National Network for Equitable Library Service

At the turn of the nineteenth century, Saskatchewan was one of the fastest growing provinces in the country. In the early 1900s, it revolutionized the Canadian political landscape and gave rise to socialist governments that continue to influence Canadian politics today. It was the birthplace of Canada’s publicly funded health care system, and home to a thriving arts and literary community that helped define western Canadian culture.

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.

Planting the Garden. An Annotated Archival Bibliography of the History of Women in Manitoba.

Sounds of Ethnicity takes us into the linguistic, cultural, and geographical borderlands of German North America in the Great Lakes region between 1850 and 1914. Drawing connections between immigrant groups in Buffalo, New York, and Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, Barbara Lorenzkowski examines the interactions of language and music--specifically German-language education, choral groups, and music festivals--and their roles in creating both an ethnic sense of self and opportunities for cultural exchanges at the local, ethnic, and transnational levels.

Among the most dynamic Aboriginal peoples in western Canada today are the Ojibwa, who have played an especially vital role in the development of an Aboriginal political voice at both levels of government. Yet, they are relative newcomers to the region, occupying the parkland and prairies only since the end of the 18th century. This work traces the origins of the western Ojibwa, their adaptations to the West, and the ways in which they have coped with the many challenges they faced in the first century of their history in that region, between 1780 and 1870.

The founding of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth in 930 A.D. is one of the most significant events in the history of early Western Europe. This pioneering work of historiography provides a comprehensive history of Iceland from 870 A.D. to the end of the Commonwealth in 1262.

With roots going back to the Red River Settlement in the 1850s, Winnipeg’s St. John’s College is the oldest Anglophone educational institution in Western Canada. First founded as a school for the children of the employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company, over the decades the college has re-invented itself many times. When it was established as St. John’s College in 1866 by bishop Robert Machray, the college was intended primarily to provide theological training for young men going into the Anglican church.

The original people of the Hudson Bay lowlands, often known as the Lowland Cree and known to themselves as Muskekowuck Athinuwick, were among the first Aboriginal peoples in northwestern North America to come into contact with Europeans. This book challenges long-held misconceptions about the Lowland Cree, and illustrates how historians have often misunderstood the role and resourcefulness of Aboriginal peoples during the fur-trade era.

Night Spirits is the story of the Sayisi Dene of northern Manitoba. In their own words, they describe how the Canadian government abruptly relocated them from their ancestral homelands and left them to live in slums on the outskirts of a frontier town. The Sayisi Dene - "the People from the East"--Offer a stark and brutally honest account of their near destruction as a people and their determination to reclaim their lives. It is a dark story, but one that is told in hope.

Traditional approaches to Prairie literature have focussed on the significance of "the land" in attempts to make a place into a home. This emphasis on the importance of landscape as a defining and guiding feature for writers and their writing ignores the important roles played by influences brought to the land - history, culture, gender, ethnicity, religion, community, family, and occupation.