National Network for Equitable Library Service

"From diversity comes strength and wisdom": this was the guiding principle for selecting the articles in this collection. Because there is no single voice, identity, history, or cultural experience that represents the women of the First Nations, a realistic picture will have many facets. Accordingly, the authors in Women of the First Nations include Native and non-Native scholars, feminists, and activists from across Canada. Their work examines various aspects of Aboriginal women's lives from a variety of theoretical and personal perspectives.

The first-ever collection of Aaniiih/Gros Ventre narratives to be published in the Aaniiih/Gros Ventre language, this book contains traditional trickster tales and war stories. Some of these stories were collected by Alfred Kroeber in 1901, while others are contemporary, oral stories, told in the past few years. Like other First Nations Language Readers, Aaniiih/Gros Ventre Stories comes with a complete glossary and provides some grammar usage. Delightfully illustrated, each story is accompanied by an introduction to guide the reader through the material.

Denied her Indigenous status, Lynn Gehl has been fighting her entire life to reclaim mino-pimadiziwin-the good life. Exploring Anishinaabeg philosophy and Anishinaabeg conceptions of truth, Gehl shows how she came to locate her spirit and decolonize her identity, thereby becoming, in her words, "fully human." Gehl also provides a harsh critique of Canada and takes on important anti-colonial battles, including the land claims process and sex discrimination in the Indian Act.

This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a forward by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Elizabeth Fenn, and explanations of the book's influence by leading Canadian historians. Called "one of the most important books of the twenty-first century" by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a "Book of the Year" by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, the Writers' Trust, and won the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, among many others.

"Gracefully written, fully and meticulously researched." -- Sharon Butala, author of The Perfection of the Morning. "Frontier Farewell offers new perspectives on everything from the transfer of Rupert's Land to Canada, the Manitoba Resistance of 1869-70, and the Numbered Treaties of the 1870s, to the surveys of the Canadian Prairies, the coming of the North-West Mounted Police, and the fallout from the Battle of the Little Big Horn." -- Ted Binnema, Department of History, University of Northern British Columbia. "Frontier Farewell has energy and glory." -- The StarPhoenix.

The goal of community-based research is to develop a deeper understanding of communities and to discover new opportunities for improving quality of life. The nine case studies in this diverse collection provide real life examples of community-based research in Aboriginal, urban, and rural communities. Journeys in Community-Based Research shows how taking into account socio-economic, geographic, and cultural contexts can lead to public policy that better serves the most vulnerable in our society.

Tanisi! With the help of this book, you can learn to speak Cree! Designed as an introduction for Cree language learners, maci-nehiyawewin: Beginning Cree acts as a self-study aid--a much-needed resource in today's world where few can speak Cree fluently. Basic grammar units and everyday vocabulary items guide the student through the building blocks of the language, and expansion drills and exercises reinforce lessons and prepare the student for further study. With over 100 illustrations, this text grounds the language in traditional and contemporary contexts.

As the first inland surveyor for the Hudson's Bay Company, Philip Turnor stands tall among the explorers and mapmakers of Canada. Accompanied by Cree guides and his Cree wife, Turnor travelled 15,000 miles by canoe and foot between 1778 and 1792 to produce ten maps, culminating in his magnum opus, a map that was the foundation of all northern geographic knowledge at that time. Barbara Mitchell's biography brings to life the man who taught David Thompson and Peter Fidler how to survey.

Like all First Nations languages, Lillooet (Lil'wat) is a repository for an abundantly rich oral literature. In These Are Our Legends, the fifth volume of the First Nations Language Readers series, the reader will discover seven traditional sptakwlh (variously translated into English as "legends," "myths," or "bed-time stories"). The texts are presented in a technical transcription that can be used by linguists, and also in a practical orthography that can be used by Lillooet speakers themselves. An English translation is also given.

This memoir offers a courageous and intimate chronicle of life in a residential school. Now a retired fisherman and trapper, the author was one of an estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children who were taken from their families and sent to government-funded, church-run schools, where they were subjected to a policy of "aggressive assimilation." As Augie Merasty recounts, these schools did more than attempt to mold children in the ways of white society. They were taught to be ashamed of their native heritage and, as he experienced, often suffered physical and sexual abuse.