Aboriginal peoples and politics : the Indian land question in British Columbia, 1849-1989 /

Tennant (University of British Columbia) examines the Indian land question in British Columbia from the establishment of the Vancouver colony in 1849 to 1989. His theme is that the Indians of British Columbia have maintained their claim to the land, notwithstanding white pressure, from first European contact to the present. Tennant offers a new look at Governor James Douglas's role in the land question and argues that whites originally denied "aboriginal rights on the grounds that Indians were in the beginning too different from whites," and later denied "aboriginal rights on the grounds that Indians have now become too similar to whites." Tennant draws on extensive personal contacts with British Columbia's Indian leaders as well as a reasonable, although not extensive, bibliography to support his argument. The author presents the native position with some conviction, but he casts whites as villains simply because they do not accept aboriginal claims. College, university, and public libraries. P. T. Sherrill University of Arkansas at Little Rock