HTST- 447 L01
UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY
MWF 9:00 (50 mins)
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
INSTRUCTOR: DR. G.W. COLPITTS
FALL SESSION 2008
OFFICE HOURS: T 9:00-10:00; W 2:30-3:30 (SS 614)
TEL: (403) 220-6427
Historical Studies 447
History of the Canadian North
This course introduces students to Northern Canadian history and challenges them to look
at the region’s development differently and, in so doing, question elements of Canada’s
northern imagination. It will become evident that the history of this “homeland” is very
different from those traditionally told by Canada’s national historians. The north has
often been viewed as a frontier and regional change understood from a developmental
perspective. Now with many northerners interpreting their own histories, students have
an opportunity to draw from oral history, anthropology and ethnohistory to discover new
perspectives on such topics as exploration and discovery, native history, contact and
accommodation, resource development and social and cultural change.
Assignments and Evaluation:
Mid-term Test
30% (Friday, October 24, 2008)
Class participation
10% (assessed upon attendance, participation in
discussions, and contribution to group work)
Term Essay
35% (Due Friday, November 21, 2008 – At end of class)
Final Exam
25% (Scheduled by the Registrar)
Students must complete all of the above requirements to pass the course. The exams are
not open book.
Notes on Term Essay
Approximately 2000 words (8-10 pages) in length, the essay will represent a student’s
cumulative historical research during the course of the term. His or her essay will
demonstrate that student’s abilities to critically assess a variety of historical
interpretations, to arrive at an independent opinion on the topic, and to convincingly
support a thesis statement clearly articulated in the essay paper.
Please note the following:
1. Students must discuss their paper topics with the instructor early in the term
and begin work to avoid a last-minute rush for books, articles and, if necessary,
interlibrary loan requests.
2. Sources taken from the internet must be discussed with the instructor
beforehand. Internet references drawn from non-academic sites (and non-refereed
materials in general), reference sources with no attributions, or web information
of dubious origins are not acceptable.
3. Papers with insufficient footnoting will not be graded. Serious shortcomings in
footnoting will be considered plagiarism.
4. Late papers will be penalized half a grade for every day beyond the due date.
Please refer to the Department of History Essay Guide prior to the writing of your
Essay review. Essay guides, tips and notes on plagiarism are available at
http://www.hist.ucalgary.ca/essay/essay.htm
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious academic offence. Students are encouraged to resist
any temptation to cut and paste from electronic text. A plagiarized paper will
automatically be failed. Plagiarism may also result in a failing grade for the entire course
and other penalties as noted in The University of Calgary Calendar. Students are strongly
advised to consult the Department of History Essay Guide for more information on
plagiarism.
Course Blackboard:
Students will receive e-mail messages and access some of the required reading for the
course via Blackboard. They are encouraged to make sure that their e-mail coordinates
have been submitted to the Registrar.
Required Textbooks:
Cruikshank, Julie, Do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and
Social Imagination (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005).
Davis, Richard C., ed., Nahanni Journals: R.M. Patterson’s 1927-29 Journals
(Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2008).
Morrison, W.R., True North: the Yukon and Northwest Territories (Oxford: Oxford
University Press 1998).
Lecture Topics:
Week One: September 8-12
The Challenges of Northern History; Defining the North
Morrison, Introduction
On Blackboard: Janice Cavell, “The Second Frontier: The North in English-Canadian
Historical Writing.”
Week Two: September 15-19
The Native Peoples and the Northern Environment
Morrison, Chapter 1
Cruikshank, intro and Chapter 1
Week Three: September 22-26
Contact Narratives, Explorations and Journeys
Morrison, Chapters Two and Five
Cruikshank, Chapter Four
On Blackboard: I.S. Maclaren, “The Aesthetic Map of the North.
Please Note: On September 26, the film Back to God`s Country (1919) will be shown.
Students are expected to complete the question sheet posted on blackboard for
discussion, and hand it in, on Monday 29 September.
Week Four: Sept 29- October 3
Commerce: the Rise of the Fur Trade
Morrison, Chapter Four
On Blackboard: Arthur J. Ray, “Periodic Shortage, Native Welfare, and the Hudson’s
Bay Company,” 1670-1930”; and, June Helm, “’Always with them Feast or
Famine”
Week Five: October 6-10
Whalers; N.W.M.P. and Missionaries
On Blackboard: Shelagh D. Grant, Chapter 4, pp. 72-94 to Arctic Justice: On Trial for
Murder, Pond Inlet, 1923. (McGill Queen’s University Press 2002), pp. 72-94; and
Philip Goldering, “Inuit Economic Responses to Euro-American Contacts:
Southeast Baffin Island, 1824-1940”
Week Six: October 15-17
The Klondike Gold Rush, Capital and Northern Society
Morrison, Chapter 6
On Blackboard: Thomas Stone, “Flux and Authority in a Subarctic Society: The Yukon
Miners in the Nineteenth Century;”.and William R. Morrison & Douglas C. Baker,
“The development of property rights on the Canadian and American mining
frontiers”
NOTE: October 13 – Thanksgiving Day, No Lecture
Week Seven: October 20-24
Northern Society, the "Near North" and Transiency to the Interwar Years
On Blackboard: K.S Coates and W.R. Morrison, “Transiency in the Far Northwest after
the Gold Rush: the Case of the Princess Sophia”, in Coates and Morrison, eds.
In-class document discussions: Edmonton Bulletin coverage, 1917, Murder Trials of
Sinnisiak and Uluksuk, and O.S. Finnie’s “Letter from the Government to the Indian
People,” 1924.
NOTE: October 24 – Mid-Term Test
Week Eight: October 27-31
The Watershed of World War I and the Post-war Years
Morrison, Chapter 7
On Blackboard: Peter Geller, “More than ‘A Mass of Ice and Snow’: Visualizing the
State in ‘Canada’s Arctic’, from Northern Exposures: Photographing and Filming
the Canadian North 1920-45 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004); and Barbara E.
Kelcey, “’Speaking of Me and Franklin’: Women Travellers in the Arctic,” from,
Alone in Silence: European Women in the Canadian North before 1940 (MontrealKingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001), pp. 57-77.
In-class document discussion: Harold Innis’ Memo on Wildlife in the North, 1924
Week Nine: November 3-7
The Second World War and Post-War Canadian Interest in the North
Morrison, Chapter 8
On Blackboard: Kenneth S. Coates, “The Federal Government and the Economic
Development of the Yukon Territory: Historical and Contemporary Aspects of
Northern Development.”
Film “Look North”, National Film Board of Canada, ca. 1944-45 (20 mins)
Week Ten: November 12-14
The Cold War and the Northern Territories, 1945-1957
Morrison, Chapter 9
NOTE: November 10 Reading Day, No Lecture; November 11, Office Hours
cancelled for Remembrance Day
ALSO NOTE: Friday November 14: Class discussion of R.M. Patterson’s Nahanni
Journals (students are expected to come to class with a page of point-form
type-written notes on Patterson’s journals, to be handed in at the end of the
class.
Week Eleven: November 17-21
The Native Peoples - Administrative and Social Change to the late 1960s
On Blackboard: John Sandlos, Chapter 7: The Caribou Crisis, from Hunters at the
margin: native People and Wildlife Conservation in the Northwest Territories.
Film, “Broken Promises: The High Arctic Relocation” (52 mins)
NOTE: Term Papers due, Friday, November 21
Week Twelve: November 24-28
Northern Development: The 1970s and the Berger Inquiry
On Blackboard: “Michael I. Asch, “Capital and Economic Development: A Critical
Reappraisal of the Recommendations of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline
Commission”
Week Thirteen: December 1-5
Contemporary Issues: Sovereignty, Politics, Native Claims, Nunavut
Morrison, Chapter 10
Cruikshank, Chapter 8
On Blackboard: Elizabeth B. Elliot-Meisel, “Still unresolved after fifty years: the
Northwest Passage in Canadian-American relations, 1946-1998”
Suggested Additional Readings (available in library):
Abel, K., Drum Songs, Glimpses of Dene History
Anon. Denendeh. A Dene Celebration
Backhouse, F., Women of the Klondike
Coates, K., ed., The Alaska Highway
Cruikshank, J., Reading Voices, Oral and Written Interpretations of the Yukon's Past
Francis, D., Arctic Chase. A History of Whaling in Canada's North
Fumoleau, R., As Long as the Land Shall Last
Grant, S., Sovereignty or Security? Government Policy in the Canadian North, 19361950
Jenness, D., Eskimo Administration: II. Canada
Kelcey, Barbara E. Alone in Silence. European Women in the Canadian North before World
War II
Page, R., Northern Development: The Canadian Dilemma
Tester, F.J. and P. Kulchyski, Tammarniit. Inuit Relocation in the Eastern Arctic, 19391963
Wallace, H.N., The Navy. The Company, and Richard King. British Exploration in the
Canadian Arctic
Zaslow, M., The Opening of the Canadian North, 1870-1914
Zaslow, M., The Northward Expansion of Canada, 1914-1967