Drum songs : glimpses of Dene history
Type
Book
Authors
ISBN 10
0773530037
ISBN 13
9780773530034
Category
General Library Collection
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Publication Year
2005
Publisher
Pages
339
Subject
Dene -- History
Abstract
"The Dene nation is made up of eighteen thousand people speaking five distinct languages and spread over 1.8 million square kilometres in the western Canadian subarctic. In the 1970s and 1980s, the campaign against the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, support for the leadership of Georges Erasmus in the Assembly of First Nations, and land claim negotiations with the federal government put the Dene on the leading edge of Canada's Native rights movement. Drum Songs reconstructs important moments in Dene history, offering a sympathetic treatment of their past, the impact of the fur trade, their interaction with Christian missionaries, and evolving relations with the Canadian federal government.
Using a wide range of sources, including archival documents, oral testimony, archaeological findings, linguistic studies, and folk traditions, Kerry Abel shows that previous interpretations of Canadian history have been excessively narrow and ethnocentric. She stresses the adaptability of the Dene and demonstrates that they were able to maintain a sense of cultural distinctiveness in the face of overwhelming economic, political, and cultural pressures from European newcomers. Abel's classic reinterpretation of the history of the Dene questions the standard perception that aboriginal peoples in Canada have been passive victims in the colonization process. In a new introduction, she discusses Dene experience since the first edition of the book was published in 1993 and describes how scholars in the field are changing their approach."--Back cover.
Using a wide range of sources, including archival documents, oral testimony, archaeological findings, linguistic studies, and folk traditions, Kerry Abel shows that previous interpretations of Canadian history have been excessively narrow and ethnocentric. She stresses the adaptability of the Dene and demonstrates that they were able to maintain a sense of cultural distinctiveness in the face of overwhelming economic, political, and cultural pressures from European newcomers. Abel's classic reinterpretation of the history of the Dene questions the standard perception that aboriginal peoples in Canada have been passive victims in the colonization process. In a new introduction, she discusses Dene experience since the first edition of the book was published in 1993 and describes how scholars in the field are changing their approach."--Back cover.
Description
xl, 339 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.
Biblio Notes
Contents:
1. When the earth was new --
2. Life in the eighteen century --
3. The stone house people --
4. The new traders --
5. War songs, 1821 to 1848 --
6. Prophets, priests, and preachers --
7. Trappers and traders --
8. In witness whereof --
9. Canada and the Dene nation : economics --
10. Canada and the Dene nation : society and politics --
11. Drum songs.
1. When the earth was new --
2. Life in the eighteen century --
3. The stone house people --
4. The new traders --
5. War songs, 1821 to 1848 --
6. Prophets, priests, and preachers --
7. Trappers and traders --
8. In witness whereof --
9. Canada and the Dene nation : economics --
10. Canada and the Dene nation : society and politics --
11. Drum songs.
Number of Copies
1
