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

Reviewed by: Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life by James Daschuk Russell S. Kirby Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life. By James Daschuk. Regina sk: University of Regina Press, 2013. xxii + 318 pp. Maps, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95 cloth. This monograph focuses on the interface between ecology, culture, global trade, imperial [End Page 312] and national politics, and infectious disease in the Canadian West from the earliest European exploration and traders through the nineteenth century. While this topic has long been a focus of attention for American historians, this reviewer had not previously seen a book-length Canadian treatment of this topic. The work begins with a discussion of the environment and culture of indigenous peoples in the region that became the Canadian Plains prior to arrival of Europeans. The next four chapters trace the intersection between environment, economics, and disease during the fur trade. Although the major fur-trading companies were not governmental entities, in many ways their policies mimicked the roles that treaties and agencies later played. Although there were some exceptional humanitarian acts during this period, generally these policies led to malnutrition, epidemics with high mortality rates, and as European settlement increased, displacement from traditional hunting grounds. The remainder of the monograph focuses on the period from 1869 to 1891, and demonstrates that, if anything, policies after the establishment of the Dominion of Canada were more draconian and inhumane than the practices occurring south of the border. In describing these policies and events, Daschuk puts forward a thesis of two separate processes prior to and after Dominion. During the period prior, the spread of disease among the indigenous peoples was generally incidental to trading practices and the movements of tribes, traders, and settlers. After Dominion, as Daschuk demonstrates, government policies were clearly directed toward removal of First Nations peoples from the Plains by whatever means necessary. With the exhaustion of the buffalo, pathogens previously rare as sources of infection among humans, such as bovine tuberculosis, ravaged the First Nations peoples, who furthermore were often denied the means to produce sufficient foodstuffs to meet their needs or were not adequately supplied through relief processes. Clearing the Plains is very well researched and documented, especially allowing for the fragmentary nature of extant records. Although numerous references are provided, reading this monograph does require some knowledge of the history of First Nations and Canada from its formative years through the decades following organization of the Dominion. Although the book features a series of maps to aid the reader in locating specific places and events, it lacks cartographic treatment of the big picture of social movements and tribal migrations and conflict. Daschuk’s arguments might also have been strengthened by using a more quantitative demographic approach, especially concerning the impact of epidemic events. Census data should be available for the later decades of the study, as well as statistical documents relating to the tribes involved in the numbered treaties and the reservations established. However, these concerns may reflect the overall paucity of statistical records, as the author makes very good use of firsthand accounts, and he uses government documents with appropriate caution and interprets these within their broader context. Clearing the Plains is a thought-provoking monograph well worth the attention of historians and lay audiences interested in setting the record straight on the roles of government, the military, and European traders and settlers interacting with the native peoples who inhabited the Canadian West. Perhaps it is time for American scholars to spread their wings, look north of the border, and think more holistically about the interface between environment, [End Page 313] political economy, and health and disease across the North American continent. Russell S. Kirby University of South Florida Copyright © 2015 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

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