Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life by James Daschuk (review)

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

Reviewed by: Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life by James Daschuk Terry Wotherspoon James Daschuk. Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life. Regina, SK: University of Regina Press, 2013. 318 pp. Introduction. Maps. Photograph. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $39.95 hc. Activities associated with the rise of the Idle No More Movement, the Truth and Reconciliation investigation into residential schooling, and the articulation of indigenous issues by Aboriginal scholars and community representatives have heightened Canadians’ awareness of historical and contemporary dimensions of indigenous experiences. These developments have also made it clear that there is considerably more to the dark side of Canadian history, especially with regard to relations between indigenous and non-Aboriginal people and governments, that has yet to be revealed and reconciled in the process of working to achieve meaningful indigenous participation and sovereignty in a Canadian context. James Daschuk has added a vital contribution to this knowledge base in a book that offers a detailed and often chilling historical account of the ways in which changing material conditions along with patterns related to social interaction, climate, and disease shaped the development of a Canadian landscape marked by significant disparity in the life conditions and health status between indigenous and non-indigenous populations. As signified in the work’s title, Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life reveals how indigenous people who once dominated regions across the Canadian plains came perilously close to being eliminated by the early twentieth century through a combination of epidemiological factors, political and economic developments, and policy implementation. The text skilfully interweaves the complex interplay among these various factors as they played out over the course of several milennia, focusing most heavily on the period following the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company monopoly in 1821 through the disastrous administration of Indian Affairs by the federal government in the late nineteenth century. Between the introduction and conclusion, eight chapters each address the core developments that occurred within a designated period of time, framed through a narrative that traces the ways in which a broad array of factors—epidemiological, ecological and environmental, political, economic, social, and physical—intersected to produce the distinct trajectories experienced by indigenous and non-indigenous populations as Canada established its national status. Extensively documented with meticulous attention to detailed [End Page 179] archival and official records, contemporary accounts, and secondary literature (over 100 pages are devoted to notes and bibliographic references), the story becomes increasingly more disturbing as disasters fostered by natural phenomena and contingent historical events give way to massive population losses heightened by a combination of neglect, unintended outcomes of prior decisions, and deliberate policy and economic decisions. The analysis reveals how exploration, economic activity and administrative decisions of trading companies and governments contributed to the transition from an indigenous plains region that housed many diverse and often thriving social units to populations largely confined to reserve lands in which high incidences of disease, hunger, and economic dependency were common. Some factors, such as the early spread of diseases by Europeans who had developed immunity through previous exposure to vulnerable populations that had not previously encountered contagions such as measles, smallpox, or tuberculosis were not likely to be anticipated, but the same could not be said of practices like the warehousing of rations and distribution of contaminated food by federal agents even as reserve populations were weakened by hunger and disease. While a skeptical reader might look at some of the claims as possible exaggerated or exceptional cases, the analysis is made more powerful and convincing by the author’s triangulation of data, drawing from diverse documentary sources and accounts to enrich the descriptions and discussions of relevant events and phenomena. This careful approach, and the direct way in which much of the evidence is presented, provides a depth of analysis that is especially evident in instances in which recorded statements or related literature reveal contradictory claims and observations. With a compelling narrative that flows through the integration of themes that are more typically analyzed on their own, the book provides a much more well-rounded understanding of the...