Aboriginal people and colonizers of western Canada to 1900 /

Carter attempts to reassess the customary themes of the history of western Canada (excluding by definition British Columbia). In keeping with postcolonialist opinion and perception that the Other has received too little attention or has been misappropriated in voice, this work seeks to redress the imbalance or imperfection of previous literature. The author rightly calls for more ethnographic and archaeological materials to be taken seriously into account. She reviews existing literature, commenting on preferences, correcting earlier scholars, and suggesting future paths. On the whole, the work favors the Native American experience, and this is welcome and overdue. Carter's methodology does not embrace the patterns adopted generally by ethnohistorians, integrating and analyzing documentation and other data. Rather, her treatment is that of the survey and is often thin or shallow. The work is based on a selection of good secondary literature, is not founded in primary sources, and has no footnotes or endnotes. One map, showing treaty areas, helps the reader, but others would have enhanced the work. This book is important because of the questions it raises. Upper-division undergraduates and above. B. M. Gough; Wilfrid Laurier University