Indigenous Peoples in Canada

Passionate and engaging, Howard Adams: OTAPAWY! is an immense contribution to our knowledge of modern Métis political consciousness and activism. In addition to being Howard Adams’ own record of his remarkable life, the book also contains many contributions by those who were touched by him as a friend, colleague, mentor, activist, political leader, teacher, and scholar.

Augmented by an interactive CD-ROM containing dozens of photographs and documents relating to Howard Adams’ life and work.

Educator Information
Grade Level: Secondary/Post Secondary/Adult

Additional Information
310 Pages | Nonfiction 

"'Wheee!!' Honey's cousin Phillip Boy was roaring with delight as they whizzed down the stairs on their homemade iron surfboard. Honey could only close her eyes when she saw Grandma Axu at the bottom of the staircase..."

Honey Jacobson considered herself lucky to live in the last semi-traditional Big House of the Kwagu'l people: a four-story home filled with a loving, extended family of cousins, uncles, aunts and the heads of the household, Grandpa Moses and Granny Axu. While new smaller houses were spreading throughout her community, Honey really knew only her relatives inside that Big House.

Capturing the fancy of Honey's community and family, the 1960s saw a Kwagu'l family inevitably changed by Western culture's spell. This is Honey's story.

Additional Information
191 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" 

Since Native Peoples and Cultures of Canada was first published in 1988, its two editions have sold some 30,000 copies, and it is widely used as the basic text in colleges and universities across the country.

Now retitled, this comprehensive book still provides an overview of all the Aboriginal groups in Canada. Incorporating the latest research in anthropology, archaeology, ethnography and history, this new edition describes traditional ways of life, traces cultural changes that resulted from contacts with the Europeans, and examines the controversial issues of land claims and self-government that now affect Aboriginal societies.

Most importantly, this generously illustrated edition incorporates a Nativist perspective in the analysis of Aboriginal cultures.

Additional Information
400 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

From Time Immemorial provides an honest and up-to-date survey of the history of the coastal First Nations from pre-contact to the present. The culture of the coastal people was highly complex. Although there were many similarities, there were also many differences among the groups who shared the wealth of their life-sustaining environment.

This book provides a broad overview of traditional ways common to a large number of diverse groups. It encourages readers to learn more about particular groups who, long ago, walked the shorelines and forest trails of the Pacific Northwest.

Educator Information
From Time Immemorial has been recommended by the First Nations Education Steering Committee of BC as an “authentic First Peoples text that meets provincial standards and reflects First Peoples knowledge and perspectives in a respective way.”

It has also been recommended by Literacy BC: “It’s easy to see why this text, which is accessible for fundamental level students, was also awarded the British Columbia 2000 Book Award.” Jan Weiten notes, “[This] is such an ambitious project. Both Diane and Joe Silvey have honoured the spirit and history of First Nations people, and they should be proud of themselves. This is definitely an asset to any classroom.”

From Time Immemorial meets or exceeds all of the Learning Standards for the new BC Grade 3 Social Studies curriculum and the First Nations content for grades 4-8: 

• Learning about indigenous peoples nurtures multicultural awareness and respect for diversity
• People from diverse cultures and societies share some common experiences and aspects of life.
• Indigenous knowledge is passed down through oral history, traditions, and collective memory.
• Indigenous societies throughout the world value the well-being of the self, the land, spirits, and ancestors.

Recommended Grades: 3-8.

A teacher's guide for this book was available, but is now out of print: From Time Immemorial Teacher's Guide

This resource is also available in French: De Temps Immemorial: Les Premiers Habitants de la Côte Nord-Ouest du Pacifique.  A French Teacher's Guide is also available here: Guide de la'enseignant(e) De Temps Immemorial.

Additional Information
92 pages | colour illustrations, photos, and maps 

Tom Longboat was a hero. A member of the Onondaga Nation, he was born on the Six Nations reserve in Oshwegen, near Brantford, Ontario. Despite poverty, poor training, and prejudice, Longboat went on to become one of the world’s best runners. In 1907, at the height of his fame, he won the Boston Marathon and ran in the 1908 Olympic Marathon. Longboat was one of the best-known people of his day, and certainly the most prominent member of the Six Nations. Throughout his career he had to race against opponents, as well as rumors of illegal running activities. Nevertheless, he maintained his dignity, and his achievements still inspire people who understand the great pleasure of running, and running fast.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 10+ 

Additional Information
112 pages | 6.98" x 8.93"

People of the Tahltan First Nations of northern BC have had generations of practice in preparing salmon. Tahltans have lived along the Stikine River, a salmon-bearing river, forever. A Tahltan Cookbook Vol. 2: More Than 88 Ways to Prepare Salmon and other favourite recipes includes authentic, traditional salmon dishes as well as modern, adapted ones. We invite you to share in our celebration of salmon.

This book is more than just a cookbook. Included in this book are profiles of contributors, stories, and photos.

Educator Information
B.C. Science Supplementary Resource Gr.4- Life Science 

This volume contains over 88 salmon recipes while sharing Indigenous culture in relation to the history of salmon and its importance to First Nations people.

Additional Information
112 pages | 6.00" x 8.75"

A wonderful history of the Red Indians of Newfoundland. Exciting in its detail, this book shares all available information concerning every aspect of Beothuk life-housing, clothing, hunting methods, arts and social life. Ingeborg Marshall gives us a rare picture of a lost people whose culture was completely destroyed after the arrival of white settlers.

The powerful, major book, acclaimed across Canada, from the great-great-granddaughter of Chief Big Bear and Rudy Wiebe, twice winner of the Governor General''s Award for Fiction. A story of justice and social injustices, of murder and morality, and of finding spiritual strength in events that might break us, told with redeeming compassion and poetic eloquence. Stolen Life is a raw, honest, and beautifully written account of the troubled society we live in, and a deeply moving affirmation of spiritual healing.

In-depth analysis of the 130-year history of the Aboriginal title issue in British Columbia, including the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en case.

Anthropologists have traditionally studied Europe’s “others” and the marginalized and excluded within Europe’s and North America’s boundaries. This book turns the anthropologist’s spyglass in the opposite direction: on the law, the institution that quintessentially embodies and reproduces Western power.

The Pleasure of the Crown offers a comprehensive look at how Canadian, particularly British Columbian, society “reveals itself” through its courtroom performances in Aboriginal title litigation. Rather than asking what cultural beliefs and practices First Nations draw on to support their appeals for legal recognition of Aboriginal title, Culhane asks what assumptions, beliefs, and cultural values the Crown relies on to assert and defend their claims to hold legitimate sovereignty and jurisdiction over lands and resources in B.C. What empirical evidence does the Crown present to bolster its arguments? What can thus be learned by anthropologists and the public at large about the historical and contemporary culture of the powerful?

Focusing in particular on the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en case, the book traces the trial of Delgamuukw. v. Regina from its first hearing during 1987 and 1991 to its successful appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which issued a landmark ruling on the case on December 11, 1997.

Additional Information
416 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback 

Dene Elder George Blondin creates a spiritual guidebook that weaves together oral stories with the recounting of how the northern Canadian Dene came to depend on the European fur traders. The result is a magical journey for readers of any heritage.

Additional Information
240 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

Ten masterful, complex drawings by Bill Reid are accompanied by ten episodes from Haida mythology told by Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst. The result brings Haida art and mythology alive as never before in an English-speaking world. The collection includes, says Reid, "a good selection of bestiality, adultery, violence, thievery and assault, for those who like that sort of thing."

Educator Information
This work is available in French: Corbeau vole la lumiere

Additional Information
112 pages | 6.13" x 8.44"

The reader will experience first-hand the personality, characteristics, and sometimes remote environment of these healers, visionaries, storytellers, and spiritualists through Dianne Meili's faithful re-telling of the interviews she conducted with each during the two years she spent traveling throughout Alberta.

Suggested Grades: 10-12
ABPBC

Métis Women are the heart and soul of the Métis people. Without them, there would be no Métis Nation. They are the strength behind our families, communities, and places of work. In the past, their kinship networks established where people settled and whom people married. Sovereign within their familial and community roles, they were the healers, the stewards of the land and its resources, the keepers of Indigenous knowledge, and the midwives who kept the Métis Nation nurtured, educated, and sustained. This tradition has continued into the present as Métis women have moved past their domestic and familial spheres into areas such as social advocacy, the arts, sports, law, post-secondary education, and entrepreneurship. Containing hundreds of biographies, Women of the Métis Nation is an ambitious role model book that documents more than 200 years of trailblazing Métis women.

Additional Information
235 Pages | Nonfiction