"William Henry Jackson was born an Anglo-Saxon Methodist in Southern Ontario. Leaving behind that identity, he served as Louis Riel's secretary during the 1885 Resistance, narrowly avoiding lengthly imprisonment. Escaping an asylum for the insane, he went on to become a prominent labour leader in Chicago, finally trying his hand as a real estate developer in New York City. Along the way, he adopted the name Honore Jaxon, and assumed a prairie Metis identity." -- from publisher.

With Good Intentions examines the joint efforts of Aboriginal people and individuals of European ancestry to counter injustice in Canada when colonization was at its height, from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. These people recognized colonial wrongs and worked together in a variety of ways to right them, but they could not stem the tide of European-based exploitation. The book is neither an apologist text nor an attempt to argue that some colonizers were simply "well intentioned." Almost all those considered here -- teachers, lawyers, missionaries, activists -- had as their overall goal the Christianization and civilization of Canada's First Peoples. By discussing examples of Euro-Canadians who worked with Aboriginal peoples, With Good Intentions brings to light some of the lesser-known complexities of colonization.