Cree man Simon Bell in canoe on Saskatchewan River at The Pas

Index to Blog Posts (annotated)

Above photo is a Cree canoe on the Saskatchewan River at The Pas, ca. 1915. “Believed to be Simon Bell, grandfather of Chief Gordon Lathlin, most upright and honest of older generation” [comment by Sam Waller on back of postcard version of this image]. From de Tremaudan, The Sam Waller Museum, The Pas, MB # PP2.34.

This Index for the Saskatchewan River Region Indian-European Trade Relations blog posts from the outset in 2015 is organised in reverse chronological order. Access to specific subjects on this page is best done by a keyword search using Ctrl-F. Alternatively, use the search box at the top of every page in this blog. The tag list in the sidebar shows those post tags that have been used most often. Browsing all post annotations on this single Index page also is possible.

  • Penultimate Post Prior to Challenge on Critique of Thistle (1986)  December 28, 2021 This is next to the last step further to my previous 3 posts responding to a published criticism of my fur trade ethnohistory work. I had neglected to reference a useful summary of my Indian-European Trade Relations in the Lower Saskatchewan River Region to 1840 (Thistle 1986) that was published in Thistle (1993).
  • Criticism of Thistle (1986) for Future Consideration October 12, 2021  Third in an ongoing series, this post provides access to a recent critique of Paul C. Thistle’s (1986) book Indian-European Trade Relations in the Lower Saskatchewan River Region to 1840. The goal is to update the historiography of trade relations in the study region and period in question by soliciting referenced evidence to support either the critique or the original conclusions.

  • Access to Original Thesis (Thistle 1983) re Indian-European Trade Relations Book (Thistle 1986) October 8, 2021.  This is the second blog post in a planned series aimed at undertaking an update of the historiography of Western Woods Cree trade relations with the Hudson’s Bay Company & others in the Cumberland House/The Pas study area. This series has been stimulated by a recent published comment denying one of the key conclusions of the book anchoring this web site (Thistle 2006).

  • Initial Response to Unsupported Critique of Indian-European Trade Relations (Thistle 1986) October 4, 2021. This is the first in a planned series of blog posts aimed at responding to some criticism of my book Indian-European Trade Relations in the Lower Saskatchewan River Region to 1840 that serves as the anchor point for this web site providing access to the full text PDF (Thistle 1986).

  • The Pas Indian Band Migratory Birds Hunting Rights Case, 1978 February 11, 2021. The ongoing controversy surrounding the Sipekne’katik First Nation related to the 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision affirming the treaty rights of Mi’kmaq people to fish for a “moderate livelihood” relates to a similar Indigenous harvesting rights case of The Pas Indian Band in 1978 . . .
  • “nîpanistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up” Documentary on the Colten Boushie Case October 17, 2020. A multiple award-winning documentary written & directed by Tasha Hubbard (2020) outlines the impact on a family from the acquittal at trial of the white settler charged with the murder of young Cree man Colten Boushie . . .
  • New On-line Indigenous Publications by Thistle September 21, 2020 . . . 2 on-line publications on Indigenous history matters by your blogger Paul C. Thistle that had appeared in a series of the Sam Waller Little Northern Museum bi-monthly Museum Scene newsletter issues have ongoing relevance to contemporary issues in the museum field . . .
  • Insight on a Mid-20th Century Indian Residential & Day School Teacher’s Career June 24. 2020. Your blogger Paul C. Thistle had researched & submitted a 40-page paper for a cross-cultural education B.Ed. course at the University of Manitoba . . . It analyses the experience of an Anglican teacher & lay missionary in light of the literature of the day on cross-cultural education. . .
  • Justice for Colten Boushie?: One More Anguished Cry February 20, 2020 Those who believe justice has not been served by the outcome of the second degree murder trial of Gerald Stanley who was acquitted in the 2016 shooting death of young Cree man Colten Boushie are urged to consider a petition currently open for signatures. It demands a full public inquiry into the circumstances, including the investigation, trial, and acquittal of the accused. . .
  • “Indian Hating” & “Massive Injustice” in Newspaper Reporting on the Murders of Indigenous Youths Colten Boushie & Tina Fontaine November 7, 2019 Further to an earlier web page & blog post on the Colten Boushie murder trial, this links to an interesting collaboration by recording artist iskwē & video director Sarah Legault & is worthy of attention.
  • Abolition of Peremptory Challenges from the Criminal Code of Canada, 21 June 2019 July 6, 2019 Patience is a virtue but—in the case of jury selection—it also has been an unjust exigency that has been forced on Indigenous peoples by a succession of Canadian colonialist governments. . .
  • Canadian Jury Colonialism Continues as of 4 May 2019 May 4, 2019 . . . progress in the Canadian Parliament regarding Bill C-75 aspects of which amend the Criminal Code to eliminate “stand-asides” or “peremptory challenges” now has been adopted by the House of Commons, but currently remains before the Canadian Senate. . . .
  • HBC Blacksmith Interpretation November 26, 2018. On-line discussion about living history interpretation sparked some interesting conversation & a comment on my incorrect use of the term ‘farrier’ as a synonym for blacksmith. Further, that such a skilled person “would not want the drop in pay to work as an interpreter in a museum.” I had been thinking about the blacksmith interpreters I had seen at Hudson’s Bay Company historic sites . .
  • Peter Pond’s Map, 1785 November 17, 2018 Further to the previous post on museums’ disinterest in his pistol, this examines one of Peter Pond’s maps showing results of his extensive travels throughout the Canadian northwest. It is acknowledged as “a great cartographical accomplishment, considering his only navigational tool was a compass.” . . .
  • Peter Pond’s Pistol Unwanted by Canadian Museums??? August 18, 2018. A Montreal Gazette article titled “This fur trader’s pistol is up for sale, but Canadian museums don’t want it” stimulated this post. Peter Pond (1739/40 to 1807) (possibly armed with the pistol in question), played a role in one of the most illuminating episodes in the competitive fur trade era. It hinged in part at least on the strategic ‘weight’ of European firearms—not to say fire power—in the lower Saskatchewan River region in 1775 . . .
  • “Indian-Hating” & “Massive Injustice:” Historical Context 1885 – 2018 April 10, 2018. This points to “The Jury Colonialism 1885 – 2018” page, an 8,200-word fully-documented paper “Indian-Hating” & “Massive Injustice of the Most Profound Kind”: Jury Colonialism Experienced by Indigenous People from Miserable Man (Kit-Ahwah-Ke-Ni), 1885 to Colten Boushie, 2018.”
  • Beringia Land Bridge & Canada 150+ July 15, 2017. The Indigenous initiative Canada 150+ makes Indigenous history into serious public discussion (finally!). From an Indigenous perspective, much of the controversy surrounding commemorating Canada’s 150th birthday could be summarised by David Lowenthal’s statement, “the commemorative urge is profoundly anti-historical” . .
  • Other Indigenous Studies Publications by Paul C. Thistle October 25, 2016. This post provides links to provide on-line access to other Indigenous studies publications by author of Indian-European Trade Relations in the Lower Saskatchewan River Region to 1840, Paul C. Thistle
  • Dependence and Control: Indian-European Trade Relations in the Post-Kelsey Era September 17, 2016. This summarises the findings of the author Paul C. Thistle’s 1986 book Indian-European Trade Relations in the Lower Saskatchewan River Region to 1840. Manitoba Studies in Native History II. The overview refutes the common interpretation that First Nations in the Western Subarctic rapidly became “dependent” on a European-dominated fur trade economy soon after first contact.
  • Rare HBC Gift Item to First Nations Leaders August 31, 2015 The piece is significant because “most trade jewelry given to Aboriginal people was made of silver, not gold plate. Second, it is a rare example of gold work from well-known Montréal silversmith Charles Arnoldi (1779–1817)” . . .
  • Thistle (1986) Indian-European Trade Relations On-Line Release April 12, 2015. Paul C. Thistle, former Curator of The Sam Waller Museum in The Pas; former docent, cataloguer, and term Assistant Curator of Ethnology at the Former Manitoba Museum of Man & Nature now has made his history of early Cree relations with fur trading companies in The Pas, Manitoba and Cumberland House, Saskatchewan region freely available online under a Creative Commons license.
  • The Twatt Family, 1780-1840: Amerindian, Ethnic Category, or Ethnic Group Identity? (Thistle 2007) March 2, 2015. This 2007 article “The Twatt Family, 1780-1840: Amerindian, Ethnic Category, or Ethnic Group Identity?” in The Western Métis: Profile of a People is a reprint of Paul C. Thistle’s 1997 Prairie Forum 22(2):193-212 article appears with contributions from several eminent scholars in the field of Métis history that also can be accessed via the above link.
  • Saskatchewan River Rendezvous Centers (Meyer & Thistle 1995) March 2, 2015. On the basis of archaeological and historical evidence, six aggregating centers have been identified in the Saskatchewan River valley. The fur traders recognized the centers’ importance; as a result, the majority of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century trading posts were built at these centers or, on occasion, between them, at the borders of regional bands. . .
  • Indian-European Trade Relations in the Lower Saskatchewan River Region to 1840 (Thistle 1986) March 2, 2015. This post promotes Paul.C. Thistle’s 1986 book award-winning examination of the development of fur trade relations between the European traders working for the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Western Woods Cree of the lower Saskatchewan River region centred on Cumberland House (modern day Saskatchewan) and The Pas (modern day Manitoba). . .
  • “Images of Native People Associated with the Kelsey Event” January 25, 2015. This article examines the patterns of stereotype and historiography reflected in these illustrations over time. Artists and their patrons typically have ignored the advances in academic history dealing with the relations between First Nation peoples and Europeans. Dated and uninformed visual portrayals have continued to seriously downplay the demonstrably crucial role of Native people in the history of this relationship.

 

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