It takes patience and dedication to recover and communicate the experiences and perspectives of those for whom the historical record is lacking or severely limited by the interpretation of others—it takes reading beyond words. The first edition of this highly praised collection presented some of the best new efforts to examine critically the possible interpretations of Native North American history and Native-European encounters over 500 years. In doing so it served as a model for revisiting Native history.
To this extensively revised new edition, three new "encounter studies" have been added, presenting original and thought-provoking work not previously published: the Frobisher expeditions and their relations with the Inuit in the 1570s; Thanadelthur, the remarkable Dene woman who brought her people to a peace with the Cree and to trade with the Hudson's Bay Company in the early 1700s; and the previously unexamined dynamics of Cree-Oblate missionary relations on Hudson Bay in the late 1800s to mid-1900s, as seen from both sides.
Jennifer S.H. Brown is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Winnipeg, Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Peoples in an Urban and Regional Context, and Director of the Centre for Rupert's Land Studies at the University of Winnipeg. She is the author of Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country (University of Oklahoma Press, 1996).
Elizabeth Vibert is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Victoria. She is the author of Traders' Tales: Narratives of Cultural Encounters in the Columbia Plateau, 1807-1846 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2000).
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Illusions of Contact
1. 'Worth the Noting': European Ambivalence and Aboriginal Agency in Meta Incognita, 1576-78 / Paul W. DePasquale
2. Controlled Speculation and Constructed Myths: The Saga of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith / Frederic W. Gleach
3. Discovering Radisson: A Renaissance Adventurer Between Two Worlds / Germaine Warkentin
Trading Texts, Different Voices
4. Mapping Inuktut: Inuit Views of the Real World / Renee Fossett
5. Captain Cook and the Spaces of Contact at 'Nootka Sound' / Daniel Clayton
6. The Challenge of James Douglas and Carrier Chief Kwah / Frieda Esau Klippenstein
7. William W. Warren's History of the Ojibway People: Tradition, History, and Context / Theresa Schenck
Religious Encounters in Text and Context
8. 'The Guardian of All': Jesuit Missionary and Salish Perceptions of the Virgin Mary / Laura Peers
9. The Journals and Voices of a Church of England Native Catechist: Askenootow (Charles Pratt), 1851-1884 / Winona Wheeler
10. Fair Wind's Dream: Naamiwan Obawaajigewin/ Maureen Matthews and Roger Roulette
11. 'Who is Breaking the First Commandment?': Oblate Teachings and Cree Responses in the Hudson Bay Lowlands / George Fulford with Louis Bird
Women's Lives Through Words and Images
12. The Many Faces of Thanadelthur: Documents, Stories, and Images / Patricia A. McCormack
13. 'Gentlemen, This is no Ordinary Trial': Sexual Narratives in the Trial of Reverend Corbett, Red River, 1863 / Erika Koenig-Sheridan
14. Transcribing Insima, a Blackfoot 'Old Lady' / Alice Beck Kehoe
15. The Spider and the WASP: Chronicling the Life of Molly Spotted Elk / Bunny McBride
Documents, Oral and Material
16. Discovery of Gold on the Klondike: Perspectives from Oral Tradition / Julie Cruikshank
17. Dr. Oronhyatekha's History Lesson: Reading Museum Collections as Texts / Trudy Nicks
