Description
As Their Natural Resources Fail: Native Peoples and the Economic History of Northern Manitoba, 1870-1930 written by Frank Tough examines the role of Aboriginal Peoples, both First Nations and Métis, in the economy of northern Manitoba from Treaty 1 to the Depression. He argues that they did not become economically obsolete but rather played an important role in the transitional era between the mercantile fur trade and the emerging industrial economy of the mid-twentieth century. Tough reconstructs the traditional economy of the dynamic fur trade era and examines its evolution through reserve selection and settlement, scrip distribution and the participation of Aboriginal Peoples in the new resource industries of commercial fishing, transportation, lumbering, and mining. His analysis clearly shows that Aboriginal People in northern Manitoba responded to the challenge of an expanding market economy in rational and enterprising ways, but that they were repeatedly obstructed by government policy. Numerous interpretive maps, figures, and illustrations provide indispensable aids to Tough's argument. His book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of western Canada and the role of Aboriginal Peoples in the post-fur trade era.