Description
Strange Visitors: Documents in Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada from 1876 is the essential reference book about the interaction between First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples with settler society told in primary documents. History professor Keith D. Smith , Chair of the Department of First Nations Studies at Vancouver Island University, selected a diverse selection of documents including letters, testimonies, speeches, transcripts, newspaper articles, and government records to highlight Indigenous primary sources from 1876 to 2007. Told in fifteen chapters, the more than 90 original documents present voices that are often missed in general Canadian history books. When the Indian Act was under consideration in 1876, George Buck and 32 other Six Nations Confederacy Council Chiefs issued a letter to the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs making their perspective known. In addition to the Indian Act, the book covers the Numbered Treaties; the Pass System; 1885 Resistance; Restricting the Potlatch; Assimilation; Organized Resistance from F. O. Loft, Deskaheh, and Allied Indian Tribes of British Columbia; Residential Schools (Chapter 6 "Please don't blame yourselves": Residential Schools includes key documents such as Davin Report, House of Commons Debates, 1920, P.H. Bryce, The Story of a National Crime, 1920, Mary Carpenter, "No More Denials Please", 1991, Isabelle Knockwood, Out of the Depths, 2001, and Thomas Moore, Before and After Photographs, 1904.); World War l and World War 2; 1951 Indian Act; High Arctic Relocation of 1953; the White Paper of 1969; Gender Equity; 1982 Constitution; The Constitution and the Courts; Ipperwash Inquiry; and the Royal Commission and Modern Treaties. The author has developed an important resource of primary documents for secondary and post-secondary students. The author's approach is to introduce students to perspectives through the use of critical thinking and the historical inquiry method. In each chapter, the author suggests key questions for discussion. The volume contains maps, photographs, and an index. Highly recommended.