"A must-read for historians and their students."--Annette Bruised Head, Kainai High School Principal, Blood Tribe The expansive ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Nation ranged from the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta to the Missouri River in Montana and from the Rocky Mountains east to the Cypress Hills. This buffalo-rich land sustained the Blackfoot for generations until the arrival of whiskey traders, unscrupulous wolfers, smallpox epidemics, and the encroachment of white settlers on traditional hunting grounds. These factors led to widespread poverty and demoralization, forcing the Blackfoot to appeal to the Canadian government for protection. The result of this appeal was Treaty Seven, one of eleven numbered treaties signed across western Canada between 1871 and 1921. Under its terms, the Blackfoot gave up all of southern Alberta in exchange for reserves based upon five people per square mile. In practice, the treaty rendered the Blackfoot powerless and wholly dependent on the government. The Great Blackfoot Treaties examines the context and enormous impact of Treaty Seven, as well as other treaties affecting the Blackfoot during this time period.

There are several historical accounts of the Treaty 7 agreement between the government and prairie First Nations but none from the perspective of the aboriginal people involved. In spite of their perceived silence, however, the elders of each nation involved have maintained an oral history of events, passing on from generation to generation many stories about the circumstances surrounding Treaty 7 and the subsequent administration of the agreement. The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7 gathers the "collective memory" of the elders about Treaty 7 to provide unique insights into a crucial historical event and the complex ways of the aboriginal people.

North America took its political shape in the crisis of the 1860s, marked by Canadian Confederation, the U.S. Civil War, the restoration of the Mexican Republic, and numerous wars and treaty regimes conducted between these states and indigenous peoples. This crisis wove together the three nation-states of modern North America from a patchwork of contested polities. Remaking North American Sovereignty brings together distinguished experts on the histories of Canada, indigenous peoples, Mexico, and the United States to re-evaluate this era of political transformation in light of the global turn in nineteenth-century historiography. They uncover the continental dimensions of the 1860s crisis that have been obscured by historical traditions that confine these conflicts within its national framework.

A historically accurate study that takes no sides, this book is the first complete document of Treaties 8 and 11 between the Canadian government and the Native people at the turn of the nineteenth century.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Named Best Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail, History Today and The Hill Times A gripping and eye-opening account of the building of the engineering triumph that created a nation: the Canadian Pacific Railway The sharp decline of the demand for fur in the late nineteenth century could have spelled economic disaster for the venerable Hudson’s Bay Company, but an idea emerged in political and business circles in Ottawa and Montreal to connect the disparate British colonies. With over 3,000 kilometres of track, much of it driven through wildly inhospitable terrain, the Canadian Pacific Railway would be the longest railway in the world and the most difficult to build. Its construction was the defining event of its era and a catalyst for powerful global forces. The times were marked by greed, hubris, blatant empire building, oppression, corruption and theft. They were good for some, hard for most, disastrous for others. The CPR enabled a new country, but it came at a terrible price. In Dominion, Stephen R. Bown widens our view of the past to include the adventures and hardships of explorers and surveyors, the resistance of Indigenous peoples, and the terrific and horrific work of many thousands of labourers. His portrayal of the powerful forces that were moulding the world during this time provides a revelatory new picture of modern Canada’s creation as an independent state.

"Compact, Contract, Covenant" is renowned historian of Native-newcomer relations J.R. Miller's exploration and explanation of more than four centuries of treating-making.

"It is my hope, and the hope of the Office of the Treaty Commissioner, that this publication can help provide the historical context needed to intelligently and respectfully forge new relations between First Nations people and non-Aboriginal people in the province of Saskatchewan. It has already done so, in part, by facilitating the work of our office in bringing together the parties of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and Canada to reach common understandings and to use the Treaties as a bridge from the past to the future ... so that we can learn from the past and work together towards a future built on co-operation and mutual respect." Judge David M. Arnot, Treaty Commissioner for Saskatchewan"We were told that these treaties were to last forever. The government and the government officials, the Commissioner, told us that, as long as the grass grows, and the sun rises from the east and sets in the west, and the river flows, these treaties will last." Treaty 6 Elder Alma Kytwayhat"We say it's our Father; the White man says "our Father" in his language, so from there we should understand that he becomes our brother and we have to live harmoniously with him. There should not be any conflict, we must uphold the word 'witaskewin,' which means to live in peace and harmony with one another." Elder Jacob Bill

Based on decades of extensive archival research, Seen but Not Seen uncovers a great swath of previously-unknown information about settler-Indigenous relations in Canada.