by Robert Robson
Department of Indigenous Learning, Lakehead University
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Laura Peers, The Ojibwa of Western Canada, 1780-1870. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1994, xx, 288 pp., ill. ISBN 0-88755-636-1.
Laura Peers’ The Ojibwa of Western Canada, which is based on her thesis work completed through the joint Masters program of the Universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba, is very much a part of the current field of scholarship that is attempting to understand the circumstances of the Native community within the context of the Native community. While this approach is not without problems, it is clearly the most appropriate way of furthering the understanding of the life experience of First Nations Peoples.
In this book, the author rightfully argues that even with the almost overwhelming external influence of the newcomers, the Anishinabeg lived a vital and vibrant existence. As a people they hunted, trapped, fished and generally enjoyed the gifts that the Creator had to offer. Most important, however, the Anishinabeg also consciously determined the future of their community. Although many of the decisions were coloured by external forces beyond the control of the Anishinabeg, the community maintained a sense of self-determination that extended well beyond the directives of the Hudson’s Bay Company or the Church Missionary Society. What Laura Peers refers to as the “adaptive strategies,” the “resource-use choices,” and the “flexibility and resourcefulness” of the Anishinabeg, underscores the fact that to a large degree the Anishinabeg were meeting and overcoming the challenges of a rapidly changing world. In the end, the population that the author describes as the “western Ojibwa” made the choice to retain many of the values and behaviours of their traditional community while also adopting many learned values and behaviours from their new community. This so-called “layering” of behaviourial patterns, complete with the conscious choice of the decision making process, is what Laura Peers has attempted to document in The Ojibwa of Western Canada.
Peers’ work traces the movement and re-settlement of the Anishinabeg from the great lakes region of what is now north western Ontario to the plains/parkland district of the prairie region. Itemizing such push and pull factors as the lure of the resource rich Red River Valley and the negative impact on the small-pox epidemic that swept across Anishinabeg territory in the early 1780s, Peers provides a fairly thorough, albeit somewhat one-sided, account of the migration and re-settlement process. Occurring in the years between 1770 and 1790, the relocation of the Anishinabeg is described by the author as part and parcel of the ongoing process of movement and adaption. Complete by the early nineteenth century, the migration to the plains was followed by what Peers’ describes as an approximately seventy year period of community formation. It was during this period that the Anishinabeg/western Ojibwa defined their territory, established trading partners and developed the resources necessary for a long and productive life on the plains. The process of community formation, as documented by the author, was brought to an end in the early 1870s when the Dominion government set its sights on western expansion and the freedom of adaptation and choice became more and more constrained by government decision making.
Ojibwa at Fort Dufferin, circa 1874.
Source: Archives of Manitoba
By the turn of the century, according to the records consulted by the author, the Anishinabeg had established their presence on the Red River, the Winnipeg River, the Assiniboine River, the Shell River, the Dauphin River, the Qu’Appelle River and as far west as the North Saskatchewan River. They had encountered the Cree, the Assiniboine and the Blackfoot and had hunted the buffalo and the pronghorn antelope. They had adopted the horse and the travois. They had erected bison-hide tipis and many communities had been introduced to the Sun Dance. At the same time, however, they maintained a close kinship tie with the Anishinabeg of the great lakes region. They continued to participate in Midewiwin ceremonies and retained the material culture of the great lakes region which was in part reflected in the dress of both men and women. They followed their seasonal round of activities which in many cases included the sowing and harvesting of wild rice. All in all, the western Ojibwa peoples were flourishing within their own communities, consciously making the decisions that offered the best opportunity to the community.
As Peers argues, the “western Ojibwa have much to teach us about the reality of cultural and historic adaptation.” This is the major strength of The Western Ojibwa; it exposes the reality of cultural and historic adaptation. However, its major weakness is that it provides a somewhat distorted account of the migration and re-settlement process. The post journals of the Hudson’s Bay Company or the correspondence of the Church Missionary Society tell of the reality of European expansion. They do not sufficiently explore the theme of Ojibwa adaptation. It is through the stories, legends and tradition of the Anishinabeg that the reality of their experience can be gleaned and while there is passing reference to the same in Peers’ work it is little more than that.
The bias of the records consulted by the author is also reflected in the analytical model employed. The author, like many western historians, tends to compartmentalize the activity of the Anishinabeg. Following a well travelled linear time line, the author focuses on the local economy complete with the attached activities of hunting, trapping and gathering. Economic activities are seen as not only the catalyst of the re-settlement process but also the means of understanding the life experience of the re-settled population. While this approach may allow the author to chronicle the life experience of the Anishinabeg or the western Ojibwa, it does not provide an accurate picture of it. The hunting, trapping and gathering activities of the Anishinabeg, like family formation, spiritual ceremony, and world view, cannot be compartmentalized, even for the convenience of book writing. The life experience of the Anishinabeg was, and continues to be, a holistic one in which hunting or trapping or gathering cannot be distinguished from the total life experience of the individual/community.
The value of The Western Ojibwa, and there is much of value in the book, is the fact that Laura Peers has provided a point from which it is possible to gain further understanding of the Anishinabeg/western Ojibwa life experience. Self-determination, while occasionally battered by disease, reinforced by the abundance of resources, and attacked by the missionaries, was, and continues to be, a component of the day-to-day life of the community.
Page revised: 26 September 2012
