The following four presentations were archived by NiCHE from the 2011 Canadian Historical Association annual meeting held in Frederickton, NB.

Citation: Brian MacDowall, ‘The Surroundings are Congenial’: Planning a Disabled Soldier Settlement on the Kamloops Reserve, 1918-1922, Canadian Historical Association Conference, 2011.
Bio: Brian MacDowall is a PhD Candidate in the History Department at York University.
Abstract: At the end of the First World War, the Department of Soldiers’ Civil Re-Establishment sought to establish colonies of disabled and tubercular soldiers in isolated colonies across Western Canada. One such plan involved the settlement of disabled soldiers on Kamloops Indian Reserve No. 1 and relocating the band to an isolated location further from the city of Kamloops and its ‘disruptive’ influences. Military officials, city of Kamloops entrepreneurs, and Department of Indian Affairs Headquarters all strove to enact this plan, but were challenged by a coordinated effort on the part of the Band Council and Indian Agent. The colony was also proposed in a region rife with competing resource interests; longstanding water resource conflict between the Kamloops band and ranching interests forced the Department of Indian Affairs to address land
distribution issues in this region. This plan illustrates the complicated relationship between local colonial administration and the headquarters in Ottawa, and reveals the competing priorities of Aboriginal land rights versus veterans’ re-establishment in British Colombia during this period. The plan also demonstrates the relationship between governmental moral regenerative ambitions and spatial configurations. Though the colony was ultimately deemed untenable, governmental land redistribution ambitions and the close relationship between the Department of Indian Affairs and Department of Soldiers’ Civil Re-Establishment indicate the subsumption of Aboriginal land title into the need for ‘settling’ soldiers, particularly those deemed too grotesque for reintegration into public life.

Citation: David Hackett Fischer et la, “Roundtable on John Weaver’s The Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-1900,” Canadian Historical Association Conference, 2011.
Bio: David Hackett Fischer, Brandeis University, Bill Parenteau, University of New Brunswick, Jane Errington, Royal Military College, Ann McGrath, Australian National University, and John Weaver, McMaster University.
Abstract: Roundtable on John Weaver’s The Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-1900, winner of the 2010 François-Xavier Garneau Medal / Table ronde sur le livre The Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-1900 de John Weaver, lauréat de la médaille François-Xavier-Garneau 2010. This recording includes a wide range of perspectives on Weaver’s award winning book along with a response from the author.

Citation: Gail Edwards, “Places and Spaces of Wild(er)ness: Aboriginality and Environment in Canadian Children’s Illustrated Books,” Canadian Historical Association Conference, May 2011.
Bio: Gail Edwards teaches at Douglas College in British Columbia
Abstract: An interesting survey of the changing representations of aboriginality and environment in children’s books over the past century. Dr. Edwards’ paper provides important context in the evolution of the “Ecological Indian” in children’s literature and will be of great interest to historians interested in mid-century environmentalism.

Citation: Martha Smith-Norris, “American Cold War Policies and the Enewetakese: Environmental Degradation, Community Displacement, and Indigenous Resistance in the Marshall Islands,” Canadain Histoircal Association Conference 2011.
Bio: Dr. Martha Smith-Norris is a Professor in the History Department at the University of Saskatchewan.
Abstract: A paper on the social and environmental consequences of above ground nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands.