A Concise History of Canada's First Nations

In the past, most histories of Canada began with the arrival of Europeans; the fact the land was already home to a multitude of peoples with their own rich and complex pasts was generally ignored. One of the first works to trace the stories of those nations, from the first peopling of the Americas to the most recent land-claim settlements, was Olive Patricia Dickason's award-winning Canada's First Nations: a history of founding peoples from earliest times. Through three editions, Professor Dickason has drawn on archaeology, anthropology, biology, sociology, and political science as well as history to present the most complete account possible of the more than 50 individual nations that, after centuries of neglect, hardship, and alienation, are now recognized as Canada's first founding peoples. This book is a new version of that classic text, updated, revised, and streamlined to make it more accessible to a broader readership. In addition to more than 70 maps and illustrations, it includes numerous boxes highlighting specific subjects, an extensive glossary of important names and terms, and a list of Web sites offering further information both about aboriginal history and about current affairs relating to Canada's First Nations.--Back cover.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.