Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

Clearing the Plains : disease, politics of starvation, and the loss of Indigenous life / James Daschuk ; [opening by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair ; foreword by Elizabeth A. Fenn].

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: Canadian plains studies ; 65.Publisher: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada : University of Regina Press, [2019]Copyright date: ©2019Edition: New editionDescription: xxxvi, 362 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780889776227
  • 0889776229
  • 9780889776210
  • 0889776210
Subject(s):
Contents:
Indigenous health, environment, and disease before Europeans -- The early fur trade: territorial dislocation and disease -- Early competition and the extension of trade and disease, 1740-82 -- Despair and death during the Fur Trade Wars, 1783-1821 -- Expansion of settlement and erosion of health during the HBC monopoly, 1821-69 -- Canada, the Northwest, and the treaty period, 1869-76 -- Treaties, famine, and epidemic transition on the Plains, 1877-82 -- Dominion administration of relief, 1883-85 -- The Nadir of Indigenous health, 1886-91 -- Conclusion.
Summary: "Revealing how Canada's first Prime Minister used a policy of starvation against Indigenous people to clear the way for settlement, the multiple award-winning Clearing the Plains sparked widespread debate about genocide in Canada. In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics -- the politics of ethnocide -- played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of Indigenous people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald's "National Dream." It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day. This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a foreword by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Elizabeth Fenn, an opening by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, and explanations of the book;s influence by leading Canadian historians. Called "one of the most important books of the twenty-first century" by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a "Book of the Year" by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, the Writers' Trust, and won the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, among many others."--Publisher's website.Summary: "This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a forward by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Elizabeth Fenn, and explanations of the book's influence by leading Canadian historians. Called "one of the most important books of the twenty-first century" by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a "Book of the Year" by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, the Writers' Trust, and won the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, among many others."-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 971.2004 D229 Processing 33111011352404
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Revealing how Canada's first Prime Minister used a policy of starvation against Indigenous people to clear the way for settlement, the multiple award-winning Clearing the Plains sparked widespread debate about genocide in Canada.



In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics--the politics of ethnocide--played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of Indigenous people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald's "National Dream."



It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day.



This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a foreword by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Elizabeth Fenn, an opening by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, and explanations of the book's influence by leading Canadian historians. Called "one of the most important books of the twenty-first century" by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a "Book of the Year" by The Globe and Mail , Quill & Quire , the Writers' Trust, and won the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, among many others.



" Clearing the Plains is a tour de force that dismantles and destroys the view that Canada has a special claim to humanity in its treatment of indigenous peoples. Daschuk shows how infectious disease and state-supported starvation combined to create a creeping, relentless catastrophe that persists to the present day. The prose is gripping, the analysis is incisive, and the narrative is so chilling that it leaves its reader stunned and disturbed. For days after reading it, I was unable to shake a profound sense of sorrow. This is fearless, evidence-driven history at its finest." --Elizabeth A. Fenn, author of Pox Americana



"Required reading for all Canadians." --Candace Savage, author of A Geography of Blood



"Clearly written, deeply researched, and properly contextualized history...Essential reading for everyone interested in the history of indigenous North America." --J.R. McNeill, author of Mosquito Empires

Previously published as Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life in 2013 by the University of Regina Press.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-345) and index.

Indigenous health, environment, and disease before Europeans -- The early fur trade: territorial dislocation and disease -- Early competition and the extension of trade and disease, 1740-82 -- Despair and death during the Fur Trade Wars, 1783-1821 -- Expansion of settlement and erosion of health during the HBC monopoly, 1821-69 -- Canada, the Northwest, and the treaty period, 1869-76 -- Treaties, famine, and epidemic transition on the Plains, 1877-82 -- Dominion administration of relief, 1883-85 -- The Nadir of Indigenous health, 1886-91 -- Conclusion.

"Revealing how Canada's first Prime Minister used a policy of starvation against Indigenous people to clear the way for settlement, the multiple award-winning Clearing the Plains sparked widespread debate about genocide in Canada. In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics -- the politics of ethnocide -- played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of Indigenous people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald's "National Dream." It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day. This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a foreword by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Elizabeth Fenn, an opening by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, and explanations of the book;s influence by leading Canadian historians. Called "one of the most important books of the twenty-first century" by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a "Book of the Year" by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, the Writers' Trust, and won the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, among many others."--Publisher's website.

"This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a forward by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Elizabeth Fenn, and explanations of the book's influence by leading Canadian historians. Called "one of the most important books of the twenty-first century" by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a "Book of the Year" by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, the Writers' Trust, and won the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, among many others."-- Provided by publisher.

Powered by Koha