involve the eating of human towards the new Qjomino'qa, who was flesh, then why is the Christian mass covered all over with blood ... Unfor­ not also called ritual cannibalism? tunately George [Hunt] was not here, Surely cannibalism in the sense most so I did not know what was going on people understand the word means the - especially when the new Qjomino'qa actual eating of real human flesh, and danced with skulls in her hand. The so if what is going on in these dances Hamatsa danced ahead of her, and does not, then we are not dealing with after a while took the skulls out of her cannibalism at all. William Arens, in hand and put them down after he had The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology licked them and eaten [something like and Anthropophagy (1979), argues that maggots?] The people were afraid to cannibalism as a widespread and cul­ let me see this." So the one time Boas turally accepted practice did not exist supposedly witnessed cannibalism, he except in the overheated imaginations says that he "did not know what was of Europeans looking for ways to jus­ going on." tify the slaughter and colonization of This is the passage that Ralph Maud New World peoples. He comments in highlights in his article "Did Franz a later article, "Rethinking Anthro­ Boas Witness an Act of Cannibalism?" pophagy" (in Cannibalism and the (Journal of the History of the Behavioral Colonial World, ed. Francis Barker et Sciences 22 [1986]: 45-8). He concludes al., 1998): "To my mind the demotion that "although cannibalism was cer­ of a particular people from the ranks tainly mimed by Kwakiutl dancers, no of gustatory to ritual cannibals has very eating of human flesh was witnessed little effect on the popular imagination by Boas" (47), and he notes that "in his perpetually stoked by anthropological definitive arrangement of his Kwakiutl discourse" (45). Certainly McDowell's materials before he died in 1942, Boas book is intended to capitalize on the removed all the pages of the Social popular fascination with the topic: in Organization volume that had pro­ large letters on the back cover is the vided Ruth Benedict with authority question "Did cannibalism exist on the for her statements on Kwakiutl canni­ Pacific Northwest Coast?" The answer balism in Patterns of Culture" (46). (It is further down the page: "McDowell seems odd that neither Bracken nor ... finds convincing evidence of the im­ Jim McDowell cites this article, which portance of ritual cannibalism among was sitting in the UBC library when Pacific Northwest Coast Natives." Yet I went looking for it.) Boas is the major source, and apart In his book, McDowell comes to from the one dance discussed above, all the conclusion that the hamatsa was of the accounts of the hamatsa cited by an example of "ritual cannibalism." He Boas are second-hand, including those quotes Robin Fisher, writing in 1982: of his major informant and assistant, "Clearly the Nootka did engage in the part-Tlingit, part-Scottish George ritual cannibalism for dramatic effect. Hunt. McDowell quotes Edward Arm biting and the display of hands Curtis's comments on Hunt's centrality and skulls of slain enemies were all part to accounts of cannibalism on the west of Nootka ceremonial. But this does coast: "there is grave doubt whether not mean that human flesh was actually cannibalism ever existed in British devoured" (126). What stops me in my Columbia ... Of the Kwakmtl men who po BC STUDIES

can be induced to discuss the subject, rites": but if cannibalism is only "pre­ all except one [George Hunt, who was tending" to eat human flesh, then not, in fact, Kwakiutl] say that sub­ what is so gruesome? More gruesome stitution has been invariably practiced than popular action movies or video in modern times, adding, however, that games? More gruesome than Kosovo? 'long ago' human flesh was eaten." And what about the gruesome fas­ McDowell says that "Curtis tried to cination of anthropologists and film have it both ways in featuring the makers with cannibalism? Why is can­ native ethnographer s gruesome stories" nibalism always about "them" and not and then himself goes on to have it about "us"? The last part of the book both ways by quoting the same grue­ contains a New Age-style appeal to some stories. This yes-they-did-no- the reader to come to understand and they-didn't kind of account is part of share the religious principles that the tradition itself, and it consolidates underlie the hamatsa ritual: "we must rather than destroys the impression return to the mythic voice of primitive that the Aboriginal peoples of the past experience." I am not so sure that we were, at worst, cannibalistic savages need a new religion, however, since I and, at best, given to highly unpleasant was initiated into ritual cannibalism and unhygienic theatrical practices in­ - in McDowell's and Fisher's terms - volving dug-up corpses. McDowell and practised it for six years as part of will say in one sentence that "none of a religion that attempted to teach its these [European] men and women ever members to contend with evil, often witnessed actual acts of humans being represented as a bestial figure devouring eaten" and then continue that "most the dead. Many of my contemporary of them wrote about the subject long Euro-Americans, as well as those who after such behaviour had been restricted actively participated in the suppression to seldom-held, highly ritualized cere­ of the potlatch and the hamatsa, were monies which were never fully under­ also initiates. stood by most native people" (147). That McDowell concludes by citing is, no one saw it, but "such behaviour" favourably all those who have pointed implicitly must have existed if it later to the damage done by the European had to be "restricted." discourse of cannibalism, and he says, McDowell wraps up with an account "I have gone beyond recapitulating the of the religious principles behind the historical record to probe the ideo­ hamatsa dance, commenting confusingly logical, psychological, and spiritual that "Kwakiutl cannibalism did not sources of the cannibalistic rituals that represent the kind of gastronomic cus­ still form a central aspect of some re­ tom that may have existed among cer­ markable cultures on the Pacific tain aboriginal societies in Africa or Northwest Coast" (263). So "they" are the South Sea Islands. On the contrary, still cannibals, and we, presumably, are the eating of human flesh was ab­ not. He decries the discourse while horrent to all Northwest Coast Indians. using it. Although McDowell has en­ It was precisely this loathing that gaged in extensive research, bringing made the gruesome rite all the more together a large number of photographs powerful" (234). This passage is again of the hamatsa (theatrically staged by typical, throwing out en passant the Edward Curtis) and usefully working accusation of cannibalism against other through the relevant textual accounts, cultures, while hinting at "gruesome the book is a highly problematic Book Reviews pi

example of a discourse that has served the other pole, a sophisticated theo­ since contact to distinguish Euro- retical engagement that attempts to Americans from the constructed counter a shameful (and obviously on­ "savage" at the expense of real First going) Canadian colonial discourse. Nations peoples. Bracken's book is at

A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World Robert Bringhurst Vancouver: Douglas ôcMdntyre, 1999. 527 pp. Illus., maps. $45 cloth.

By Joel Martineau University of British Columbia

N 1900 FRANZ BOAS hired John century, and day after day transcribed Swanton, a young linguist fresh their stories. The storyteller would I from Harvard, and sent him to speak to Moody, who would "listen to the Northwest Coast, his salary of $50 the poem and repeat it sentence by per month to be paid by the Bureau sentence in a loud, clear, slow voice, of American Ethnology, his expenses proving to the poet he had heard each by the American Museum of Natural word and giving Swanton time to History. Boas instructed Swanton to write it down" (32). The storyteller investigate the Haida system of her­ would speak, a sentence or two at a time, aldic crests, Haida ceremonial life, the Moody would repeat, and Swanton use and significance of masks, personal would write, hour after hour, day after and family guardian spirits, and rules day. For some nine months Swanton governing intermarriage with the recorded the works of such Haida oral neighbouring Native nations. He then poets as Ghandl (C1851-C1920) from listed a number of artifacts, ranging the West Coast, Skaay ({\1827-c1905) from housepoles to spoons, that he from Skedans, and Kingagwaaw wanted Swanton to buy for the (^.1846-^.1920) and Haayas (c.1835- Museum. His letter of instructions f.1905) from the North Coast. Inter­ made scant mention of oral literature. spersed among the recording sessions Swanton (1873-1958) crossed to were weeks during which Swanton Haida Gwaii on 25 September 1900. worked over the texts with Moody. At He rented quarters near the mission the end of June 1901, Swanton sailed village at Skidegate, hired as his tutor, north to visit Alaskan Haida villages, guide, and assistant a bilingual Haida before returning east to Washington and named Henry Moody, and promptly his duties with the Bureau of American began recording Haida oral stories. Ethnology. In effect, Swanton had Swanton and Moody sought out the ignored Boaz's instructions in order to Haida mythtellers who had survived pursue his own interests in oral the smallpox ravishes of the nineteenth literature. 92 BC STUDIES

While a few of Swanton's tran­ great deal more accomplished - scriptions and translations of the Haida and therefore far more worthy of tales were published in due course, celebration as a literary ancestor most laid fallow until the 1980s, when - than any other Canadian poet another young linguist began studying or novelist who was writing in the Haida language. Robert Bringhurst s English or French during his journey into Haida language, literature, time. In fact I know of no one and art produced two outstanding writing in any language, any­ contemporary texts - The Raven Steals where in North America, toward the Light (1984; co-authored with Bill the end of the nineteenth cen­ Reid) and The Black Canoe: Bill Reid tury, who uses words with greater and the Spirit of Haida Gwaii (1991; in sensitivity and skill. (66-7) collaboration with photographer Ulli Steltzer) - even as it led him into the Of course Bringhurst's question is archives in search of Swanton's tran­ rhetorical - he knows that the canon scriptions. A Story as Sharp as a Knife of North American literary history is offers occasional glimpses of Bringhurst anything but polylingual. Throughout tracking Swanton's manuscripts, but the text he both shares his passion for its main purposes are to situate and Haida literature and polemically at­ contextualize the cultural moments tacks its disregard. The result is a that produced the stories, and to plead highly charged literary history of the that contemporary readers should moments in Haida culture that pro­ regard the stories as classical treasures. duced the literature, plus a critique of Both concerns hinge on Bringhurst's our contemporary western culture, that fervent argument that the largest and has heretofore ignored that literature. most complex works of classical Haida A Story as Sharp as a Knife includes literature merit the respect typically nearly 400 lines of classical Haida accorded the foundational literary myths in the original Haida, and some works of western cultures. The question 4000 lines translated by Bringhurst raised in the following passage is at into English. A jacket blurb states that the heart of^ Story as Sharp as a Knife: this book will alter our understanding of the phrase "Canadian culture." I Why Ghandl of the Qayahl agree. Two final notes: a volume of Llaanas of Qaysun has not also translations is intended as a sequel to been adopted with full honours this text; and, the price of $45 for the into the polylingual canon of cloth-bound edition seems eminently North American literary history fair. I do not know. He seems to me a Book Reviews çj

You Are Asked to Witness: The Stô:lô in Canada's Pacific Coast History Keith Thor Carlson, editor Chilliwack: Sto:lo Heritage Trust, 1997.208pp. Illus., maps. $26.95paper

By IYESELWET te Cheam (E. Denise Douglas) The Cheam Nation and University of British Columbia

EITH CARLSON has gathered future. Political motives underpin works of both professionals some of the contents, which may be K and of the Stôilô to compile offensive to those Stô:lô people who what will likely be perceived by many are not represented. This is evident in readers to be the written text of Stô:lô the choice of Stô:lô contributors as history - a creation of the Stô:lô well as in the contemporary photo­ people themselves. Carlson uses the graphs, which, by their presentation, original language of the Stô:lô seem to etch the spotlighted politicians (Halq'emeylem) as much as possible into history, draping them with an and presents a commendable account already archival look. The two contri­ of historical events. He forfeits his butors of Stô:lô origin seem to present voice to that of the Stôilô people in insider accounts. However, their work various places. is interpretive as well. In the Intro­ The work recounts "Canada's Pacific duction (2-26), Siyemchess does not Coast History," focusing on the Stô:lô, speak to the part of Sto:lo history that whose traditional territory extends the he knows, and he admits this throughout entire periphery of the Fraser River, the edited interview. Unfortunately, the north to Spuzzum, across the breadth researchers and their subject have dif­ of southern Vancouver Island, and fering objectives. The researchers were into the United States as far south as interested in fishing issues, yet they Bellingham, Washington. Since the interviewed an informant who did not book's perspective is on Canadian fish. This informant was aware of the history, the living Stô:lô relationship practices of slavery and the salt trade, with people in the United States is yet these were evidently not his own almost lost. Unfortunately, Carlson family stories. His family was know­ also all but missed Stô:lô women's ledgeable about the farming industry issues and the devastation caused by during the turn of the century, and he the Indian Act, which was not re­ could probably have better contri­ dressed in such legislation as Bill C- buted to this gap in Canadian history. 31, intended to permit Indigenous Albert "Sonny" McHalsie starts his women so deprived to regain status. contribution by echoing what he This is an interpretive work, an out­ learned from anthropological and sider's look into the Stô:lô(the People archeological works. For many years of the River) world. The book does he has interviewed elders, but his work not address the effects of factionalism remains interpretive. on the construction of a documented In Chapter 4, Carlson makes a history, which could have political common statement, which is not vali­ implications for the Stô:lô in the dated. He is not alone in this mistake. 94 BC STUDIES

He asserts that "the Xwelitem arrived Overall, I commend Carlson for his in Stô:lô territory and started taking presentation, especially his chronicle possession of Stô:lô and and resources" of smallpox and his presentation of (54). Such an assertion could have im­ Cheam's history. He has compiled his plications for land claims. The work meticulously and thoroughly, Xwelitem in fact started excluding each although he still measures Sto:lô his­ other, but there is no documentation tory as a response to colonialism, thus in Sto:lô(or any other) records of Stô:lô echoing European values. He cites Stô:lô land and resources being ceded. The history as though it were relevant only Stô:lôpeople, from historical times to to the past and speaks of Stô:lôpeople the present, resist the appropriation of as though they were objects of the past. their land and resources, to which they Perhaps, with the continued parti­ still assert title, as is evident in Carlsons cipation of the Stô:lô Nation, he will own documentation (as well as in the be able to assist in defining the Stô:lô recent news). The centrepiece photo­ people as a living part of - as parti­ graph (75-6) provides a graphic example cipating subjects in - Canada's future of recognition of title and rights from history and to view Canada as part of the Indigenous perspective. Stôilô history.

Boston Men'on the Northwest Coast: The American Maritime Fur Trade, 1788-1844 Mary Malloy Kingston, Ontario, and Fairbanks, Alaska: Limestone, 1998. 232 pp. US$28 cloth.

By Jim Delgado Vancouver Maritime Museum

HE MARITIME FUR TRADE of histories of the trade, written by mariner the Northwest Coast has been William Dane Phelps just a few Tthe subject of a number of decades after the events he recorded. works in both the United States and Mary Malloy's "Boston Men' is a Canada over the last century. Recent focused, detailed study that examines studies include James R. Gibson's the nature of American involvement Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China in the trade. It builds on a number of Goods (1992), Richard Somerset earlier works, integrating new Mackie's Trading Beyond the Mountains: scholarship, a detailed examination of The British Fur Trade on the Pacific, a number of original ship's logs and 1793-1843 (1997), and Fur Traders from journals, and an anthropological per­ New England: The Boston Men in the spective on the nature of American North Pacific, iySy-1800 (1997), edited shipboard society, Native societies, and by Briton C. Busch and Barry M. their interactions. The maritime fur Gough, which presents one of the first trade was characterized as dangerous Book Reviews 95 and violent in American popular cul­ The second part of the book offers ture of the nineteenth century; Malloy an encyclopaedic listing of American assesses this perception and finds that vessels engaged in the trade and a it unfairly colours the real nature of the gazetteer of Native villages, landmarks, trade as a mercantile venture plagued and trade centres. There are a few more by an uncertain market for trade minor errors, such as the assertion that goods among the Native peoples than the Hudson's Bay Company esta­ by vessel seizure and attack. blished Fort Taku in 1811, fourteen The book is divided into two parts. years before it established any presence The first part offers a historiographical on the Coast. But these are quibbles review of the literature in the intro­ and do not interfere with the value of duction, "In the Wake of the Boston the work. The second part, due to its Men," which is followed by Chapters sheer page count (63-204), dominates 1 and 2, "Boston Trade on the North­ the book. It represents significant re­ west Coast" and "Shipboard Society search and a considerable contribution and Northwest Coast Indian Society," to the historiography of the maritime respectively. In Chapter 2, Malloy's fur trade, building on F.W. Howay's long association with the maritime landmarks List of Fur Trading Vessels world (as a scholar, educator, and in the Maritime Fur Trade, 1785-1825, museum professional) enables her to edited by Richard A. Pierce and provide the reader with an under­ republished by Limestone Press in standing of the nuances and realities 1973- of shipboard life, routine, discipline, Malloy's insights, and the ency­ and technology. She shows how these clopaedic nature of the book, make things influenced the sailors, their "Boston Men" a worthy addition to the officers, and the people with whom literature and a must for the scholar's they traded. library.

ifer Go/

By Daniel P. Marshall University of British Columbia

T LONG LAST a book has been (in excess of 30,000) into the traditional written about the most cata­ lands of First Nations peoples. As a A clysmic event ever to have descendant of Cornish miners who occurred in British Columbia's history joined in the 1858 rush, I have always - the Fraser River gold rush and the found it puzzling that the Fraser rush massive invasion of non-Native miners has received so little attention, con­ 96 BC STUDIES

sidering that it led to the formation number of key sources and institutions of a Crown colony on Canada's Pacific were not consulted. By far, published coast. What's even more perplexing, newspaper accounts, parliamentary perhaps, is that we have waited for an papers, and colonial despatches con­ American university press to publish stitute the majority of her primary this history, written by a journalist and source material, while unpublished former resident of Edinburgh who now letters, diaries, or latter-day remi­ makes her home in Vancouver. The niscences of "some who were there" two should be congratulated for re­ were not utilized. Sterne's description cognizing the great importance of this of Governor James Douglas as "a man event in the larger history of the Pacific of impressive stature, great dignity, Slope region. As is so often the case and legendary courage" (6) suggests in British Columbia, it is new arrivals the oftentimes pro-British portrayal to our province, like Netta Sterne, who of the Fraser River rush that has been have seen what we ourselves have the hallmark of histories on the sub­ missed. ject written to date. The fact that most And yet, after reading Fraser Gold miners communicated with people, 1858! I can't help thinking that Sterne's places, and the press south of the book would have been improved im­ international divide means that the measurably had she become more paper trail of those who were here is acquainted with the academic com­ not to be found in British-oriented munity in British Columbia. Sterne's publications but in archives to the manuscript, reviewed by an American south. Sterne states, for instance, that professor of history, contains a number "it would be interesting to know how of factual errors that might easily have the wealth gathered by the Indian been spotted by others more familiar miners affected their future." (74) Had with the province's history. Certainly, she examined the voluminous collection too, there is a growing academic dis­ of primary sources collected by Bancroft course on this side of the 49 th parallel and deposited at the University of that could have been consulted, BC California at Berkeley, as opposed to Studies being just one example. the slim offerings of the California Sterne's story is in the tradition of History Society and the California history writing that seeks to celebrate State Library, the answer, in large part, our colonial past by emphasizing would have been discovered. And European males to the exclusion of though the British Library was visited, such forgotten groups as women, the much more significant collections Asians, and First Nations peoples. of the Public Record Office, Kew Sterne's central question, one that has Gardens, were not. occupied all previous historians from First Nations peoples were the dis­ H.H. Bancroft to Margaret Ormsby coverers of gold in British Columbia, and Barry Gough, is: "How ... in the as noted byT.A. Rickard (BCHistorical face of the gold rush 'invasion,' was Quarterly 2:1), whose ground-breaking British law to be established" (ix). work was not consulted by the author. Though Sterne conducted research in According to Rickard: "The dis­ archival repositories of British coveries of gold on the mainland, like Columbia, Washington, California, the one made on Moresby Island and Britain, a quick glance at the [Queen Charlottes], must be credited Select Bibliography suggests that a to the Indians; it was they, and not any Book Reviews ç J canny Scot or enterprising American, Sterne hoped to let "much of the that first found gold on the Thompson story unfold through the words of some and Fraser Rivers, or first proceeded who were there at the time," during "one to gather it for the purposes of trade" of the great stories of the century" (xi). (9). The wealth collected by First It is indeed a great story, but, unfortu­ Nations benefited them greatly until nately, the words she has used are not their future was dramatically and those of British Columbia's First deleteriously affected by the massive Nations. This, undoubtedly, must be invasion of European and Euro- the core reason that academics have American miners who dispossessed not thus far written the history of the them of their land and gold (Marshall, Fraser River gold rush, for to do so must Native Studies Review 11 :i). be to overturn one of the great founding If Sterne had cast her research net myths of Canada's westernmost pro­ farther, or if she had given the California vince. Nevertheless, with so little writ­ newspapers a more thorough reading, ten about this extraordinary event, she would have discovered that Native Sterne's book offers a suitable primer and non-Native miners collided for those interested in learning the during the "Fraser River War," in basic chronology of the gold rush. which Native villages were torched With Bancroft, Ormsby, and others now and large numbers of First Nations out of print, Sterne's work will com­ people killed by military-like miners' plement the general details of the rush militias in search of Native gold. provided by such historians as Jean Nowhere in Sterne's book, beyond the Barman, George Woodcock, and so on. occasional transcriptions of Governor As California continues to "celebrate" James Douglas's warnings to Britain the 150th anniversary of its rush with of potential cataclysm, can the adverse a host of new revisionist publications effects of the gold rush on Native by historians such as J.S. Holliday, peoples be found. This is not sur­ Paula Mitchell Marks, and Malcolm prising, perhaps, as Fraser Gold 1858! Rohrbough, Canadian academics will is a celebration of our colonial past - follow suit with their own reassessment a self-justifying tradition made up of of the gold rushes of British Columbia. words that, 140 years later, continue With the publication of Netta Sterne's to effectively whitewash an event that Fraser Gold 1858! a significant base map broke the back of full-scale Native has been provided that will point resistance and precipitated the for­ many readers towards useful clues that mation of Indian reserves in mainland invite further research and discussion. British Columbia. For this, Sterne is to be congratulated. 9% BC STUDIES

Beyond the City Limits: Rural History in British Columbia. R.W. S andwell, editor Vancouver: UBC Press, 1999. 293 pp. Illus., maps. $27.95 paper.

By Margaret Conrad Acadia University

BOOK ON RURAL British that we are still dealing with most of Columbia written thirty years the territory outside of Victoria and A ago would have been very dif­ Vancouver. S andwell argues that the ferent from this one. At best, it would category is a useful one because it offers have focused on European settlement an alternative point of entry on British and resource development outside of Columbia's past; provides a different Vancouver and Victoria, and chronicled angle of vision on class, race, and gender; the displacement of Natives in the and ultimately brings into focus a world province within the framework of urban­ where things are sometimes done ization, industrialization, and progress. differently. These essays, grouped under the headings One thing is certain: the new meth­ of power, land, and gender, benefit from odological approaches employed in this a generation of work in social history volume disrupt the "seamless web of his­ and a postmodern scepticism that calls tory" - and nowhere more so than in into question any and all assumptions. the section dealing with power relations. They also testify to another happy Thus, while John Lutz analyzes the historiographical development in recent process by which the Lekwammen of years: the return of the narrative or at southern Vancouver Island were un­ least lucid prose. While the rural settled and reconstructed as"Songhees" sometimes gets lost in the dazzling array by Euro-Canadians, Bruce Stadfeld of topics and methodological approaches takes Lutz to task for employing an represented here, this book is often fun approach that discounts Native agency, to read and serves as a delightful sampler highlighting the point that Natives in of what happened "beyond the city British Columbia see their ancestors as limits" in British Columbia. resilient heroes of power struggles rather In her introduction, Ruth S andwell than as passive victims. Even that sturdy surveys recent scholarly developments staple of Canadian history, the tariff, in the field of rural history; explores its yields new insights when viewed from relationship to local history, Aboriginal a rural West Coast perspective. In his history, and approaches to the land; and examination of the tariff question from acknowledges the contribution of edu­ 1871 to 1874, Daniel Marshall reveals that cational history to the understanding of farmers in British Columbia were, rather rural British Columbia. Anticipating untypically in the larger Canadian con­ criticism of the slippery definition of text, strong protectionists and sufficiently "rural" informing this volume - the powerful - agriculture was the second inclusion of Kamloops, Williams Lake, largest employer in the province at this and Prince George-S andwell suggests time - to shape party politics around the Book Reviews pç

issue. Brian Low's deconstruction of the along with people in the late 1800s. processes involved in producing Lessons Arguing that the persistence of the in Living, a National Film Board project codling moth proves that humans are about revitalizing rural communities anything but masters of creation, he through cooperative effort (shot in makes a timely plea for historians to see Lantzville in 1944), shows that it was people as part of, rather than separate really a carefully orchestrated pro­ from, the natural environment. paganda effort designed to create an Five essays explore gender and rural expert-led society in which small com­ society. Drawing upon an impressive munities and rural schooling were en­ array of sources, Jean Barman brings dangered species. into view the surprisingly large number The "land," like "power," is broadly of "invisible" Aboriginal women and defined in this volume, and it includes their mixed-race daughters who par­ animals and insects as well as home­ ticipated in the resettlement process. steads and cattle ranges. In her detailed Barman finds that mixed-race families examination of the land records for Salt were often the first settlers in rural areas Spring Island between 1859 and 1891, of British Columbia and that they Ruth Sandwell reveals that a significant shared a demographic profile with their proportion of settlers were more in­ White neighbours. In tracking the fate terested in the advantages offered by of children of mixed-race families, deferred payment in the pre-emption Barman notes that sons tended to be process than in the improvement and marginalized in the public world of paid purchase of their property. This finding labour, while daughters, hidden in the points to the importance of exploring household, were often complicit in ren­ the social values of late nineteenth- dering themselves invisible. Less hidden century settlers, which is a major focus but, until recently, little studied, the of Ken Favrholdt's study of the tran­ bachelor society of the BC backwoods sition from ranching to farming and in the mid-nineteenth century is subject back to ranching in the dry-belt area to a sophisticated analysis by Adele around Kamloops from i860 to i960. He Perry, who focuses on the ways in which concludes that profit accumulation was it ran counter to the patriarchal, middle- only one of many variables - attitudes class assumptions about masculinity. In towards the land, technological change, his examination of Kamloops and its public policy, and personal background outlying agricultural areas in the late being others - which motivated home­ nineteenth century, John Belshaw dis­ steaders. In his engaging discussion of covers significant differences in household cougars and the men and women who patterns between town and country and hunted them, Richard Mackie documents uses the courtship of Annie McQueen, not only a significant chapter in the rural detailed in letters to her mother, to human history of British Columbia - highlight his findings. Fascinating per­ by the turn of the twentieth century sonal letters between a prostitute and many rural districts had a resident cougar her pimp permits David Peterson del hunter - but also the impact of changing Mar to provide the context for a 1940 land-use patterns on the size of the Prince George court case relating to cougar population. David Dendy ex­ prostitution in a small town setting, plores the - largely futile - efforts of undermining any notions of innocence orchardists to eradicate the codling moth, and virtue associated with rural life. which migrated to British Columbia Finally, Tony Arruda s discussion, based IOO BC STUDIES

on interviews, of job prospects among Indeed, most of the essays in this volume young people growing up in the rapidly draw more upon the insights and meth­ expanding community ofWilliams Lake odologies developed in social and en­ between 1945 and 1975 reveals a gendered vironmental history than upon approaches work experience similar to that found exclusive to rural history. Nevertheless, elsewhere in the industrialized world: the findings are revealing, sometimes young men had their pick of jobs in even surprising, especially with respect millwork, logging, truck-driving, and to the diversity of Native experiences ranching and often abandoned school and the relationship of people to the land. to earn money, while young women, If subsequent research efforts "beyond even in the baby-boom generation, were the city limits" are as well executed as confined primarily to work in part-time are those depicted in this sampling - the and service jobs. fact that many of the contributors are The essays published here range too doctoral students or recent graduates widely to enable one to draw hard con­ bodes well - then the history of British clusions about the history of rural life Columbia and Canada will be the richer in British Columbia, other than to say for it. that it is a fertile area for further study.

Growing Up: Childhood in English Canada from the Great War to the Age of Television Neil Sutherland Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. 327 pp. Illus. $21.95 paper.

By André Turmel Université Laval

HE FIRST CHAPTER of Growing This quotation probably summarizes Up opens up with a quotation best the intentions and the project of Tfrom novelist Gabrielle Roy: the author as well as the tone of the book: to listen to the winds of child­ The place to which you go back hood. Neil Sutherland's well known to listen to the wind you heard and recognized first book, Children in in your childhood - that is your English Canadian Society, described homeland, which is also the place the origins and development of the where you have a grave to tend. child-centered agenda of the reformers Though I choose to live in Québec at the turn of the century, which ex­ partly because of the love for it plained the implementation of a set which my mother passed on to of social policies to cope with the pro­ me, now it is my turn to come to blems confronting children in the Manitoba to tend her grave. And context of industrialization and urban­ to listen to the wind of my ization. Growing Up has an objective childhood." (3) that differs considerably from the first: Book Reviews 101 it revolves around the story of the lives ... even using a spade or a pitch­ of children told from the children's fork'. (163) 'I really appreciated point of view. This is what Sutherland that cooperative spirit of doing means by ' listening to the winds of something together. I really liked childhood': studying childhood from the family togetherness' (138) the children's point of view by giving them the possibility to speak. Children and work: The most interesting and stimu­ 'I was so happy I could have lating aspect of the book is that children jumped for joy ... the ability to are here not studied from an adult- work and do a job well was what centered perspective or from the policies it took to be a man! ... I was now that adults think are in the child's best doing a man's job. I was now interests, but from their own point of worth something'. ' fishing on my view as far as the researcher can seize own during the summer holidays it in their discourse. This is not so of 1936, when I was thirteen years common in the vast field of the socio- old. I fished with an old boat of historical research on childhood. Neil my father's, gillnetting on the Sutherland deserves public acknowl­ stretch of river near our house ... edgment from the scholarly community I'm trying to think back on how for carrying on this project to its end. I felt at the time. Part of the And the winds of childhood are blowing feeling was that I was now - A all through the book. They are emo­ Man. It was pretty hard work but tionally charged memories. The fact you had to prove that you were that these memories could be either able to do something like that to positive or negative appears to be less be accepted by your peers, those important than the phenomenon itself: who were a bit older than you'. children store memories of what they (139) 'We used to see the other think are unique events and cherish kids go by, and really hated our them over the whole of their lives. father for the way he kept us These memories concern almost all from ever playing with them'. aspects of children's lives except in­ (138) fancy for obvious reasons. Again what appears to be unique is the emotion Children and special occasions that sustains and runs through these including Christmas and birthday 1 memories. The memories (and the rituals: book) are structured around certain 'Once I went out with Dad and classical themes of childhood's mem­ on the way home we stopped at ories: family, friends and school. a restaurant. Dad bought me a There are children and their glass of milk and a piece of raisin families, sometimes frontier families: pie. It was the best I have ever eaten. I was never able to re­ 'We were like all primitive people capture the flavour of it'. (168) and those in frontier places, 'We went on the farm truck to learning almost everything by Chilliwack and took the inter- working with our parents. ... We urban to town. We shopped at learned by watching, helping, the department store, and then and doing. We found out that went to a show with live enter­ there is a skill in about everything tainment between features. We I02 BC STUDIES

stayed overnight with some of almost timeless world of child­ Mom's relatives. On Sunday, we hood and their own brief gen­ went to Stanley Park. My brother eration within it. At its simplest and I talked about the trip for level, this meant learning to do years afterward'. (175) certain things." (223) Children and school: How do children become children? How is a little human being con­ 'Some kids couldn't attend school structed into a western and Canadian regularly; they had to stay at child? The author proposes to visu­ home for work'. 'I did not attend alize the culture of childhood as a school during threshing time'. series of concentric circles with the (144) 'Getting the strap was to us child's family at the center and the the same as going to the gallows. community as the outer ring. A child's You didn't just get the strap, you entry into this culture happens when were sentenced to it.' (210) 'I can­ he first establishes a relationship with not afford all the designer clothes another child or group of children. that are worn by my fellow class­ Thus the key role played by siblings,, mates. We shop at Value Village friends, peers and neighbors in that and those clothes are used and culture: the importance of play and sometimes stained and ripped, game, of best or special friend, of youth and that makes me feel like dirt.' organizations (scouts, sports etc.). (264) Finally this culture has much to do Children, foster home and domestic with the ways children experienced work: their childhood, how they positioned themselves in their family, school, and About a 'foster sister' in a home: neighborhood. 'She had an awful life, with real Sutherland's purpose is not the chores, hard work, My father single and exhaustive description of the never spoke to her and wouldn't culture of childhood from the point even look at her.' (135) of view of children. He rather tries to The author also introduces the con­ outline and put into light the schema cept of culture of childhood, which is and repeated scripts of children's daily something delicate to use because of life: recurrent events and routines. the high polyvalence of the notion in Two characteristics of these scripts the social sciences. He gets around the must be emphasized: first, children difficulty by avoiding giving a con­ live mostly in situations that are ceptual and abstract definition and highly structured; second, people rather gives a strong empirical de­ share those scripts, they can't be indi­ scription of it: vidual. Scripts are usually situational - family life, school, neighborhood Most of the institutions in which activity, etc. - within which personal children spent their lives ... had scripts can take place: the way that a as their principal goal the social­ certain child behaves with siblings or izing of the young ... At the same walks from home to school, etc. This time, however, children had to means that people remember with learn to be children and to be­ reasonable accuracy the scripts of their come members of both the childhood. But how? Book Reviews ioj

This leads me to the method­ the 'perspective of the child'? Is the ological question raised by this book. problem mainly a question of accur- This perspective of the child, devel­ ateness of memory? What is then the oped and analyzed in the book, does status of childhood memory in the not come directly from children's dis­ constitution of selfhood, specially in course, but rather from memories and late adulthood? From an episte- historical recollections of adults talking mological standpoint, is it possible to about their own childhood. The data reach a child's perspective once one is come from over 200 interviews carried firmly anchored in adulthood? In through the Canadian Childhood accordance with G.H. Mead, I shall History Project at UBC, a certain raise the question that a historical number of autobiographies, and other reconstruction is always an account of related material. The question that I the past from some person's present. want to raise is: what is the status of What does that mean from an ana­ these historical recollections in a con­ lytical point of view? text where we know from an episte- I am not sure that I have the answer mological point of view that adult to these questions. I think that they memories are not an objective de­ ought to be risen because those pro­ scription of the reality of their child­ blems need further thinking. The pre­ hood but a social construction. ceding remarks do not diminish in any The problem that arises from this way the remarkable qualities of 'perspective of the child' is precisely Sutherland's book. It is on the contrary that it is a historical reconstruction a tribute to the tough questions raised from an adult point of view and stand­ by this research and the very creative point. How can we put forward that way that the author stands up to them. an adult whose childhood happened Above all, the winds of childhood are in 1930 and is interviewed in 1990 - blowing all through the book and this sixty years later - about his childhood in itself is worth reading this monu­ experience could discursively express mental work.

Environmental Management on North America s Borders Richard Kiy and John D. Wirth, editors College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 1998. 306 pp. US419.95 paper.

By Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun

HEN A TOILET FLUSHES, are known to travel far afield, breaching when a slick of oil oozes international borders and ultimately Wfrom a ship's hull, or when taxing the resolution of more than one a dark cloud wafts from an industrial nation to clean them up. smokestack, it happens with little With that thinking in mind, sense of geographic direction. Pol­ Environmental Management on North lutants unleashed into the environment Americas Borders is a collection often I04 BC STUDIES

case studies examining the various continue to rise. Alley also devotes too ways in which Canada, the United little attention to the way in which States, and Mexico work cooperatively politics affects the council. Perhaps - or at cross-purposes, as is often the that's because politics derailed the case - on common environmental council's work only during the latter problems. As well as shedding light stages of his writing, or perhaps it is on issues such as the maquiladoras because there is a limit to which we industrial zones along the Mexican can reasonably expect a bureaucrat to border, hazardous-waste sites in Texas, criticize his political masters. I refer and the development of Quebec's to the suspension of council meetings hydroelectricity for export to the United for more than two years, ending States, the book features two chapters October 1998, as a result of former that focus on British Columbia's premier Glen Clark's fishing dispute environmental relationship with with Washington State, resulting from Washington State. the collapse of the Canada-US Pacific The first chapter is written by Jamie Salmon Treaty. Alley, a director of fisheries for the The other British Columbia chapter province who was instrumental in de­ is written by R. Anthony Hodge, a veloping the British Columbia- teacher of environment and man­ Washington Environmental Co­ agement at Royal Roads University in operation Council in 1992 to tackle Victoria, and Paul R. West, director mutual problems, such as air and water of the School of Environmental Studies quality, flood control, and the intro­ at the University of Victoria. Hodge duction of exotic marine species. Alley and West compare how Canada and does an excellent job of outlining the the United States jointly manage the history of this unique bureaucracy, Great Lakes system versus the inland which, while lacking any real power waters of British Columbia's Strait of or major source of funding, seeks to Georgia and Washington's Puget resolve issues along cooperative, vol­ Sound. While serious, long-standing untary lines between province and pollution problems in the Great Lakes state - not on a formal nation-to- have given rise to a much more form­ nation basis. alized, transboundary management As part of his presentation, Alley structure, British Columbia and specifically elaborates on progress the Washington have nothing to be smug council has made in three areas - about. The Cascadia region's bur­ marine water quality, regional air geoning population is generating water management, and Columbia River pollution in the form of human sewage, water quality. But he is not as forth­ vehicle emissions, wetland destruction, coming about the lesser successes. For and overfishing. Yet the authors still example, despite improved river fore­ conclude there is time to get it right, casting, the flood risk on Washington's to create a model of sustainability that Nooksack River essentially remains as could serve countries around the world. great today as it did in 1990, when it But political commitment remains inundated Abbotsford's Sumas Prairie. the missing link, as events continue And despite countless meetings to to show. The Canadian government resolve Washington's concerns over last December committed $22 million BC farmers polluting the Sumas- in new funding over five years to the Abbotsford Aquifer, nitrate levels Georgia Basin Ecosystem Initiative, Bibliography /05 a program designed to address the the BC government to sign a new region's growing water and air pol­ Pacific salmon agreement with the lution problems. In return, the pro­ Americans. As Hodge and West vince pledged all the good will in the argue, only through greater collab­ world but not an additional nickel - a oration among all sides - including decision that underscores the vulner­ our provincial and federal govern­ ability of the region's environment to ments - and perhaps a shift to more political resolve. Furthermore, as formal transboundary institutions can recently as last June, Ottawa com­ the ecological integrity of the region pleted an embarrassing end run around be assured "now and in the future."