New Books August 24, 2009

These books are now on display in Dafoe. If you wish to request one of them use the Request This Book link in BISON.

Why not write a review? If you want to write a review of any of the titles in this blog send it to me as a comment and I will post it.

Yale Belanger, Ways of Knowing: An Introduction to Native Studies in Canada, Nelson, 2010. Dafoe E78 C2 B45 2010.

This new introductory text is the work of Yale Belanger who teaches Native Studies at Lethbridge University. In his introduction he explains that it is the product of a number of years of teaching introductory courses at U of Manitoba, Brandon University, Keewatin Community College, Trent University and Lethbridge. When students asked for more information about certain topics or wanted something new covered Professor Belanger added it to his notebook of ideas and the text is the eventual result. He notes that it is the first textbook produced by a Native Studies student/graduate in Canada.


William W. Warren, History of the Ojibway People, second ed., introduction by Theresa Schenk, Minnesota Historical Society, 2009. Dafoe E99 C6 W32 2009.

William Warren, the son of a white fur trader and an Ojibway mother grew up speaking only Ojibway. Then he went to New York state to the home of his paternal grandfather and received a grammar school education. When he went home to Lake Superior he bacame a translator and began to collect the traditional stories of the Ojibway. Eventually he wrote the history presented here using the notes he had made talking to his maternal grandfather and other elders. He was one of the first writers to recognize the importance of oral traditions and he based his history on the Ojibway's own stories. This is the third time the Historical Society has published the history and this edition has a 24 page introduction by Professor Theresa Schenck, who teaches American Indian Studies at University of Wisconsin and is Warren's biographer.


Eugene Hunn, A Zapotec Natural History: Trees, Herbs and Flowers, Birds, Beasts and Bugs in the Life of the San Juan Gbee, University of Arizona Press, 2008. Dafoe F 1221 Z3 H86, 2008.

The Indian community of San Juan Gbee is located in Oaxaca State in Mexico and this book is the author's account of the profound knowledge of the local environment possessed by the inhabitants. An anthropologist who taught at University of Washington, Hunn made many trips to Oaxaca over the years and he records here the "...nomenclature and classification of the local biological taxonomy, the use of plants for treating illnesses and the ritual and decoratifve uses of flowers." (from the dust jacket). The book includes a CD ROM which expands on the text.

Terry Rugeley, Rebellion Now and Forever: Mayas Hispanics and Caste War Violence in Yucatan, 1800 - 1880. Dafoe F 1435.3 W2 R837 2009.

Rugeley, who teaches history at University of Oklahoma and has written about the Caste War before, in this volume places the war in the larger context of Mexican and Mayan history.

NEW BOOKS AUGUST 10, 2009

Gail Valaskakis, Madeleine Stout, Eric Guimond, eds., Restoring the Balance: First Nations Women, Community and Culture, University of Manitoba Press, 2009. Dafoe E98 W8 P48 2009.

Written by fifteen Aboriginal scholars, activists and community leaders this book brings to light the work First Nations women have performed, and continue to perform, in cultural continuity and community development. It illustrates the challenges and successes they have had in the areas of law, politcs, education, community healing and art..." from the book cover.

Sharon Gmelch, The Tlingit Encounter with Photography, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2009.

Dafoe E99 T6 G64 2009.

This study looks at the vast array of photographs taken of the Tlingit of Southern Alaska in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. The author attempts to answer questions about the reactions of the Tlingit to being photographed and their own early use of photography.

Keith Smith, Liberalism, Surveillance, and Resistance: Indigenous Communities in Western Canada, 1877 - 1927. Dafoe E78 C2 S65 2009.

Professor Smith, the Chair of First Nations Studies at Vancouver Island University, has written a study of the methods used by whites to keep First Nations people in Alberta and B.C. under surveillance with a view to controlling every aspect of their lives. He shows how these activities were informed by the dominant liberal world view of the white community.







Ronald Niezen, The Rediscovered Self: Indigenous Identity and Cultural Justice, McGill Queens University Press, 2009. Dafoe E99 E7 H54 2009.

In a series of thematically linked essays, Ronald Niezen discusses how new rights standards and networks of activist collaboration aid indigenous claims abour culture and increase the coherence of aboriginal histories, institutions, and group qualities.




Rebecca Coulter ed., The Gifts Within: Carrying Eachother Forward in Aboriginal Education, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2009.

Dafoe E96.2 G53 2009.

"This timely volume explores Aboriginal education from the perspectives of those who work within it. The book covers a range of topics relevant to discussions about First Nation education in Canada today and is written in an accessible style by eduators for teachers, parents and others interested in the education of Aboriginal children and youth." from the cover.