Review by Choice Review
Takeda (Univ. of Victoria, British Columbia) provides a thorough, concise, and accurate chronicle of one of the major struggles in recent Native American history. Loggers with close political connections to powerful politicians were clear-cutting Haida Gwaii ("Land of the Haida," the Queen Charlotte Islands) in the 1980s. Cutting was done with minimal regard for the local environment. Large areas were eroding rapidly, leaving no hope for full forest recovery, even with replanting. The Haida people banded together, with support from many non-Haida on and off the islands. Through a combination of sophisticated politics, tenacity, and doggedness, they fought the logging companies and the provincial government, eventually winning major concessions in land rights and management. Logging continues, with controls. Although Takeda does not hide her sympathy for the Haida, she tells a thorough, factual story, and thus gives credit to the other side(s) in the case; this is a very fair book in spite of her sympathies. She could have made more of the enormous disparity in wealth and political power between the Haida and the logger-politician alliance they faced. For Native American and Indigenous studies, regional political history, environmental politics, and political ecology. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Eugene N. Anderson, emeritus, University of California, Riverside
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
