This volume is a pioneering excursion into the documentary history of a region of northern Ontario. Previously published original documents on the history of the Thunder Bay area have been of two kinds: accounts of the fur trade before 1821, and evidence supporting rival claims in the boundary disputes of the 1870s and 1880s. Although this collection does not include some illustrative material on these topics, its main purpose is to shed light upon other aspects of northern development, including the best-known and most pervasive problem—isolation from the rest of British North America. This volume deals with events up to 1892, considerably later than any of the other volumes in the Ontario Series. The documents tell the story of the silver mines—from the first rumours of wealth, through the excitement of the Silver Islet era, to the closing down of the mines in the early 1890s—and place the era of transcontinental railway building as part of local rather than national history. The documents also treat the development of numerous communities created through mining activity and railway building, showing how precariously they were based, how jealous they were of rival towns, and how anxious for the favours they might receive from government or company decisions. This collection should provide a basis for continuing research into northwestern Ontario history.

This lively book encompasses the French predecessors of Fort William, Native Peoples of the time, and the evolution of the fur trade.

What does it mean to be Metis? How do the Metis understand their world, and how do family, community, and location shape their consciousness? Such questions inform this collection of essays on the northwestern North American people of mixed European and Native ancestry who emerged in the seventeenth century as a distinct culture. Volume editors Nicole St-Onge, Carolyn Podruchny, and Brenda Macdougall go beyond the concern with race and ethnicity that takes center stage in most discussions of Metis culture to offer new ways of thinking about Metis identity. Geography, mobility, and family have always defined Metis culture and society. The Metis world spanned the better part of a continent, and a major theme of Contours of a People is the Metis conception of geography—not only how Metis people used their environments but how they gave meaning to place and developed connections to multiple landscapes. Their geographic familiarity, physical and social mobility, and maintenance of family ties across time and space appear to have evolved in connection with the fur trade and other commercial endeavors. These efforts, and the cultural practices that emerged from them, have contributed to a sense of community and the nationalist sentiment felt by many Metis today. Writing about a wide geographic area, the contributors consider issues ranging from Metis rights under Canadian law and how the Library of Congress categorizes Metis scholarship to the role of women in maintaining economic and social networks. The authors’ emphasis on geography and its power in shaping identity will influence and enlighten Canadian and American scholars across a variety of disciplines.

Winner of the 1995 Ontario Historical Society Joseph Brant Award for the best book on native studies Aboriginal Ontario: Historical Perspectives on the First Nations contains seventeen essays on aspects of the history of the First Nations living within the present-day boundaries of Ontario. This volume reviews the experience of both the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples in Southern Ontario, as well as the Algonquians in Northern Ontario. The first section describes the climate and landforms of Ontario thousands of years ago. It includes a comprehensive account of the archaeologists’ contributions to our knowledge of the material culture of the First Nations before the arrival of the Europeans. The essays in the second and third sections look respectively at the Native peoples of Southern Ontario and Northern Ontario, from 1550 to 1945. The final section looks at more recent developments. The volume includes numerous illustrations and maps, as well as an extensive bibliography.

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.

This book analyzes economic development policy governance in northern Ontario over the past thirty years, with the goal of making practical policy recommendations for present and future government engagement with the region. It brings together scholars from several disciplines to address the policy and management challenges in various sectors of northern Ontario's economy, including the mining, pulp and paper, and tourism industries, and both small- and medium-sized businesses. Governance in Northern Ontario assesses the role of the provincial government and its economic policy intervention in the region's economic development. The contributors evaluate the relationship between the provincial and local governments and the business sector, and also looser structures of policy networks, such as those of First Nations and other interested community groups. Focusing on the nature of partnerships between governments and societal interests, Governance in Northern Ontario makes a significant contribution to the theories and practice of public policy governance in socioeconomically disadvantaged regions.

Northwestern Ontario is a little-known region that has been central to Canada's prosperity. For many Canadians, the majestic landscape north of Lake Superior conjures up images of tourism, bears, and canoes. For others, it conjures up the phrase "hewers of wood and drawers of water." For almost everyone but its inhabitants, it represents a mythical notion of Canada that never truly existed in the past and certainly does not exist today. In North of Superior, Michel Beaulieu and Chris Southcott explore the region's colourful history from the period before European contact through to the present. Along the way, they tell the stories of the native peoples who first lived there; the traders and adventurers who shaped the region through the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company; the politicians and workers who pushed through the CPR; the lumberjacks and miners who profited during the region's golden age; and the vibrant and diverse communities who make their home there today. Northwestern Ontario has always symbolized wealth and adventure for Canadians. This fascinating popular history will interest anyone who wants to know more about a region that occupies an iconic place in Canada's past.

Patterns of the Past has been published to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Ontario Historical Society. Organized on 4 Sept 1888 as the Pioneer Association of Ontario, the Society adopted its current name in 1898. Its objectives, for a century, have been to promote and develop the study of Ontario’s past. The purpose of this book is both to commemorate and to carry on that worthy tradition. Introduced by Ian Wilson, Archivist of Ontario, and edited by Roger Hall, William Westfall and Laurel Sefton MacDowell, this distinctive volume is a landmark not only in the Society’s history but in the prince’s historiography. Eighteen scholars have pooled their talents to fashion a volume of fresh interpretive essays that chronicle and analyze the whole scope of Ontario’s rich and varied past. New light is thrown on our understanding of early native peoples, rural life in Upper Canada, the opening of the North, the impact of railways, and the growth of businesses and institutions. And there is much social study here too, especially of the new roles for women in industrial society, of working class experience, of ethnic groups, and of children in our society’s past. As well, there are innovative treatments of the conservation movement, of science’s role in provincial society, and of the relationship between society and culture in small towns. Anyone with an interest in the history of Canada’s most populous province will find much in this comprehensive collection.