National Network for Equitable Library Service

The authors (professors of history and art history at the U. of Regina, Canada) conduct a discourse analysis of how Canada's indigenous peoples have been portrayed in Canadian newspapers from the sale of Hudson's Bay Company lands to Canada in 1869 through to 2009, arguing that the newspapers have been and continue to be steered by the colonial imagery with respect to Canada's indigenous. They support this argument through examinations of how indigenous Canadians were represented in newspaper accounts of colonial land sales, the resistance struggles of Metis leader Louis Riel, the 1913 death of Canadian Native poet Pauline Johnson, native contributions to World War II, a 1974 aboriginal protest occupation of a park in the Ontario town of Kenora, and Bill C-31 of 1985 (which amended the Indian Act by barring certain discriminatory practices).