Muiwlanej Kikamaqki Honouring Our Ancestors

This important book offers new insights into Indigenous lives and actions during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an era of major change along the Atlantic seaboard.

"Drawing upon oral and documentary evidence, this volume explores the lives of noteworthy Mi'kmaw individuals whose thoughts, actions, and aspirations impacted the history of the Northeast but whose activities were too often relegated to the shadows of history. The book highlights Mi'kmaw leaders who played major roles in guiding the history of the region between 1680 and 1980. It sheds light on their community and emigration policies, organizational and negotiating skills, diplomatic endeavours, and stewardship of land and resources. Contributors to the volume range from seasoned scholars with years of research in the field to Mi'kmaw students whose interest in their history will prove inspirational. Offering important new insights, the book "re-centres" Indigenous nationhood to alter the way we understand the field itself. The book also provides a lengthy index so that information may be retrieved and used in future research. Muiwlanej kikamaqki - Honouring Our Ancestors will engage the interest of Indigenous and non-Indigenous readers alike, engender pride in Mi'kmaw leadership legacies, and encourage Mi'kmaw youth and others to probe more deeply into the history of the Northeast."--

Drawing upon oral and documentary evidence, this volume explores the lives of noteworthy Mi’kmaw individuals whose thoughts, actions, and aspirations impacted the history of the Northeast but whose activities were too often relegated to the shadows of history. The book highlights Mi’kmaw leaders who played major roles in guiding the history of the region between 1680 and 1980. It sheds light on their community and emigration policies, organizational and negotiating skills, diplomatic endeavours, and stewardship of land and resources. Contributors to the volume range from seasoned scholars with years of research in the field to Mi’kmaw students whose interest in their history will prove inspirational. Offering important new insights, the book re-centres Indigenous nationhood to alter the way we understand the field itself. The book also provides a lengthy index so that information may be retrieved and used in future research. Muiwlanej kikamaqki – Honouring Our Ancestors will engage the interest of Indigenous and non-Indigenous readers alike, engender pride in Mi’kmaw leadership legacies, and encourage Mi’kmaw youth and others to probe more deeply into the history of the Northeast.

Dorais examines how the Inuit community of Quaqtaq, a small village on Hudson Strait, has managed to preserve its identity in the modern world. He points to three things: kinship, religion, and language.

Intersperses close analysis of the 1726 treaty with discussions of the Marshall case, and shows how the inter-cultural relationships and power dynamics of the past, have shaped both the law and the social climate of the present.

Dynamic and diverse, Coast Salish culture is bound together by shared values and relations that generate a resilient worldview. Jesintel--"to learn and grow together"--characterizes the spirit of this book, which brings the cultural teachings of nineteen elders to new generations. Featuring interviews that share powerful experiences and stories, Jesintel illuminates the importance of ethical reciprocal relationships and the interconnectedness of places, land, water, and the spirit within all things. Elders offer their perspectives on language revitalization, Coast Salish family values and naming practices, salmon, sovereignty, canoe racing, and storytelling. They also share traumatic memories, including of their boarding school experiences and the epidemics that ravished their communities. Jesintel highlights the importance of maintaining relations and traditions in the face of ongoing struggles. Collaboration is at the heart of this work and informs how the editors and community came together to honor the boundless relations of Coast Salish people and their territories.

Born in a log cabin during a raging blizzard on Indian Brook Reserve in 1938, Mi'kmaw elder Daniel N. Paul rose to the top of a Canadian society that denied his people's civilization. When he was named to the Order of Canada, his citation called him a "powerful and passionate advocate for social justice and the eradication of racial discrimination." His Order of Nova Scotia honour said he "gives a voice to his people by revealing a past that the standard histories have chosen to ignore." But long before the acclaim, there was the Indian Agent denying food to his begging mother. There was the education system that taught him his people were savages. There was the Department of Indian Affairs that frustrated his work to bring justice to his people. His landmark book We Were Not the Savages exposed the brutalities of the collision between European and Native American civilizations from a Mi'kmaq perspective. The book sold tens of thousands of copies around the world and inspired others to learn history from an indigenous point of view. He shone a light on Halifax founder Edward Cornwallis through newspaper columns and public debates over two decades, calling on Nova Scotia to stop honouring the man whose scalping proclamations were an act of genocide against the Mi'kmaq. Now, for the first time, here is the full story of his personal journey of transformation, a story that will inspire Canadians to recognize and respect their First Nations as equal and enlightened civilizations.

Our Whole Gwich’in Way of Life Has Changed / Gwich’in K’yuu Gwiidandài’ Tthak Ejuk Gòonlih is an invaluable compilation of historical and cultural information based on a project originally conceived by the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute to document the biographies of the oldest Gwich’in Elders in the Gwich’in Settlement Region. Through their own stories, twenty-three Gwich’in Elders from the Northwest Territories communities of Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtshik, Inuvik, and Aklavik share their joy of living and travelling on the land. Their distinctive voices speak to their values, world views, and knowledge, while McCartney assists by providing context and background on the lives of the narrators and their communities. Scholars, students, and all those interested in Canadian/Northern history, anthropology, Indigenous Studies, oral history, or cultural geography will benefit from this critical resource. Elders Who Contributed Their Stories: Antoine Andre, Caroline Andre, Hyacinthe Andre, Annie Benoit, Pierre Benoit, Sarah Bonnetplume, Marka Bullock, Lydia Alexie Elias, Mary Martha Firth, Sarah Ann Gardlund, Elizabeth Greenland, Violet Therese Jerome, Peter Kay Sr., Mary Rose Kendi, Ruby Anne McLeod, Catherine Martha Mitchell, Eunice Mitchell, Joan Ross Nazon, Annie Moses Norbert, Alfred Semple, Sarah Simon, Ellen Catherine Vittrekwa, Jim Julius Vittrekwa