Before Canada

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Northern North America in a Connected World

Edited by Allan Greer

Anthropology/Archaeology, History: Canada: Pre-confederation Canada, Indigenous Studies

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Showcasing the exciting work of historians, archaeologists, and literary scholars who are rewriting North America’s ancient past.

Long before Confederation created a nation-state in northern North America, Indigenous people were establishing vast networks and trade routes. Volcanic eruptions pushed the ancestors of the Dene to undertake a trek from the present-day Northwest Territories to Arizona. Inuit migrated across the Arctic from Siberia, reaching Southern Labrador, where they met Basque fishers from northern Spain.

As early as the fifteenth century, fishing ships from western Europe were coming to Newfoundland for cod, creating the greatest transatlantic maritime link in the early modern world. Later, fur traders would take capitalism across the continent, using cheap rum to lubricate their transactions. The contributors to Before Canada reveal the latest findings of archaeological and historical research on this fascinating period. Along the way, they reframe the story of the Canadian past, extending its limits across time and space and challenging us to reconsider our assumptions about this supposedly young country.

Innovative and multidisciplinary, Before Canada inspires interest in the deep history of northern North America.

Details

Part of the McGill-Queen's Studies in Early Canada / Avant le Canada (number 8 in series)

464 Pages, 6 x 9

17 photos, 28 maps, colour insert

ISBN 9780228019206

January 2024

Formats: Cloth, Paperback, eBook

“This collection builds upon earlier scholarship on Canada’s distant past and pushes resolutely at its boundaries. The variety of topics is dazzling, offering a valuable sample of current research on this elusive period of global history.” Margaret Conrad, University of New Brunswick and author of A Concise History of Canada

“Before Canada features eleven of the smartest minds in early Canadian history, archeology, geography, and literary studies. Throughout the book, … Greer’s contemporaries define, demystify, and dismantle the imagined histories of the centuries preceding Canadian federation.” Montreal Review of Books

"Before Canada is a must-read volume for everyone teaching Canadian history before Confederation (1871). This is altogether a fascinating read; its breadth and lively details are enthralling. Essential." Choice

Allan Greer is professor emeritus of history at McGill University.

Figures / vii
Preface and Acknowledgments / xi

Introduction: Canada Before Canada / 3
Allan Greer

1 After Beringia: The Archaeology of Indigenous Social Networks / 25
Adrian L. Burke and Christian Gates St-Pierre

2 Ways of Becoming: The Apachean Departure from the Canadian Subarctic / 48
John W. Ives

3 The Newfoundland Fisheries in an Early Atlantic World, 1400-1550 / 81
Jack Bouchard

4 Sea Change: Indigenous Navigation and Relations with Basques around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, ca. 1500-1700 / 109
Brad Loewen

5 In the Round and on the Page: Canada in the English Geographical Imaginary, circa 1600 / 153
Mary C. Fuller

6 Labrador Inuit at the Crossroads of Cultural Interaction / 193
Lisa Rankin

7 Corridors of Jurisdiction: The Role of Aquatic Spaces in Sovereign Claims-making in New France (1600s-1620s) / 221
Helen Dewar

8 Saved from the Waters: The Drowning World of Paul Lejeune / 246
Katherine Ibbett

9 Debt, Liquor, and Violence in the Fur Trade / 268
Allan Greer and Samuel Derksen

10 Maple, Beaver, and New Roots for a Global Early Canada / 303
Christopher M. Parsons

Bibliography / 325
Contributors / 395
Index / 399