British Columbia Local Histories

In this beautifully crafted collection of essays, Cole Harris reflects on the strategies of colonialism in British Columbia during the first 150 years after the arrival of European settlers. The pervasive displacement of indigenous people by the newcomers, the mechanisms by which it was accomplished, and the resulting effects on the landscape, social life, and history of Canada's western-most province are examined through the dual lenses of post-colonial theory and empirical data. By providing a compelling look at the colonial construction of the province, the book revises existing perceptions of the history and geography of British Columbia.

Located in the geographic centre of British Columbia, the Lakes District is a unique region with a fascinating backstory. History Matters, the first book published by the Lakes District Museum Society in a half century, gives readers a glimpse into the lives of some of the heroes, villains, misfits, and everyday people who have in the past called this region home. In 2018, the Lakes District Museum Society began posting short stories and photographs about Burns Lake and surrounding communities on its social media page. This book is a compilation those posts, along with new material and never-before-seen photographs gleaned from the society’s archives. Want to know how an employee of the Yukon Telegraph spent his time? What was a tie-hacker’s life like? How did an unknown skier from Burns Lake make it to the 1932 Olympic Winter Games, and a man many feel was the real-life James Bond come to live in Colleymount? History Matters answers these and other important questions. In addition to touching and sometimes humorous tales of life in the Lakes District, readers of this book will encounter thrilling stories of murder, adventure, international intrigue, and even the supernatural. This collection is a valuable contribution to the community’s history, and one that will fascinate anyone interested in the area, its past, or the European colonization of Western Canada.

This book contains the papers delivered at sessions organised by the Genealogy and Local History Section at the annual conferences of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) between 2001 and 2005; many of these are updated versions of the original presentations. A wide range of significant issues and trends in historical and family research is covered. The authors, all experts in their own fields, address those engaged in delivering genealogy and local history services in libraries, archives and museums across the world. Moreover, they focus on the growing army of enthusiasts directly engaged in tracing their own ancestral and local history. Several papers give useful hints on how various resources can be used to further personal research. These include the exciting opportunities offered by the digitisation of primary resources and by the impact of the powerful new technology, among other things now on offer through DNA profiling.

The Archive of Place weaves together a series of narratives about environmental history in a particular location � British Columbia's Chilcotin Plateau. In the mid-1990s, the Chilcotin was at the centre of three territorial conflicts. Opposing groups, in their struggle to control the fate of the region and its resources, invoked different understandings of its past � and different types of evidence � to justify their actions. These controversies serve as case studies, as William Turkel examines how people interpret material traces to reconstruct past events, the conditions under which such interpretation takes place, and the role that this interpretation plays in historical consciousness and social memory. It is a wide-ranging and original study that extends the span of conventional historical research.