Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life

Abstract

At a time when Indigenous hunger and strife is gaining public attention in Canada, James Daschuk’s book Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life provides a necessary glimpse into the issue’s deep-seated roots. Now a professor at University of Regina specializing historical Indigenous research, Daschuk has published a number of works regarding the health of First Nations peoples of the Canadian Plains. Compiled as part of his doctoral research, Clearing the Plains succinctly consolidates a breadth of ostensibly buried Canadian historical literature to reveal the true nature of Canada's Midwest settlement, while depicting monopolization’s devastating effects on marginalized populations in the process.