The Historians' Indian: Native Americans in Canadian Historical Writing from Charlevoix to the Present

Abstract

siscw 1971 several important studies have chronicled the treatment of native peoples in Canadian historical writing. • During the same period there has been a growing interest in the history of native peoples as their descendants begin once more to play a greater role in national life. The range of topics being investigated and the understanding of the general outlines of native history have increased as historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, geographers, and economists have combined their professional skills in the pursuit of ethnohistorical research. There is also evidence of a new concern to integrate the findings of ethnohistorians into the broader framework of national history. Now is an opportune time to survey current trends in the study of native history. In chapter 1 of Natives and Newcomers I sought to broaden the discussion of these trends by relating successive fashions in the historical portrayal of native peoples to changing anthropological understanding and the actual position of Indians in Canadian society at the time when these accounts were written. • In this paper I