Book Notes: David Thompson at the Champlain Society

Members of the Champlain Society have been receiving their annual members' book for 2024 recently. Or at least I did. (Actually, I thought my membership had lapsed, but evidently there has been a lapse in record-keeping at one end or the other, presumably at mine.) 

The essence of the Champlain Society for over a century has been that by having a membership you assist in the publication of edited volumes of essential documentary collections from Canadian history. In exchange you get a copy of the new volume each year. Nowadays they do various other things too, as documented on their website. Notable: the Witness to Yesterday podcast, which must do more interviews on historians of Canada and their new books than everybody else combined.

Anyway, this year's members' book is a big one. Even physically big: two big hardcovers in a boxed set. But significance-big as well. In 19th century Canadian literature as well as in exploration history, David Thompson's Travels and other writings have been reckoned as essential reading. And since I've never done much more than dip into them for an anecdote or two, I may actually read widely in this year's volume (not always the case, I confess). Here are the blurbs for Volume One, edited and introduced by John Warkentin (geographer and longtime pillar of the society) and William Moreau, and for Volume Two (by Moreau).

Sometimes Society books are published commercially as well.  Not this one I think, but from the links non-members can order individual copies through University of Toronto Press, the publishing partner for all the Society books.

Book notes here on recent and interesting works on Canadian history have been a bit scarce lately.  Got some catching up to, mebbe.

World History news

World History One

Nature reports on a DNA study that seems to confirm that the people of Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island) had significant contacts with people of South American ancestry around the 14th Century CE, long before any Europeans beyond the Norse had visited either the Americas or the Pacific.

The likelihood had been suggested before: what about those (Asian) chicken bones found in South America or those (American) sweet potatoes on Rapa Nui?  And it seems at least plausible that the Polynesians, having explored the whole Pacific Ocean, had not covered the last gap, bringing them to American coasts. But this seems the most persuasive evidence.

Apparently the same ancient DNA suggests that Rapa Nui never suffered a precontact over-population and collapse as previously hypothesized -- and taken up at length in Jared Diamond's Collapse.

World History Two

Serious history on a podcast? Sure. Listen to William Dalrymple describe on the Empire podcast how India practically colonized the Roman empire once Rome occupied Egypt and opened a Red Sea route for India-Rome sea trades. He argues persuasively that the value of products that India delivered to Rome in and after the time of Augustus Caesar was far larger than all the tribute Rome extracted from Gaul. All those lions, tigers, and elephants in the Colosseum? Just a minor byproduct of India's massive exports to Rome -- and of Rome's export of mucho gold to India in return.

Dalrymple's larger point is an argument that India's economic and cultural empire in early times has been seriously overshadowed by China's reputation for wealth and influence.  And Rome was only one market for India; a much larger one existed in south-east Asia, which is why you can visit the sites of ancient Hindu and Buddhist monuments from Thailand and Java.  

A key Dalrymple objective: to suggest a reassessment of the Silk Road story, which sometimes seems to presume that all ancient trade had to be overland rather than seaborne. -- and that China was therefore the source of all that was traded.

Besides the podcast chat, the full argument comes out in Dalrymple's new book The Golden Road, just published in the U.K. (reviewed here in the Guardian).   

This Month at Canada's History: Explorers, Confederation, Mi'kmaw Rights, Immigrant History

 

This month at Canada's History you can choose your cover image.  They have done a split run.

The newsstand cover -- if you can find a newsstand -- relateds to Ken McGooghan's article "Ships of Misfortune" on Jens Munk, one of a long unhappy history of navigators trying to find a Northwest Passage. Social media friends of Ken are already noticing that the image of Munk on the cover looks very much like Ken himself. Canada's History's new podcast supplement has Ken in conversation with senior editor Kate Jaimet.

My own feature story "Confederation or Bust" is inspired by Prince Edward Island's observance of its 150th anniversary of joining confederation in 1873. It's a story less of constitutional negotiations than of land wars, railroad crises, and the remarkable and ultimately tragic career of Island reformer George Coles.  

Maybe for the first time in non-indigenous media, I also took up the question of what the Mi'kmaq Nation of Atlantic Canada (and by extension other First Nations) thought and did about Confederation. That's in the article as well as in the podcast supplement (about to be posted) in which Kate Jaimet talks with Mi'kmaw scholar and law professor Cheryl Simon and me. From the article, Mi'kmaw concerns about Confederation's potential impact on indigenous rights:

The Mi'kmaq Grand Council -- a centuries-old governing body -- raised funds to send a delegate, Peter Cope, to meet with British Colonial Office officials in London. In 1926 Mi'kmaw elder Joe Cope recalled how Peter Cope was assured that as long as any Indigenous person "remained a True Ward of the English Government, so long his treaty rights would be respected and adhered to.  No bye-law can ever alter or change his Treaty Rights and Privileges."

The "subscription cover" this month features a memoir by the Canadian artist JJ Lee -- seen here with a photo of her grandfather, about four generations of her immigrant ancestors' experiences and the art she is creating about them.

And reviews, letters, notes, a visit to Baie St-Paul, and more.  If you subscribed like you oughta, it would be on its way to you.

Review notes from the west coast: UPDATED

Catching up on the British Columbia Review, which must be the most comprehensive review publication in the country these days, online at least (though it only covers BC books), brought me to Ken Favrholdt's review of the new second edition of Unsettling Canada by Arthur Manuel and Ron Derrickson, with an introduction by Naomi Klein. The first edition was published in 2015, without the introduction.

This review is a mostly biographical sketch of Arthur Manuel and suggests the book is largely a personal memoir. If this truly is the "decolonization manifesto" mentioned in the review's headline, the reviewer might have discussed those matters in more detail.  

But Manuel is important, as readers of his second (2017) book The Reconciliation Manifesto (also co-authored by Derrickson) will recognize. That one still strikes me as the best summary available of what is required for "reconciliation" to succeed and how to go about it: namely, treaty implementation leading to a secure revenue base and serious Indigenous self-government. From this review, I'd recommend going to Reconciliation Manifesto first.  [July14: see more on this in the update below]

The Review also published Jason Colby's review of Possessing Meares Island: A Historian’s Journey into the Past of Clayoquot Sound by Barry Gough, a prolific scholar of early west coast history whom I feel I've  never sufficiently covered here (or elsewhere). Meares is an island tucked into the west coast of Vancouver Island, the scene of much eighteenth century contact history and also of recent confrontations over both logging and indigenous title. The book under review covers Gough's involvement with both aspects of that history: as a historian of the contact events and as a consultant in the legal struggles over logging and title.

Colby's review suggests the book also provides a glimpse into how "what matters" in Canadian history has been changing, and how that complicates life particularly for long-active historians with a long publication record. Colby praises Gough, "a genial and learned guide":

He gives careful attention to the experience of Indigenous peoples, emphasizing their relationships to land and sea and teasing out their nuanced interactions with Europeans. In doing so, Gough wrestles with the asymmetry of source material that inevitably results from an encounter between an oral culture and a literary culture. Put simply, non-native explorers and settlers tended to leave the written documents that historians have traditionally considered their “primary” sources, thereby privileging European accounts and perspectives. “Of all the challenges the historian faces, this is the most formidable,” he admits. “And so it is with this book” (p. 7).

He also praises Gough's account of his work as a consultant historian in contemporary legal matters:

In 1986 (when I was still in middle school), Barry Gough learned of the threat to Meares Island and the stakes for Indigenous rights, and he answered the call. Over the following years, he marshalled all of his knowledge, research skills, and intuition as a historian to help save Meares Island and secure Indigenous title. That is the big picture, and he deserves our thanks.

Yet Colby has reservations:

Gough’s account is richer in maritime than in Indigenous history, to be sure, and there are moments when his phrasing seems to mimic the diction of non-native sources too closely. At times, this can be innocuous and even charming, such as when he describes characters as “raw-boned” or “well-moneyed” (p. 153). But in other passages, it results in language that demands further analysis.[...]

In addition, despite Gough’s careful attention to contingency, there are also passages that seem to hint that history itself was the product of European agency. Of the decades during which European ships bypassed Vancouver Island’s West Coast, for example, Gough writes that “history had passed the place by” (p. 129). Of the British effort to chart the coast and inner waters, he observes, “The navy’s survey of Clayoquot Sound stands at the gate of history: the ancient giving way to the modern, the Aboriginal world view to that of Western science” (p. 155).

That may be where more than one veteran Canadianist is: trying to work with a new paradigm, still not entirely succeeding -- or, at least, not entirely satisfying some younger, born-woke readers.

Update, July 14:  Reader Jared Milne expands on Arthur Manuel and his reviewers:

I caught your blogpost about the writings of the late, great Arthur Manuel today. I don't know if you've read Unsettling Canada, but I have and I can say that while the book is excellent, the review you cited...not so much. 

Unsettling Canada gives a lot of historic, personal context towards the struggle for Indigenous rights and self-determination, including Manuel's idea of taking the resistance international by appealing to various UN agencies. The book also summarizes some of the most long-standing problems surrounding Indigenous governance-namely, how band councils can still be overridden by Ottawa bureaucrats even today. 

He and Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson also offer some interesting political points, namely how Algonquin peoples in Quebec developed good working relationships with lumber companies and provincial authorities that could have led to mutual benefits for everyone, made with actual in-depth Native involvement. They even point out that Indigenous territories with full control over their resources might actually charge lower stumpage fees than provincial governments, and more of the wealth from resource development itself would stay in Canada. 

Unsettling Canada is perhaps more personal and historical than The Reconciliation Manifesto, but the former gives the latter some more context and background.

Thanks, Jared, I think you are right. And (should have been made clear) I have not read Unsettling Canada.

 

  

 

A Woman on the Franklin Expedition (well, almost, sorta)

At Active History, Sara Wilmshurst tracks the story of Judith Dejarlais (Cardinal, Hope) a Métis woman who in 1900 reported that she had gone north with Dr John Rae on his expedition to seek Franklin Expedition survivors. It's a nice piece of research on another corner of that endless Franklin Expedition story. She writes:

Nearly every time I review archival documents, I bump into a story that I’m desperate to pursue, but it is not relevant to the project at hand. This time I decided to just do it.

Know the feeling! 

Meanwhile at Shekon Neechie, Mary Jane Logan Macallum has posted (some time ago, actually) a long and useful bibliography on mostly online pieces that mark "moments of convergence for Indigenous History, Historians and History Departments especially in the years 2020-2022."

Vinland Map, dead again

Explorers and discoverers are thoroughly out of fashion these days, I know. But the field retains its interest, and I still keep an eye out. And it seems the discovery that the so-called "Vinland Map" is a forgery has been getting made every decade or so since soon after it was itself discovered.

The Vinland Map, rappellons, is a map purported to be from the 1440s that presents Europe but also all of the North Atlantic, including a very detailed Greenland, and a largeish island southwest of there that broadly shows coastlines much as described in various Norse sources.

Well, this time, apparently it's permanent. It may be from the 1920s, but no later.

Now, an interdisciplinary research project undertaken by archivists, conservators and conservation scientists has proven that the map is fake once and for all. Far removed from the 1440s, the analysis of metals in the map’s ink revealed that the document was actually forged as early as the 1920s.

Book (and Blog) Notes: Pitzer on Barents, Hunter on Georgian Bay

The Northwest Passage  -- the attempt to sail over the top of North America -- gets all the attention. 

But in Europe's early-modern efforts to find a sailing-ship route to China, there was also a southwest passage around South America (pioneered by Magellan), a southeast passage around Africa (Bartholomeo Diaz, Vasco da Gama) and, least noted of all, a northeast passage, across the top of Russia.

Today the more attentive of the CBC-Radio listeners in my household drew my attention to this interview with the American journalist Andrea Pitzer about Icebound, her recent biography of Willem Barents, the Dutch sailor and cartographer. Barents pursued that northeastern route, suffering in his ventures to Nova Zembla and other parts of Arctic Russia many of the hellish experiences of sixteenth century voyagers everywhere. 

Speaking of voyagers, I recently noticed the lively blog Wild Great Lakes about, well, what it says. It's the work of the Canadian historian Douglas Hunter, and includes some of Hunter's own marine explorations:

This is Hunter's recent sonar scan of a wreck he judges to be the Wawanet, looking like a cottage-country Erebus or Terror sunk off Beausoleil Island, Georgian Bay, in 1942, with a loss of  twenty-five.  

History of Maori Antarctica

Maori carving at New Zealand's Scott Base, Antarctica

"Discovery" is mostly out of fashion these days, but Smithsonian Online has a nifty story up about the possibilities of a Polynesian discovery of Antarctica a thousand or so years ago.

They are not pulling artifacts out of the melting ice, but they are compiling extensive oral testimonies that broadly fit a pattern of Polynesian seafaring expansion from the south Asian islands throughout Polynesia to Hawaii, possibly South America, and New Zealand.  

Oral histories kept by Māori tribal groups Ngāti Rārua and Te Āti Awa tell of an explorer named Hui Te Rangiora who led the vessel Te Iwi-o-Atea to “a foggy, misty and dark place not seen by the sun,” finding summits that “pierce the skies” but are “completely bare and without vegetation on them.” Beyond describing Antarctic icebergs, the narratives include what appear to be references to marine mammals.

Coldwater voyaging in open boats, even to iceberg territory north of the southern continent, is surely a substantial expansion of the Polynesian range. On the other hand, the article cites evidence on the authority of oral traditions -- included the research of Mi'kmaq scholar Stephen Augustine of Cape Breton University on oral record-keeping.

Image: Smithsonian Online.  

History of travelling women

Has there ever been an historical expedition that did not include, in reality or legend, a woman travelling incognito?  Here's a new one on me. Today the Google Doodle salutes Jeanne Baret.

Baret sailed with de Bougainville's round-the-world voyage in the 1760s, and is therefore credited with being the first woman known to have circumnavigated the world.(It's one of those "started out disguised as a man" stories.) No folklore of a woman with the Magellan expedition survives, I guess. 

The Wikipedia entry on Jeanne Baret is a solid one. She takes her place alongside Isobel Gunn of the Hudson's Bay Company, Mary Bonny the (alleged) Caribbean pirate, the Chevalier d'Eon, French soldier and diplomat of uncertain gender, and a good many others.  

Slight Canadian connection: Jeanne Baret's expedition leader, who made her famous by publishing her story in his bestselling

Book Notes: Taylor prize to Mark Bourrie on Radisson

Yesterday the final Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Nonfiction was awarded to Mark Bourrie for Bush Runner, his biography of Pierre-Esprit Radisson, published by Windsor-based small press Biblioasis. It's nice to see the final prize go to a work of history and to a veteran writer of nonfiction. Bush Runner seemed to have done well and have good reviews all year -- I regret I have not read it.

Bush Runner is the final winner because the Taylor Prize has decided to wrap up its twenty-year run. No further awards will be given.  The Taylor is survived, you might say, by the GG in nonfiction, the BC Prize in Canadian Nonfiction, and the Writer's Trust Weston Prize for Nonfiction -- plus history book prizes many and various (see below).

I have been ambivalent about the Taylor in the past because its juries often seemed dominated by novelists and fiction critics, and the prizes often seemed to go to well known novelists dabbling in nonfiction. But it helped promote the genre and rewarded a lot of writers, so: vale.

In other prize news, the Champlain Society seeks nominations for its Chalmers Prize, given annually for the best book in Ontario history.  Deadline is April 30; deets here.  And, judging by my inbox notices, the Champlain Society podcast Witness to Yesterday, is just pouring out new content these days.

John Franklin: still dead, gets new life

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography announces:

a completely revised entry for naval officer, explorer, colonial governor, and author Sir John Franklin (1786–1847). The wreck of his ship Erebus was discovered in 2014 and Terror two years later, more than a century and a half after their disappearance. Author Janice Cavell, a historian at Global Affairs Canada and an adjunct research professor of history at Carleton University, Ottawa, re-examines “the enduring mystery of his last expedition’s fate,” and his transformation into “a figure of near-mythical stature.”

The previous DCB entry was published in 1988. Who wrote that one is no longer part of the online entry. But yes, Franklin has had some new historical attention since then. The new biography is here.

Update, July 5:  Stephanie Abba of the DBC enlightens me:

In the Document History of the biography, you can click on the original year of publication (1988) to see the previous version - it was written by Clive Holland. (At the time of publication his title was Historian, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England.)

Thanks, I'd missed that entirely. You can indeed toggle back and forth from original to revised text -- particularly useful if, like me, you gave away that handsome shelf of bound DCB volumes in a downsizing.

History on TV: "The Terror"

Visions of the North, the blog of Franklin scholar Russell Potter, recently noted its one-millionth visitor, and credited at least some of the uptick to interest generated by the AMC television drama "The Terror."  ("The Terror" doesn't appear to be on any channel we subscribe to). But Potter offers a list of the principal documentaries of the Franklin expedition, many of which are available in one format or another.

Visions also notes with approval the commitment "The Terror"' has made to actually having Inuit played by Inuit, and not just "generic" Inuit, but specific named actors. In other roles are an A list crowd of Brits: Jared Harris (Captain Crozier), Ciaran Hinds (Franklin), Tobias Menzies (James Fitzjames)

Famous exploration vessel found?

If you were going to guess which exploration ship may have been found beneath the waters of Newport Harbour, Rhode Island, you might think: one of Champlain's, or one from the early Portuguese explorers, or maybe something related to Henry Hudson.  John Cabot, I don't think so. But Captain Cook?  Didn't the navy keep track of its ships by his day?

Local marine archaeologists, however, claim that HMS Endeavour, the ship in which Cook circumnavigated the world in 1768-71, later became a naval transport, served during the American Revolutionary War, and was deliberately scuttled in Newport Harbour in August 1778 during conflict there.

'Course other accounts have the ship wrecked in New Zealand, used as a whaling ship by French interests, and abandoned along the Thames.  But the Rhode Islanders say they have found the ship and can prove it's the right one.

Cook visited both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada, but not aboard Endeavour.  So... let 'em squabble.

Sir John Franklin: still dead

The Guardian/The Observer reviews a new book on the Franklin Expedition and concludes ... that they all died.

Okay, it thinks they froze rather than being poisoned by lead.

New research establishes Franklin still dead

The headline says the Sir John Franklin mystery is now unravelled.  But it turns out merely that one of his dead guys is really one of his other dead guys.  Nice of science to clear that up for us.

Is it Chris Rock who has the concert routine where he suddenly says, "All you brothers chill a moment.  I got a message just for the white folks in the audience tonight. [Long pause.] Elvis is DEAD, man!"

Franklin is dead, man.

(Julius Payer photo from National Post]

Rubbish never sleeps

I thought Peter Chiasson's charming and silly story of his discovery of the remains of a Chinese pre-Columbian settlement on Cape Breton Island, as set out in his 2006 book The Island of the Seven Cities, had gone away after The Walrus published a detailed account of how his "ancient" "Chinese" "ruins" were built in the 1980s -- complete with a photo of a pickup truck in the middle.  Actually, we wrote it up at the time.

But stories have lives of their own, and the National Post clearly thinks Chaisson's story is too good to fact-check. Apparently the book has been published in China, so it's gonna live forever.  Even -- sigh, -- History Television is on it.

Investigator doc on CPAC this weekend

The Franklin-expedition wreck discoveries that northern exploration enthusiasts are really waiting for are the Erebus and the Terror. 'Cause they really are lost. No one knows precisely where or even when they sank or wrecked. Finding them might produce new answers, or new puzzles, about the end of the ill-fated Franklin naval expedition of the 1840s.

That has not happened yet. Instead this summer Parks Canada announced discovery of HMS Investigator, one of the ships engaged in the search for Franklin. This was no small feat of underwater archaeology, given the location, the age of the wreck and so forth, but less exciting, because everyone has always known exactly where the Investigator was: captain and crew survived to tell the tale and draw the map.

This Sunday, the Canadian Parliamentary Access Cable Public Affairs Channel presents a very up-to-date documentary on this summer's Investigator project. Why CPAC? Well, apart from the fact that History Television never does anything this ambitious, CPAC's promo may suggest part of the reason:

Join CPAC for exclusive broadcast footage of the journey to Mercy Bay in the Northwest Territories, and for a look at what this discovery signifies for Canada’s claims to the north. (italics added)

What does the Investigator wreck signify for Canada's claims to the North? Is that why a cabinet minister was onhand?

"The Hunt for HMS Investigator: History and Canada's Claim to the Arctic" is on your CPAC channel Sunday, August 22 at 9 pm. CPAC promo here. Looks like great footage.

Update, August 26: Good program, actually, though I'm a sucker for Arctic filming almost anytime. CPAC is rerunning it periodically on TV, and it's viewable from CPAC online too.