Canada's First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from Earliest Times [Paperback]

Olive Patricia Dickason (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2001 | ISBN-10: 019541652X | ISBN-13: 978-0195416527 | Edition: 3

This is a comprehensive history of Canada's original inhabitants-- Indians, Inuit, and later, Metis. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines history, anthropology, and archaeology, Dickason tells the story of the more than 50 nations in the territory that is now Canada, beginning with the arrival of people in North America from across the Bering Strait many thousands of years ago.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Olive Dickason is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Alberta.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 3 edition (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019541652X
• ISBN-13: 978-0195416527
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,151,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Encyclopedia of Canadian Natives, February 2, 2006

By 

Chris Kostov (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canada's First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from Earliest Times (Civilization of the American Indian) (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book, which can be used as an encyclopedia for the history, traditional names, and geographical location of the Canadian Native peoples. The author has used numerous primary sources and maps and her style is very readable. Dickason gave also the aboriginal perspective of many events but in a very balanced account. The book can grasp the attention not only to professional historians dealing with Native history but also to all readers who have some general interest in the past of Canada's Amerindians.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Northern people's history, April 14, 2003

By 

Vincent Poirier (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Canada's First Nations (Oxford) (Paperback)

Oliva Dickason, the Canadian doyenne of academic Amerindian history, delivers an excellent university introduction textbook to the history of the First Nations of North America, concentrating on those of Canada.

She deals with four periods: the pre-colonial era, the colonial, the 19th & mid-20th century, and the end of 20th century.

Her pre-colonial history is often speculative, since there are no written records, but much can be determined from oral tradition and archeological finds. For instance, the Iroquois confederacy was established shortly before the French landed in the mid-16th century; North America housed a diversity of distinct nations; many Amerindians cultures lived in permanent settlements; west coast nations had developed explicit property rights and had a system of land entitlement.

The colonial era was one of co-operation and alliances between the Ameridians and the Europeans settlers and soldiers. The Europeans brought their wars and diseases with them, while the First Nations brought their wars too. The partnership was equal and the First Nations on the winning side benefitted, at least until the 19th century.

From the 19th century onwards however, White rule has much to answer for. The diseases of the colonial era were brought inadvertently, but not so the 19th century land grab, or the disastrous assimilation attempts of the 20th century.

The end of the 20th century has seen a revival of Amerindian self-government. The First Nations have begun using Western institutions to their advantage. In the 1980's Elijah Harper, then member of Manitoba's provincial parliament, single-handedly, and rather heroically, derailed a Canadian constitutional accord (Lake Meech) which failed to address First Nations concerns. Earlier in the 1970s, the First Nations successfully negotiated with Hydro Quebec and created the precedent that their agreement was needed for development on their lands.

Overall, an excellent reference.

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid overview, November 6, 2007

By 

haibler - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canada's First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from Earliest Times (Paperback)

Canada's First Nations is a solid piece of scholarship detailed enough to satisfy advanced historians and well written in order to please a greater audience.

Make no mistake, this is a vast topic covering 15.000 years in history and pre-history that had to be shrunk to 560 pages only. Of course there are a few omissions, of course there needed to be some sort of selection of incidents and sources. Most of the author's choice regarding her focus can be understood easily and makes the book a good read.

The only grave criticism of which the author cannot be spared is that at some places Dickason does not sufficiently question her ancient written sources, but rather takes for granted what has been said about amerindian behavioural patterns in the 16th and 17th century.

While this can be attributed to the vast undertaking itsself, it nonetheless may be one wrong approach to sources leading to a perhaps distorted picture of amerindian ancient culture.

One example: "All Iroquoians practised torture and cannibalism"...[56].
While the first can be regarded as proven, sources related to the alledged latter behaviour are definetely not to be taken at face value, as Heidi Peter-Röcher (Kannibalismus in der Prähistorischen Forschung, Studien zu einer paradigmatischen Deutung und ihren Grundlagen.) in her doctoral thesis of 1994 (University FU Berlin) quite convincingly points out.

In fact, as Peter-Röcher succeeded to show, remarks related to cannibalism have to be taken with utmost care. Peter-Röcher goes as far as questioning the existence of such a practise in history at all and relates that there is not one single case in history when such a practise has been positively witnessed, that is neurotic missionaries - themselves living under a constant threat of getting slain - made up these stories of "Gog and Magog" in order to illustrate their braveness among the barbarians, to put it short.

Despite these flaws Canada's First Nations is a solid piece of work well worth the time it takes to read it.