Here is a selection of print books recently added to the catalogue.

 38 nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the beginning of the frontier’s end /Scott W. Berg. In August 1862, after decades of broken treaties, increasing hardship, and relentless encroachment on their lands, a group of Dakota warriors convened a council at the tepee of their leader, Little Crow. Knowing the strength and resilience of the young American nation, Little Crow counseled caution, but anger won the day.  So began six weeks of intense conflict along the Minnesota frontier as the Dakotas clashed with settlers and federal troops, all the while searching for allies in their struggle. Once the uprising was smashed and the Dakotas captured, a military commission was convened, which quickly found more than three hundred Indians guilty of murder. President Lincoln, embroiled in the Civil War, personally intervened in order to spare the lives of 265 of the condemned men, but the toll on the Dakota nation was still staggering: a way of life destroyed, a tribe forcibly relocated to barren and unfamiliar territory, and 38 Dakota warriors hanged—the largest government-sanctioned execution in American history. Berg recounts the conflict through the stories of several remarkable characters, including Little Crow, who foresaw how ruinous the conflict would be for his tribe; Sarah Wakefield, who had been captured by the Dakotas, then vilified as an “Indian lover” when she defended them; Minnesota bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, who was a tireless advocate for the Indians’ cause; and Lincoln, who transcended his own family history to pursue justice. 38 Nooses details these events within the larger context of the Civil War, the history of the Dakota people, and the subsequent United States–Indian wars. It is a revelation of an overlooked but seminal moment in American history.

 A Complex culture of the British Columbia plateau: traditional Stl’átl’imx resource use /edited by Brian Hayden. Early hunter/gatherer societies have traditionally been considered basically egalitarian in nature. This assumption, however, has been challenged by contemporary archaeological and anthropological research, which has demonstrated that many of these societies had complex social, economic, and political structures. This volume considers two British Columbia Native communities – the Lillooet and Shuswap communities of Fountain and Pavilion – and traces their development into complex societies. The authors explore the relation between resource characteristics and hunter/gatherer adaptations and examine the use of fish, animal, and plant species, documenting their availability and the techniques used in their gathering, processing, and storing. The book also shows how cultural practices, such as raiding, potlatching, and stewardship of resources, can be explained from a cultural ecological point of view. An important contribution to the study of hunting and gathering cultures in the Northwest, this book is the most detailed examination of the subsistence base of a particular hunting and gathering group to date. Its exploration of the reasons why complex hunting and gathering societies emerge, as well as the ecological relationships between cultures and resources, will make an important contribution to the study of cultural ecology and contemporary archaeology.

 A death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel: murder, money, and an epic power struggle in China /Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang. The scandalous story of the corruption of the Bo Xilai family–the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood; Bo’s secret lovers, who may have included Chinese film stars; the blackmailing by Bo’s supporters; the hasty trial and sentencing of Gu Kailai, Bo’s wife–is only the tip of an iceberg and just the beginning of a cataclysmic power struggle that could rock the very foundation of China’s all-powerful Communist Party. By the time it is over, the machinations in Beijing and throughout the country that began with Bo’s fall could affect China’s economic development and disrupt the world’s political and economic order.

 A glowing dream: a memoir /by Roland Penner. Filled with fascinating, personal anecdotes and peopled with colourful characters from Winnipeg”s past, A Glowing Dream: A Memoir takes the reader on a historic, and often tumultuous, journey. Drawing on memories and archival materials, Penner connects the political dots from his paternal ancestors who emigrated to Southern Russia at the time of Catherine the Great to his own political activities. He grew up with parents who were watched by the RCMP because they were considered dangerous subversives. Taking us from the often-romanticized early days of Winnipeg”s North End to life in the public sphere, Penner tells of his role in such momentous political milestones as Manitoba’s  human rights legislation, which he counts as his crowning achievement. As former government house leader and Attorney General, Penner shares the tribulations and triumphs of standing one”s ground and fighting for what he believed to be right.

 A guide to the Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest /by Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown ; foreword by Roland W. Force ; pronunciations of Pacific Northwest tribal names by M. Dale Kinkade. Over the centuries the Indians of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana have adapted their lifeways to their region’s radically different environments-an evolution that in some tribes continues to this day, as they conform to the demands of contemporary American society. From such well-known tribes as the Nez Perces and Cayuses to lesser-known bands previously presumed “extinct,” this guide offers detailed descriptions, in alphabetical order, of 150 Pacific Northwest tribes. Each entry provides information on the history, location, demographics, and cultural traditions of the particular tribe.

 A pour of rain: stories from a West Coast fort /Helen Meilleur ; [foreword by Stephen Hume]. One of the best histories we have of the West Coast community of Port Simpson, British Columbia. Located just south of the Nass River, an area largely inhabited by the Nisga’a people. In the 1920s, Meilleur attended a one-room school on the Native reserve, where her father ran the general store. A Pour of Rain combines vivid personal memoir with a carefully reconstructed history of the fort of Port Simpson in the mid-19th century. The engaging events of Meilleur’s childhood are presented alongside the lively history of the fort, including tribal attacks, the appearance of gold-seekers, missionaries and even royalty.

 A sorrow in our heart /Allan W. Eckert. There are many biographies of the great Shawnee chief Tecumseh (1768-1813) and  this effort by historical novelist Eckert may spark controversy with its “hidden dialogue” technique. After more than 25 years of research, the author felt free to recreate Tecumseh’s conversations and thoughts in what proves to be an entertaining blend of fact and fiction. The orator and organizer’s life was shaped by his tribe’s tragic confrontation with westward-moving whites, who encroached on Native American lands along the Ohio River valley. His long struggle against this dispossession led Tecumseh to create a historic confederacy of tribes, but this crowning achievement was destroyed by his own brother at Tippecanoe in 1811. Eckert’s  colorful evocation of this seminal American figure will be more broadly accessible than are drier, more factual accounts.

 Answering Chief Seattle /Albert Furtwangler.  Answering Chief Seattle presents the full and accurate text of Chief Seattle’s famous speech.  and traces the distortions of later versions in order to explain the many layers of its mystery. Understood as a symbolic encounter between indigenous America, represented by Chief Seattle, and industrialized or imperialist America, represented by Isaac L Stevens, the first governor of Washington Territory, the speech was first published in a Seattle newspaper in 1887 by a pioneer who claimed he had heard Seattle (aka Sealth) deliver it in the 1850s. This book also asks how the speech could be heard and answered, by reviewing its many contexts. Mid-century ideas about land, newcomers, ancestors, and future generations informed the ways Stevens and his contemporaries understood Chief Seattle and recreated him as a legendary figure.

 Arguably: essays /by Christopher Hitchens. A collection of essays on a wide range of political and cultural issues in America from past to present.

 Boundaries between: the Southern Paiutes, 1775-1995 /Martha C. Knack. Boundaries Between  relates the history of the Southern Paiutes from their first contacts with Europeans through the end of the twentieth century.  Knack combines contemporary oral histories, meticulous archival research, original ethnographic fieldwork, and an astute critical perspective on Indian-white relations.

 Children of the fur trade: forgotten Métis of the Pacific Northwest /John C. Jackson. Jackson’s Children of the Fur Trade recovers a vital part of Northwest history and gives readers a vivid and memorable portrait of Métis life at the western edge of North America. This informal account shows the Métis as explorers and mapmakers, as fur trappers and traders, and as boatmen and travelers in a vanishing landscape. Because of their mixed race, they were forced into the margin between cultures in collision. Often disparaged as half-breeds, they became links between the dispossessed native peoples and the new order of pioneer settlement.

 Crazy Horse: a Lakota life /Kingsley M. Bray. Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life corrects older, idealized accounts—and draws on a greater variety of sources than other recent biographies—to expose the real Crazy Horse: not the brash Sioux warrior we have come to expect but a modest, reflective man whose courage was anchored in Lakota piety.  Bray has plumbed interviews of Crazy Horse’s contemporaries and consulted modern Lakotas to fill in vital details of Crazy Horse’s inner and public life.  He places Crazy Horse within the rich context of the nineteenth-century Lakota world. He reassesses the war chief’s achievements in numerous battles and retraces the tragic sequence of misunderstandings, betrayals, and misjudgments that led to his death. Bray also explores the private tragedies that marred Crazy Horse’s childhood and the network of relationships that shaped his adult life. Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life is a singular achievement, scholarly and authoritative, offering a complete portrait of the man and a fuller understanding of his place in American Indian and United States history.

 Creating Black Americans: African-American history and its meanings, 1619 to the present /Nell Irvin Painter. Here is a magnificent account of a past rich in beauty and creativity, but also in tragedy and trauma.  Painter blends a vivid narrative based on the latest research with a wonderful array of artwork by African American artists, works which add a new depth to our understanding of black history. Painter offers a history stretching from life in Africa before slavery to today’s hip-hop culture. The book describes the staggering number of Africans–over ten million–forcibly transported to the New World, most doomed to brutal servitude in Brazil and the Caribbean. Painter looks at the free black population, numbering close to half a million by 1860 (compared to almost four million slaves), and provides a gripping account of the horrible conditions of slavery itself. The book examines the Civil War, revealing that it only slowly became a war to end slavery, and shows how Reconstruction, after a promising start, was shut down by terrorism by white supremacists. Painter traces how through the long Jim Crow decades, blacks succeeded against enormous odds, creating schools and businesses and laying the foundations of our popular culture. We read about the glorious outburst of artistic creativity of the Harlem Renaissance, the
courageous struggles for Civil Rights in the 1960s, the rise and fall of Black Power, the modern hip-hop movement, and two black Secretaries of State. Painter concludes that African Americans today are wealthier and better educated, but the disadvantaged are as vulnerable as ever. She enriches her narrative with a series of striking works of art that profoundly engage with black history and that add a vital dimension to the story of the African-American experience.

Drawing the line: tales of maps and cartocontroversy /Mark Monmonier. An intriguing dissection of how maps, with their pictorial clarity and aura of scientific objectivity, have exerted the power to persuade–and often mislead.  Monmonier begins by recounting how  Arno Peters won worldwide media attention in the 1980s by criticizing the commonly used Mercator projection as Eurocentric- -and then proposed a revision that distorted lands to reflect his own leftist views. Monmonier equally displays an eye for the pungent detail (e.g., some US maps still feature ethnically insensitive place names ) and the ability to paint a broad historical context, as in detailing how one British geographer’s warning about the importance of controlling “the Heartland” of Eastern Europe was ignored by his countrymen, until the Nazi-Soviet Pact proved him right. He also examines how maps have been used to settle boundary disputes between nations and neighbors; to redraw electoral districts to save incumbents’ seats or gain power for minorities; to help bureaucrats convince a town to accept an incinerator, landfill, or nuclear waste dump; and, conversely, to protect against environmental catastrophes.

 Heart of the Cariboo-Chilcotin: stories worth keeping /edited by Diana Wilson. The spirited stories in Heart of the Cariboo-Chilcotin capture the severity and grace of the distinct pioneer culture that resides in British Columbia’s rugged Central Interior. The writers in this volume come from different periods, places and occupations, each bringing a unique voice that adds to the diversity of the whole. A First Nations girl escapes her kidnappers. Greenhorn settlers outgun dangerous criminals. A young cowboy confronts the terrors, and revels in the thrills, of his first roundup. Occasionally shocking and always entertaining, these people stories celebrate and preserve the Cariboo-Chilcotin way of life.

 John Jacob Astor: America’s first multimillionaire /Axel Madsen. Expertly situating his subject’s accomplishments in the context of late 18th- and early 19th-century commercial and geopolitical expansion, Madsen weighs in with an absorbing biography of one of 19th-century America’s most powerful men. The book’s best moments come when Madsen describes Astor’s efforts to establish a permanent outpost in the Oregon territory. Called Astor, it was designed not only to aid its founder’s domination of the fur trade in the Northwest, but to help him facilitate trade with China–for while fur brought Astor his first fortune, foreign trade provided him with his second. Astor’s third fortune, the legacy he would pass on to his heirs, sprang from his real estate investments in Manhattan. He sank the profits from his first ventures into large swaths of land in rapidly expanding New York City, where he built mansions and tenements alike. The book effectively projects his story against the backdrop of seminal events in early American history.

 Métis rights /Thomas Isaac.   Fewer than a handful of decisions have been rendered by the Supreme Court of Canada expressly considering the rights of the Métis. For the Métis, the central legal question facing them is “Who are the Métis for the purposes of section 35?” It is with this question  as a purely legal question, that Thomas Isaac begins his discussion and analysis of the rights of Métis people under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 and reviews related case law.

Obama zombies: how the Obama machine brainwashed my generation /Jason Mattera.  Mattera  reveals the lengths Barack Obama and his allies in Hollywood, Washington, and academia went to in order to transform a legion of iPod-listening, MTV-watching followers into a winning coalition.  Obama Zombies uncovers  behind-the-scenes story of the methods and tactics the Obama campaign. Through personal interviews and meticulous original research, Mattera explains why conservatism’s future rests upon  a countercultural conservative battle against the rise of the  left.

 Red Crow: warrior chief /Hugh A. Dempsey. From 1870 to 1900, Red Crow was head chief of the Blood tribe, part of the Blackfoot Nation. As a warrior, diplomat, and statesman, he dominated the affairs of the largest reserve in Canada for more than two decades, keeping his people at peace, yet never letting them surrender their pride and dignity. He was an important leader and a significant Canadian, yet until this book was first published in 1980, Red Crow had been virtually ignored in the pages of history. Dempsey’s twenty years of research and extensive interviews with members of the Blood tribe – including Frank Red Crow, the chief’s adopted son – resulted in this landmark biography of a man whose wisdom, strength, and wise counsel are still felt on the Blood Reserve in southern Alberta.

 Sea of glory: America’s voyage of discovery : the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 /Nathaniel Philbrick. The U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842 was one of the most ambitious undertakings of the nineteenth century and one of the largest voyages of discovery the Western world had ever seen–six magnificent sailing vessels and a crew of hundreds that included botanists, geologists, mapmakers, and biologists, all under the command of the young, brash Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. Their goal was to cover the Pacific Ocean, top to bottom, and to plant the American flag around the world. Four years after embarking, they returned to the United States having accomplished this and much more. They discovered a new southern continent, which Wilkes would name Antarctica. They were the first Americans to survey the treacherous Columbia River, the first to chart dozens of newly discovered islands all across the Pacific. They explored volcanoes in Hawaii, confirmed Charles Darwin’s theory of the formation of coral atoll, and collected thousands of specimens that eventually became the foundation of the Smithsonian’s scientific collections.

 The conquest of paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian legacy /Kirkpatrick Sale. A reassessment of Columbus and his exploration of the New World demonstrates how European practices of environmental exploitation transformed the New World and all but destroyed the native cultures.

 The Dangerous River. [An account of the author’s travels along the South Nahanni River in the North West Territories of Canada. With plates, including a portrait.] /  /R.M. Patterson. The Dangerous River chronicles a year spent battling the frigid temperatures and wild waters along the Nahanni in 1927. Patterson originally traveled to Canada’s Northwest Territories with hopes of finding gold in the river and clues to the mysterious murder of a prospector. Instead, he fell in love with the landscape and through his meticulously recorded journals and hauntingly beautiful photographs he introduced the now-famous Nahanni River to the world. Included in this printing are Patterson’s own black-and-white photographs, including the first photos to be taken of the falls of the Nahanni.

 The De Cosmos enigma /Gordon Hawkins. This biography of Amor De Cosmos explores the life and career of this most eccentric of Canadian politicians, a man who played a crucial role in the creation of present-day Canada from sea to sea, and yet who, by the end of his life, was little remembered. Hawkins reveals how De Cosmos began public life as one of the most feared journalists in British Columbia, and how, as an outsider, he had to force his way into politics, eventually becoming BC’s second premier, and then elected to the House of Commons. Of particular interest is the discussion of what caused De Cosmos to change his name in the goldfields of California from William Smith (who had been a quiet young man in Nova Scotia) to the most unusual Amor De Cosmos–lover of the universe. Delving into archival sources, Hawkins offers a portrait of De Cosmos in his struggle with the Hudson’s Bay Company, his fight for the union of the two colonies on the West Coast and finally for British Columbia’s joining of Confederation in 1871.

 The future of conservatism,by M. Stanton Evans.  Published in 1969, Evans puts less emphasis here on conservative principles than on their practice in recent elections. He claims that where the Republican Party has appealed to the conservative element of the electorate (outside of the large Eastern states) it has elected gubernatorial and congressional candidates; where it has taken a moderate or liberal approach it has not been able to successfully compete with the liberal Democrats. (He finds mitigating circumstances to explain men like Hatfield, Romney and Percy; Reagan of course is his shining example of conservative political success.) He discusses trends which he considers conducive to future conservative victories: the westward movement of the population, the growth of suburbia and recent moves toward decentralization.

 The imperial idea and its enemies; a study in British power. / Thornton, A. P. (Archibald Paton)   An account and interpretation of mid-twetieth century attitudes toward the British Empire–in support and in opposition.

 The Jesuits and the Indian wars of the Northwest /by Robert Ignatius Burns, S.J. A scholarly examination of the role of the Jesuit missionaries in the Indian wars of the Pacific Northwest. Includes considerable materials on the role of Father Hoecken in the negotiations of the Flathead, Pend d’Oreilles, and Kootenai tribes with the government in 1855.

 The kingdom in the country /James Conaway With humor, grace and sensitivity, Conaway carries the reader on an exhilarating journey from the Pecos River to the Pacific Northwest – encountering along the way a remarkable collection of rugged individualists who call this cruel and beautiful country home. We meet a hung-over gunslinger, a throwback to an earlier century, determined prospectors searching in vain for gold, and marijuana farmers striking it rich. Provocative, poignant and riotously entertaining, The Kingdom in the Country is a sweeping and unforgettable portrait of an enduring frontier and its people – a celebration of the bold pioneer spirit that remains alive and well in the heart of America.

 The Mohicans and their land, 1609-1730 /Shirley W. Dunn. This book explores the interaction between the native peoples of the upper Hudson and Housatonic Valleys and the Europeans who sought their lands.

 The right way on: adventures in the Klondyke of 1898 : memoirs of W.H.T. Olive. Olive’s memoir is his record of the year he spent as manager of the boats for the Bennett Lake & Klondyke Navigation Company in the Yukon Gold Rush of 1898. Olive’s day-to-day life was nothing but extraordinary. He acted as onboard diplomat for both seasoned prospectors and greenhorns, shot the White Horse Rapids, and in addition to passengers and their provisions, was responsible for two all-important kinds of shipment: mail and liquor. His adventures included rescuing damsels in distress, guiding his employer, the architect Frank Rattenbury, through a disastrous, mosquito-infested expedition, and defending his strongbox at gunpoint from thieves. Sam Steele, of the North West Mounted Police, William Ogilvie, first commissioner of the Yukon, Machine-gun Joe Boyle, and the notorious gangster Soapy Smith all make an appearance here. Olive’s account of his adventures is complemented by his fond remembrance of the sourdoughs on the trail he met during this short but intense period in history.

 The story of North Dakota.  /Rolfsrud, Erling Nicolai. This book  not only tells about the first nations that lived in North Dakota,  it tells about the inter-tribal ways.

 The story of the Sechelt nation /by Lester Peterson. Peterson, has for four decades explored in depth the knowledge and traditions of Sechelt elders, emphasizing their environment and the supernatural forces that shape and inhabit it. Journeying up and down the southern British Columbia coast with the Sechelt, Peterson came to associate place with Sechelt cultural practice and with a mythical past.  That the Sechelt Indian Band chose to publish Peterson’s work testifies to its importance and validity. This book is an exposition of their view of the world they inhabit, at least as revealed to Peterson. Much of the text is tied to local geographical features. Peterson feels that “most of the world’s major religious cults made
their influence felt throughout Jervis and Sechelt Inlets during an unremembered past.” So he does not let Sechelt myth stand alone, but rather insists on drawing parallels to, for example, the Bible, Greek and Roman myth, and oriental religions.

 The Tlingit Indians: results of a trip to the northwest coast of America and the Bering Straits /by Aurel Krause ; translated by Erna Gunther. Krause came to the Northwest Coast on behalf of the Geographical Society of Bremen to do a geographic study of the area. At the completion of that study, Aurel remained to do research on the Tlingit, the present volume being a result. This book is a comprehensive work. It begins with a meticulous survey of the history of the culture and region from the time of first contact. The book continues with a description of the material culture, subsistence patterns, economic life, social structure, religion and the life cycle of the Tlingit. There are also sections on linguistics, mythology, and cultural change, as well as a survey of surrounding tribes. There is an exhaustive bibliography.

 The Tlingit: an introduction to their culture and history /by Wallace M. Olson. Olson presents a thorough introduction about the Tlingit people. The reader is given a thorough introduction to the Tlingit: geography, origin and history, language, culture, beliefs, art and a valuable recommended readings list. Charts, maps and illustrations go a long way to increasing the comprehension of the literary content of the book.

 The warrior’s honor: ethnic war and the modern conscience /Michael Ignatieff. The Warrior’s Honor is a report and a reflection on what Ingatieff has seen in the places where ethnic war has become a way of life. He charts the rise of the new moral interventionists–the relief workers, reporters, delegates, and diplomats who believe that other people’s misery is of concern to us all. And he brings us face-to-face with the new ethnic warriors–the warlords, gunmen, and paramilitaries–who have escalated postmodern war to an unprecedented level of savagery. Hard-hitting and passionate, The Warrior’s Honor is a profound and searching exploration of the perils and obligations of moral citizenship in a world scarred by war and genocide.

 The world was going our way: the KGB and the battle for the Third World /Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin. Presents a history of KGB Cold War operations in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America, documenting attempts by the Soviet intelligence service to discredit the United States and foster anti-Americanism in those regions.

 Tracing your Aboriginal ancestors in the Prairie Provinces: a guide to the records and how to use them /edited by Laura M. Hanowski. Tracing Your Aboriginal Ancestors in the Prairie Provinces contains detailed explanations about each record group showing when and why they were created, where you will find them today and how and why you would want to access them. In addition to the records found in centres throughout Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan there are chapters or sections devoted to federal records such as census, military, and immigration, as well as the historic records created by the Department of the Interior and the Department ofIndian Affairs. While emphasis is placed on how to use these records in the prairie provinces, the book also explains how to access them from other parts of North America and the world.

 Wild grass: three stories of change in modern China /Ian Johnson. Johnson tells the stories of three ordinary Chinese citizens moved to extraordinary acts of courage: a peasant legal clerk who filed a class-action suit on behalf of overtaxed farmers, a young architect who defended the rights of dispossessed homeowners, and a bereaved woman who tried to find out why her elderly mother had been beaten to death in police custody. Representing the first cracks in the otherwise seamless façade of Communist Party control, these small acts of resistance demonstrate the unconquerable power of the human conscience and prophesy an increasingly open political future for China.