Reflections on Native-Newcomer Relations: Selected Essays (Heritage)

ISBN: 0802086691

Author: Miller, J.R.

Condition: New

Review'Miller's willingness to be clear and forthright about contested matters is a real strength of this collection. He does not shrink from controversy, either about current issues or about the interpretation of history. The order in which the essays appear shows the development in thinking over a twenty year period of a scholar who has made a very significant contribution to the field of native-newcomer history in Canada.' (Robin Fisher, Dean of Arts, University of Regina)Product DescriptionThe twelve essays that make up Reflections on Native-Newcomer Relations illustrate the development in thought by one of Canada's leading scholars in the field of Native history - J.R. Miller. The collection, comprising pieces that were written over a period spanning nearly two decades, deals with the evolution of historical writing on First Nations and Métis, methodological issues in the writing of Native-newcomer history, policy matters including residential schools, and linkages between the study of Native-newcomer relations and academic governance and curricular matters. Half of the essays appear here in print for the first time, and all use archival, published, and oral history evidence to throw light on Native-Newcomer relations.Miller argues that the nature of the relationship between Native peoples and newcomers in Canada has varied over time, based on the reasons the two parties have had for interacting. The relationship deteriorates into attempts to control and coerce Natives during periods in which newcomers do not perceive them as directly useful, and it improves when the two parties have positive reasons for cooperation.Reflections on Native-Newcomer Relations opens up for discussion a series of issues in Native-newcomer history. It addresses all the trends in the discipline of the past two decades and never shies from showing their contradictions, as well as those in the author's own thinking as he matured as a scholar.From the Inside Flap'Miller's willingness to be clear and forthright about contested matters is a real strength of this collection. He does not shrink from controversy, either about current issues or about the interpretation of history. The order in which the essays appear shows the development in thinking over a twenty year period of a scholar who has made a very significant contribution to the field of native-newcomer history in Canada.'About the AuthorJ.R. Miller is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Saskatchewan. He is the author of numerous works on issues related to Indigenous peoples including Shingwauks Vision, and Residential Schools and Reconciliation: Canada Confronts its History, both published by University of Toronto Press.